TAGORE’S IDEA OF WORLD LITERATURE 1 A IDEIA DE LITERATURA MUNDIAL DE TAGORE

Abstract

Though it seems to have re-surfaced in a dramatic way,Rabindranath Tagore’s essay remained untranslated till 2001.Though Tagore only comes to world literature in the end, theessay is an important statement of Tagore’s view of the purposeof human life and the role art in its fruition; indeed, we mightconsider the essay to be a concise formulation of Tagore’saesthetic philosophy itself. What Tagore meant by worldliterature was the essential unity of human experience andtherefore of human creativity.