This article clearly defines the terms of the Millennium Development Goals and the roles literature should play in the realisation of the vision. In its view, literature has existing structures prior to the launch of the programme by the United Nations in 2000 and which the objectives can conveniently fit into. These structures comprise political criticism, feminist criticism, eco-criticism or environmental literature and utopian or futuristic literature. Through political criticism, the world can entrench good governance which in turn will eradicate poverty as well as guarantee Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), better health care or find remedies to diseases. The paper goes ahead to argue that feminist criticism in literature has got the capacity to sensitise the world on gender equality and other gender issues by presenting highly educated and empowered women as characters in literary works. Eco-criticism alerts us on the danger of environmental degradation while utopian literature has the sheer force of catapulting us to an ethereal world where we will forget the present anomy and give a breaststroke thrust to the future. These are the concrete facts the paper discusses. It concludes by stating that as the mandate of MDGs supposedly ends in 2015, literature could continue the good work it has been doing for mankind before the advent of the Millennium Development Goals.
Keywords: Eco-criticism, Feminist criticism, Literature, Millennium Development Goals, Political criticism
