Cavafy as World Literature

Provides for the first time an inclusive and detailed view of C. P. Cavafy as a “World poet,” tracing his critical reception, his translation history and his work’s multiple interpretations around the globe, from the 1920s to the present.

An inclusive and detailed view of C. P. Cavafy as a “World poet,” tracing his critical reception, his translation history and his work’s multiple interpretations around the globe, from the 1920s to the present.

Translated into many languages and in multiple editions, the poetry of C. P. Cavafy has attracted an international audience for nearly a century and, during the last three decades, has been unequivocally recognized as “world literature.” This unprecedented volume clarifies, enriches and problematizes multiple facets of Cavafy’s presence in the contemporary global literary sphere, while also drawing attention to its historical background through discussion of largely unknown material from the poet’s library, archive and early critical reception.

Aside from having a strong global readership, Cavafy's work has been used by poets and artists all over the world as raw material for inspiration and re-translation into new cultural production. Some of his poems have assumed a universal and almost proverbial function in the global public sphere, whereas others have acquired new meanings and pertinence in specific historical, cultural and gender-related contexts, significantly different from their original conception.

With essays from 19 scholars and researchers from 6 countries, Cavafy as World Literature offers a collective and multi-dimensional overview of Cavafy’s presence and function in world literature.