ABSTRACT
After many years in this profession, a literary scholar develops habits that can approach self-parody. When given a rubric like this—“National Literatures in a Global World?”—my first instinct is to question the question. Is it really a question about literature? What indeed is the future of writing national literatures in a global world? Or is it secretly a question about the academy? Does it still make sense to study and teach national literatures as such, and—imagining the question as it is posed by university administrations—should we continue to support these expensive national-literature departments ?
