Abstract: Theodoor Louis D'haen is Professor Emeritus of English & Comparative Literature at Leuven University, Belgium, an elected member of Academia Europaea and editor-in-chief of the journal European Review. He is the author of American Literature: A History (2014), The Routledge Concise History of World Literature (2012), and Contemporary American Crime Fiction (2001). When visiting Nanjing University and China University of Mining and Technology in May 2017, Prof. D'Haen is interviewed by Prof. He Chengzhou and Associate Professor Li Shuling on world literature and global literature. Beginning with various definitions of world literature, Prof. D'Haen illustrates his principles of editing world literature anthology, emphasizing the potential, the danger and the different new voices of today's world literature studies. Based on his own studies on postmodernism, postcolonialism, comparative literature and world literature, Prof. D'Haen proposes to go beyond postcolonialism, and to replace “world literature” with “global literature” in order to avoid the negative connotations that some people have given to world literature.

Key words: Theodoor Louis D'haen, world literature, global literature, comparative literature, national literature