What is literature? The question is difficult enough in itself. However, the West has made any hope of a proper answer literally untenable. It has provincialized literature into its own neighbourhood. This book brings together perspectives from both non-Western cultures and minority cultures within a supposed West (normally downsized to represent a part of Europe and the USA). Also considered, as parts of the problem, are various literature-related asymmetries such as global awards and translation. The prime concern of the book is awakening its readers to the fact that, incredibly but truly enough, literature in its total, all-human realization, is something yet to be discovered. It, thus, will especially appeal to literary scholars, making them conscious of the fact that their literary studies actually take into account only a fragment of literature, as well as university students of literature, in the hope it might prevent them from becoming heirs to their professors.