world literature

Noun

world literature (uncountable)

1. Comparative literature.
2. (uncommon) The world's national literature collectively, especially the circulation and appreciation of works beyond their country of origin.
   • Goethe's notion of world literature, therefore, is linked in an important way to the internationalization of culture that resulted from the emergence of capitalism as the dominant mode of production in modern Europe.2008, P. Bayapa Reddy, editor, Aspects of Contemporary World Literature, Atlantic Publishers, →ISBN, page 5
   • In 1827, fresh from his reading of a Chinese novel, Goethe pronounced to Eckermann that "national literature is now a rather unmeaning term; the epoch of world literature is at hand, and everyone must strive to hasten its approach.2009 April 17, Pankaj Mishra, “Author, author: The world of ‘world’ literature”, in The Guardian