In The World Republic of Letters(1999,2004),Pascale Casanova analyzes the overlapping levels of power behind the global production and circulation of aesthetic style,literary prestige,and cultural capital.Influenced by scholars like Pierre Bourdieu,she offers us a sociological account of world literature by situating its world-making poiesis at the global intersection of aesthetics and politics.In other words,this metaphorical world republic of letters,however cosmopolitan it aspires to become,betrays a hegemonic political economy in which Paris occupies the center of prestige and power,whereas minor literatures on the periphery are often rendered inferior,if not invisible.