Eighteenth-Century Studies · 2014 · 33 citations · 0 references
HumanitiesLiteratureWorld LiteraturesLiterary StudiesLiterary TranslationWorld LiteratureComparative Literary TraditionsEighteenth-century LiteratureExperimental FictionNational Reception HistoryPhilosophical FictionReception Of GoetheTheodicy NarrativeTransatlantic Literary ExchangeWestern LiteratureWorld Literature CirculationWorld Literature Debates
This article focuses on the reception history of translations of Ibn Tufayl’s Hayy ibn Yaqzan and how natural theodicy, empiricist experimentalism, and philosophical fiction influenced eighteenth-century England. Discussing the status of Ibn Tufayl’s ideas in relation to Edward Pococke, John Locke, Robert Boyle, and Daniel Defoe allows scholars to go beyond the East-West dichotomy and instead create an opening from eighteenth-century studies onto recent debates around world literature. Using Hayy as a prism, we can understand the opportunities as well as the drawbacks of a world literature paradigm, as theorized by Wolfgang von Goethe, Erich Auerbach, and more recent scholars.