Introduction

The introduction explains the volume’s contribution to the overlapping fields of World Literature, Comparative Literature, Translation Studies and English Literature. It traces theoretical debts to Édouard Glissant’s conception of relatedness and Francis B. Nyamnjoh’s understanding of imperfection, and situates the book in relation to other recent work. It underlines the innovativeness of the volume’s commitment to close reading in a world literary context, and introduces its use of digital techniques including interactive maps and textual animations. It also sketches the structure of the volume: a sequence of Chapters, written by Matthew Reynolds, will provide an overview and ongoing argument about Jane Eyre as a world work and how to read it, while Essays by the other co-authors will give focused attention to a variety of issues and locations.