What Is the Importance of World Literature?

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World literature is a way of communicating and preserving important details of culture, traditions and attitudes. Literature is comprised of language, and language is a form of communication.

The act of writing is also an act of communication. Language is not fixed. Its meaning changes based on how members of respective cultures interpret it, and this meaning also shifts over time. World literature is a way of collecting those ideas in a way that reflects a specific group of people at a certain time in history.

Since literature is reflective of predominant political and philosophical principles of the time in which it is written, world literature is also a historical reflection of the evolution of world culture. It is a snapshot of a region within a given time. This knowledge is not only used by societies to improve their dialogues with each other but also to understand the struggles and priorities of those who are different and how those struggles affect others.

World literature is sometimes presented as a statement of demands or as a critique of a society. In such cases, authors attempt to call for change by reaching widespread numbers of people and by using language to persuade them to join a cause.