This essay argues that the ‘thought figure’ of world literature has been under incalculable strain from its inception, given the diversity of linguistic and cultural contexts within which it must be understood. After a brief introductory discussion of Rabindranath Tagore’s talk on world literature (1907), the essay goes on to connect world literature debates with those in global modernism, especially modernism in the colony. Looking at the networks of modernism, and the role of little magazines in India, particularly Bengal, in creating a sense of world literature through reviews and translations, it stresses the importance of location, language, and perspective in the wake of decolonization. However, in the present time of ecological and planetary crisis, with a global upsurge of xenophobia, insularity, and ethnic, racist, or communal violence, the notion of a world, or of a world literature, is hard to sustain.

本文认为，鉴于必须理解的各种语言和文化背景，世界文学的“思想人物”从诞生之初就受到了无法估量的压力。在对拉宾德拉纳特·泰戈尔（Rabindranath Tagore）关于世界文学的论述（1907年）进行了简短的介绍性讨论之后，本文继续将世界文学的辩论与全球现代主义尤其是殖民地现代主义的辩论联系起来。着眼于现代主义的网络，以及印度的小杂志，特别是孟加拉的小杂志在通过评论和翻译来创造世界文学感方面的作用，它强调了非殖民化之后位置，语言和视角的重要性。但是，在当前的生态危机和星球危机中，全球仇外心理，孤立主义以及种族，种族主义或社区暴力激增，