Literary studies are being transformed by the emerging disciplinary field of World Literature. Yet the world of literature is by no means self-evident. Issues of language and culture, national and global identity, originality and translation raise as many questions as they answer. What is the world in the new literary studies? And how does literary theory relate to this world? In Text, Translation, Transnationalism literary scholars from a broad array of languages and cultures explore the relationships between the nation and the world, world literature and transnational methodology, the individual literary voice and its global reception. As an English-speaking country which has come to fill a global role as a pivotal point between Europe, Asia and the Americas, Australia is well placed to provide original insights into the state of world literature. In his afterword, leading US critic Djelal Kadir reflects on the relevance of the concept of the transnational to the self-troubling critical awareness of Australian literary discourse as well as to wider global concerns. In this volume we aim to rethink world literature from local perspectives while reconsidering Australian literature from a world perspective.