ASAUK 2018

As a prolific concept as well as a growing field of enquiry, world(-)literature has a history and is therefore worldly. Be it in its definition by Damrosch (2003) or in its conceptualization by the WReC (2015), the idea of world(-)literature still ascribes to the global north the duty to organize the subjective experiences of the global south, inscribing the notion onto the same epistemological tradition of unevenness that it seeks to surpass. Putting current concepts of world(-)literature to test, this paper draws from the comparative analysis of contemporary literary works from Portuguese-speaking Africa to reflect on the problems and possibilities of the concept brought about by its worldiness.