ABSTRACT
In considering the topic of world literature and world history, a basic question is whether world literature has a history at all. Though Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels hoped for writers of the world to unite, literature continued to be written and read primarily within national markets, or at most in broader but linguistically circumscribed markets such as those for Arabic, or Commonwealth, or Hispanophone literatures. In light of the pivotal role of the 9/11 attacks in stimulating renewed work in World Literature, it is intriguing to look back at the ambitious world histories that were written in the wake of the two World Wars. Those global conflicts also produced major literary reassessments, but literary scholars largely confined themselves to studies of national literatures, or at most of European literature. Literary historians can regard H. G. Wells's sweeping history with a mixture of regret and relief.
