The chapter delineates the theoretical framework of the project, which is based on a reassessment of the notion of the world as a temporal category. The chapter analyses some of the main conceptual evaluations of the world developed so far in relation to notions of World Literature, focusing on the theory of normative literature (Pheng Cheah, 2016) and its applications within Postcolonial Literature. The chapter also reflects on the entanglements between the global literary market and contemporary postcolonial literature, while presenting the Bildungsroman as a genre of (female) resistance.