English as the Global Language: Good for Business, Bad for Literature

English as the Global Language: Good for Business, Bad for Literature

English is well on its way to become the dominant global language. This is a good thing, in fields such as science, where a common language brings efficiency gains. But according to CEPR (Centre de Recherche en Economie et Statistique, Paris) researcher Jacques Mélitz, the global dominance of the English language is bad news for world literature. Because if the English language dominates world publishing, very few translations except those from English to other languages will be commercially viable. As a result, virtually only those writing in English will have a chance of reaching a world audience and achieving ‘classic status’.

            The outcome is clear, Mélitz argues: just as in the sciences, those who wish to reach a world audience will write in English. “World literature will be an English literature”, Mélitz warns, “and will be the poorer for it – as if all music were written only for the cello”. His work appears in "English-Language Dominance, Literature and Welfare,". By literature, he refers to imaginative works of an earlier vintage that are still read today, and therefore the accumulation of world literature refers to the tiny fraction of currently produced imaginative works which will eventually be regarded as ‘classics’. According to Mélitz, the tendency of competitive forces in the global publishing market to privilege the translation of English fiction and poetry into other languages for reading or listening enjoyment may damage the production of world literature and in this respect make us all worse off.