A work enters into world literature

A work enters into world literature by a double process: first, by being read as literature; second, by circulating out into a broader world be- yond its linguistic and cultural point of origin. A given work can enter into world literature and then fall out of it again if it shifts beyond a threshold point along either axis, the literary or the worldly. Over the centuries, an un- usually shifty work can come in and out of the sphere of world literature several different times; and at any given point, a work may function as world literature for some readers but not others, and for some kinds of reading but not others. The shifts a work may undergo, moreover, do not reflect the un- folding of some internal logic of the work in itself but come about through often complex dynamics of cultural change and contestation. Very few works secure a quick and permanent place in the limited company of peren- nial World Masterpieces; most works shift around over time, even moving into and out of the category of “the masterpiece,” as we will see in the third chapter below.