| Course Objectives: | - to introduce students to major works of world literature
written from the early modern period to the present, with special
emphasis on the relevance of these texts, whether old
or new, to contemporary society around the world;
- to help students situate those works within larger historical
and cultural contexts;
- to provide students with an understanding of the conventions of
literary composition and reception that inform their creation,
such as conventions of genre, metrics, style, etc.;
- to improve students' communication skills through oral
presentations in class and expository writing assignments,
including in-class and out-of-class essays.
Students' performances will be evaluated through a variety of
means, including assessment of oral presentations, objective
tests, essays, and the final examination. |
| Topical Outline: | The typical course consists of a series of readings in world
literature from the early modern period to the present, with
special emphasis on the relevance of these texts, whether old or
new, to contemporary society around the world. The topics
considered are generated by the specific work under analysis.
(The question of the relationship between philosophy and
literature arises in the study of Candide, for instance.) The
works treated will vary with the instructor. The following is a
sample syllabus of readings for a single semester:
Racine. Phaedra
Basho. The Narrow Road of the Interior
Akinari. Bewitched
Voltaire. Candide
Goethe. Faust (selections)
Douglass. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Ibsen. Hedda Gabler
Tagore. "Punishment"
Premchand. "The Road to Salvation"
Lu Xun. "Diary of a Madman"
Borges. "The Garden of Forking Paths"
Achebe. Things Fall Apart |