"世界文學"這一概念自歌德于1827年正式提出并加以闡發以來,已經歷了一百九十多年的曲折歷史。正如美國學者莫雷蒂所言,這一概念不能只是文學,還應該范圍更廣大些,也即它應該能引發人們圍繞這個問題展開討論甚至爭論。實際上,世界文學正是作為這樣一個問題導向的理論概念,至少向學界提出了這樣幾個不斷引發人們討論甚至爭論的話題:文學經典的建構與重構;文學史的寫作;世界文學的評價標準等等。此外,世界文學也可以作為文學研究的一種方法,起到簡單地聚焦民族/國別文學所起不到的作用。總之,作為中國的比較文學和世界文學學者,我們還有另一個獨特的任務,也即借助于世界文學這一開放的概念,從中國的立場和視角出發重新審視世界文學的既有地圖,為世界文學的重新繪圖注入中國的元素并提供中國的解決方案。

The concept of world literature,formally put forward and interpreted by Goethe in 1827,has undergone,during the past 190 years or more,a zigzag experience.As American scholar Moretti puts,this concept should not be limited within the domain of literature,but rather,it should be "larger".That is,it should stimulate scholars to carry out discussion and even debate on this topic.Actually,world literature as an issue-driven concept has put forward disputable issues such as,literary canon formation and reformation,literary historiography,and the standard for evaluating world literature.World literature studies could also be used as a method playing an irreplaceable function in our literary studies.As Chinese scholars of comparative and world literature studies,we should re-examine the established mapping of world literature from a Chinese perspective and,in an effort to bring in Chinese elements,offer our proposal for the remapping of world literature.