Weltliteratur e Weltgeschichte, note per un confronto

Weltliteratur and Weltgeschichte, notes for comparison This article aims to compare the concepts of Weltliteratur and Weltgeschichte. After sketching the features of both concepts, starting with the Goethean model for the former and the Hegelian model for the latter, I will focus on their cosmopolitan (and Kantian) nature. In the dialectic between the universal and the particular, which is characteristic of concepts in the field, a dimension emerges that is similar in nature to that of the idea of Europe. Following a discussion of the limits and potentialities of cosmopolitan universalism, I will argue that it is only if the concepts of Weltliteratur and Weltgeschichte are placed in a historical processuality that does not guarantee their univocity and fixity in terms of definition can they still serve as useful notions for understanding their objects of study, even in today s context.