Ecology of World Literature

Alexander Beecroft is an Associate Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature at the University of South Carolina. He has published extensively on topics ranging from authorship in ancient Greece and China, to theories of world literature, from the emergence of literary history as a discipline in the nineteenth century, to the origins of Canadian literature. His first book, Authorship and Cultural Identity in Early Greece and China, was published by Cambridge University Press.

Extraordinary in its sweep across time and space, Alexander Beecroft's new book insightfully distinguishes among various groupings or 'ecologies' of world literature. Admirably lucid, engaging, and ambitious, it encompasses literary cultures at every scale, from the most local to the national and global. It is sure to help energize comparative literary studies for years to come.