An argument is made that new kinds of transnational literature (i.e., literature that is no longer linguistically and/or culturally rooted in national categories only) are rapidly multiplying in the changing geography of the world. It is suggested that for linguists this trend offers new sources of data, new insights into the operation of language across cultural boundaries, and new challenges to develop models for examining cross-cultural literary languages. Examples are cited of the Swedish influence in Finland, the flow of Americanisms into Finland, the appearance of the European Common Market, and the international characteristics of certain films and television. The need to analyze cross-cultural texts from an interdisciplinary approach is also noted. It is concluded that the linguistic and cultural map of the world is now in constant flux and that, in order to bring linguistics into the twenty-first century, linguists should begin looking for new non-prescriptive approaches to describe everyday and literary languages in the process of transnationalization. Contains 4 references. (LB)