摘要：World Literature actually traces its origin back to English Departments and the revision of the American Literature canon in the 1980’s. But,even before then,its conceptual roots can be found in Black Studies and Women’s Studies Programs that came into existence in the US in the 70’s and were devised to represent the experience and cultural production of then underrepresented Blacks and women in academe. The addition to the curriculum of texts written by Blacks and women closely followed administrative efforts to diversify the faculty under the mandate of Affirmative Action. Over time,the recruitment of underrepresented groups expanded to include other minorities (such as Hispanics and Native-Americans) and hyphenated ethnicities (such as AsianAmericans). Such diversity initiatives coincided with English Departments’ attempts to revamp their curriculum. These two separate events – diversifying the canon as well as the university community – resulted in the formation and implementation of a broad range of courses dealing with issues of identity that came to be popularly known as multiculturalism. These new courses were supported by a theoretical superstructure devised to justify their existence.
