Aleksis Kivi and/as World Literature

Aleksis Kivi (1834-1872) is Finlands greatest writer. His great 1870 novel The Brothers Seven has been translated 59 times into 34 languages. Is he world literature, or not? In Aleksis Kivi and/as World Literature Douglas Robinson uses this question as a wedge for exploring the nature and nurture of world literature, and the contributions made by translators to it. Drawing on Deleuze and Guattaris notion of major and minor literature, Robinson argues that translators have mainly majoritized Kivitranslated him respectfullyand so created images of literary tourism that ill suit recognition as world literature. Far better, he insists, is the impulse to minoritizeto find and celebrate the minor writer in Kivi, who sends the major language racing.