Wang Ning and China's Perspective on World Literature: An Introduction

Wang Ning is one of the most important and influential scholars in humanities studies in contemporary China. This special issue analyzes his world literature studies in the context of the global debate about the notion of world literature, aiming to explore Chinese critic's contribution to the development of this field. It consists of 10 articles and 1 commentary contributed by scholars from institutions of different parts of the world, such as the United States, Belgium, South Korea and China. It argues that the contributions of Wang Ning's world literature studies are as follows: 1) constructing Chinese literary critical discourse; 2) securing the place of Chinese literature and scholarship in world literary academia; 3) deconstructing western-centrism in the world literature studies of current international academia.