ABSTRACT
Every theory of world literature involves a specific concept of literature. Theories of world literature presuppose assumptions about what distinguishes literary texts from other modes of writing, about what constitutes their ‘literariness’. This underlying concept of literature remains hidden, lurking in the background of world-literary consciousness. Its hidden status is problematic, for, due to the globalising sweep that characterises most theories of world literature, it encourages the tendency to universalise an entity that is historically and culturally specific. Theories of world literature risk naturalising certain concepts of literature and fostering a latent form of ethnocentrism. The implicit assumption of what constitutes literature inevitably canonises the sphere of world literature, however inclusive it is devised to be.
