Negotiating world literature

Should relations between national literatures be conceived on the model of international competition between states? Christopher Prendergast assesses a bold French attempt to analyse the historical dynamics of the 'world repu blic of letters', from the Renaissance to the present day with Paris emergi ng as an unexpectedly durable capital. Were national determinations of lite rary projects always so predominant, and what of cross-cultural variations in the meaning of literature itself?.