Compressions of scale : World literature in miniature

[Extract] Fifty years ago, in 1966, Australian historian Geoffrey Blainey published a famous book called The Tyranny of Distance that argued how spatial distance from other centers of civilization had been the most important factor in determining the trajectory of Australian history. Now, under the impact of communications revolutions and environmental theory of various kinds, such tyrannies are more likely to be those of propinquity, with scholars of world literature and culture intent upon examining ways in which different parts of the globe are now, and indeed always have been, tightly imbricated within one another’s orbits.