What is a “world author,” and where can we find one within the various methodological approaches that underpin the academic study of “world literature”? In these pages, and by way of an introduction to the essays on “world authorship and German literature” that follow, I reflect on what some of the most basic terms underpinning any study of literature and its significance – script, text, author, world – might mean in the context of ongoing globalizing trends and changing notions of value and political and ethical accountability in the literary marketplace. These general thoughts are channelled through a specific focus on German literature and how it fares within these frames.