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.
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