An organizing structure for time, geography, and people, the nation and the novel organize the world in similar ways. Oppressive and liberating, a goal and a curse, nation and novel are indelibly linked through common histories and development trajectories. The nation and its literary projects have shaped the field of World Literature (the world is – after all, and for now – one of nations), and a shifting concept of “World” is in no small part the result of challenges to geopolitical divisions made through literature. While the nation remains “the most universally legitimate value in the political life of our time,” the way it is thought has been changed by critical readings of its literary texts.