This course examines the conceptualization and historical moments of “literatures in the world.” It looks at two examples of literary imagination travelling in the world, with a focus on the historical transformation of the idea of the Mongol Empire since the eighteenth century up to present times. The two cases comprise literary imaginations and constructions travelling around the world, as expressions of such industrial and global formations such as expansive colonialism, civilizational universalism, economic globalization, and global tourism. Together, these instances of travel demand that we rethink the linear structure of (comparative) literary history. Eventually, this course shows students of literature and culture in the twenty-first century how and why historical, comparative, critical, and imaginative work sustains the Auerbachian humanist tradition.