On view at Namdaemun Theater in Seoul, a former cinema recently renovated and reopened as a multipurpose cultural space, from September 19 to December 31, 2026, 《A World called World Literature》 invites visitors to reflect on how books have shaped the way we read the world.
 
Goethe’s Faust, Part One, published by Reclam in Germany; Aristotle’s Metaphysics from Britain’s Everyman’s Library; and Irwin Shaw’s The Young Lions from Eulyoo Publishing’s world literature collection reveal publishing cultures across different periods and languages. By tracing the history of bringing literature and knowledge to readers through book series, the exhibition invites us to consider the scope of what we have come to accept as ‘world literature’ and how that category took shape.

Viewed together, these books turn the exhibition’s title into a question: through what choices were the works we recognize as world literature translated and published? Shifting our attention from their contents to their covers, volume numbers, and bindings brings into view the people and institutions that have shaped world literature.
 
 
 
The First and the Thousandth Volumes
 
In 1867, Reclam launched its Universal-Bibliothek in Leipzig, Germany, with Goethe’s Faust, Part One as its first title. Published in inexpensive, compact editions, the series expanded from German and European literature to include ancient texts and philosophy. Reclam’s account of its history explains how changes in copyright terms and advances in production technology made this broad circulation possible.
 
Founded in Britain in 1906, Everyman’s Library likewise sought to bring the classics to a wide readership. In 1956, Aristotle’s Metaphysics was published as volume 1000. The edition presented in the exhibition bears ‘No. 1000’ on its cover. The number marks the series’ thousandth volume rather than the end of its publication.

The photographed copy of Metaphysics offers a way into the exhibition. The inclusion of philosophy in the series shows how closely literature and general education have been connected throughout publishing history. Selecting literary works and defining the knowledge readers should have become part of the same publishing project.
 
Considering Reclam’s first volume alongside Everyman’s thousandth also gives volume numbers a significance of their own. They assign each book a place within a series and alert readers to a larger catalogue. The sequence of books makes visible the range of the world a publisher has selected as worth reading.
 
 
 
World Literature Catalogues across Countries
 
The practice of bringing the world’s literature together in a single series developed in many countries. Reclam in Germany and Everyman’s Library in Britain are prominent examples. In France, the ‘Bibliothèque de la Pléiade’, launched in 1931 and taken over by Gallimard in 1933, has published literary works in editions with scholarly editing and annotations. Despite differences in price, readership, and editorial approach, these series share a commitment to selecting works and building catalogues intended to remain in circulation.
 
In Japan, the name Sekai Bungaku Zenshū (世界文学全集), or ‘world literature collection,’ was used for such publishing projects. Shinchōsha began its collection in 1927 with the first volume of Les Misérables and completed it in 1932 with a total of 57 volumes across two successive projects. Iwanami Bunko, also established in 1927, took Reclam’s series as a model. Multi-volume collections and compact paperback series offered different routes to foreign literature and the classics.
 
These examples provide a starting point for considering Korean world literature collections within an international publishing culture. European classics series, Japanese world literature collections, and Korean collections of translated works developed literary catalogues for different readerships and publishing environments. The exhibition encourages reflection on how selection, translation, editing, and design shape the category of ‘world literature.’

The World on Korean Bookshelves
 
In Korea, Eulyoo Publishing launched its world literature collection in 1959 with Irwin Shaw’s The Young Lions as its first volume. The collection was completed in 1975 with its hundredth volume, a collection of German folktales and legends. The copy of The Young Lions presented in the exhibition offers a point of connection between foreign classics series and the publication of translated literature in Korea.
 
A collection’s uniform bindings bring works from different countries and periods into a shared visual order. Readers encounter an individual author’s work while also encountering a catalogue called ‘world literature.’ Books arranged side by side on a shelf give the scope of literature a visible form. The experience of cultural education shaped by world literature collections in Korea can also be understood as a culture created jointly by catalogues, translation, and book design.
 
A collection’s table of contents becomes an important resource in this context. Examining which countries and languages are most represented, how many women and non-European authors are included, and which works are repeatedly translated can reveal an era’s literary interests and selection criteria. These questions are equally useful when comparing earlier collections with contemporary world literature series.

Looking at Literature and the Materiality of Books
 
Looking at books in an exhibition space broadens the focus of reading. The turquoise cover of Metaphysics, the portrait of Aristotle, the names of its translator and editor, and its worn corners reveal traces of how a book was made and used. Covers, typography, and bindings, which carry the text, also become objects of attention.

Namdaemun Theater carries on the name and location of the former cinema that opened in Namdaemun Market in 1959. Exposed concrete ceilings and pipes, together with long windows, remain visible in the exhibition space. Low display platforms on the floor and bookshelves offer different ways of presenting books. The exhibition title on the gridded façade and the bookshelves visible through the glass doors connect the market streetscape with the exhibition interior. This spatial arrangement also invites visitors to approach literature and publishing through design and visual culture.

Participating Artists and Creators
 
The exhibition brings together creators working in literature, photography, music, and spatial design. Photographer Chung Heeseung explores the methods and limits of photographic representation, extending her practice into text, installation, and publishing. Novelist Han Yujoo has experimented with language and narrative form in works including To the Moon and The Impossible Fairy Tale.

Composer and music producer Song Youngnam works across ambient and classical music and improvisation, while the design team Mujindongsa collaborates with artists and develops exhibition spaces through its work with spaces and objects.
 
《A World called World Literature》 prompts specific questions. Through which translations and publishers’ catalogues have we encountered the literature of other societies? Which works in those catalogues are widely read, and which remain largely unfamiliar? Viewing books as exhibition material offers an opportunity to reconsider the boundaries of the world literature we know and to expand the world we might read next.
 


Exhibition Information

Title: 《A World called World Literature》
Dates: September 19–December 31, 2026
Venue: Namdaemun Theater
Address: 25-8 Namdaemunsijang-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul
Participants: Kang Juhong (강주홍), Kim Seungil (김승일), Kim Yuja (김유자), Kim Hwajin (김화진), Noh Gihun (노기훈), Song Youngnam (송영남), Song Seungeon (송승언), Seo Yunhu (서윤후), Seok Yundong (석윤동), Mujindongsa (무진동사), Lee Soyeon (이소연), Chung Heeseung (정희승), Han Yujoo (한유주), Hwang Inchan (황인찬)