Rewording the World or Reworlding the Word? Some Postcolonial Perspectives on the "World" of World Literature

There appears to be no consensus as yet on the meaning of the term "world"
in "world literature". Over the last few years, "world" has indeed been the
object of a multitude of responses and readings, which markedly vary
according to researchers’ academic backgrounds and theoretical vantage
points. How then is the "world" of "world literature" to be apprehended?
Combining linguistics-informed and close-reading methods, the present
essay seeks to shed light on a notional issue that has especially divided
world and postcolonial literary scholars in recent times. More precisely, it
will be argued that "world" in the phrase "world literature" has begun to
undergo a linguistic process of re-semanticization, whereby this lexical
item has come to encode, and be imbued with, values central to the
postcolonial agenda – thus providing the postcolonial cause with fresh
impetus in the twenty-first century.