Course Number: CMPL/ENGL 267 Texts: The Norton Anthology of World Literature, 3rd ed., D, E, F Writing about World Literature–AGuide for Students by Karen Gocsik (Norton 2012) (ISBN:978-0-393-12959-5) Years: Fall 2015 Instructors: Adam Hancock, Yingying Huang
Course Description This course is an introduction to World Literature from around 1700 to present. It surveys texts of various genres from all over the world. The main objective is to do contrapuntal readings of literary works in a global context, so as to foster appreciation of literature beyond national boundaries, and gain a perspective of world history and culture as a whole.
Goals and Objectives
This course acquaints students with the intellectual and literary development in world history. Texts are studied in their contexts and cover important intellectual movements: the Enlightenment, Romanticism, Realism, Modernism and Post-Modernism, to equip students with terms and frames for research. At the same time, we will also examine important themes in literature that transcend temporal and contextual restrictions.
Reading literary works in a global context develops the capability for comparative studies. Students are encouraged to cross cultural boundaries, see several literatures
together, and understand the value of both the differences and similarities. The inclusiveness of the texts not only expands students' intellectual horizon, but promotes personal growth in generating cross-cultural understandings.
Class discussion and assignments are meant to foster appreciation and critical reading of literature. Students are expected to read carefully and analytically, respond to the texts by sharing their thoughts in class, and develop their original ideas in writing. The reading questions aim to stimulate thinking rather than solicit a final answer, and help students to think and express themselves in a coherent and convincing manner.
Students are also introduced to the basics of comparative and interdisciplinary research, and are expected to demonstrate their scholarly reflection and research through a comparative project by the end of semester.
Unit One: The Enlightenment in Europe and Early Modern Chinese Literature Week 1 (Aug 24-28) M] Intro: What is World Literature? Preface (D ix-xvii) David Damrosch, What Is World Literature (2003) W] Introduction to The Enlightenment in Europe and the Americas (D 91-104) Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), “What Is Enlightenment?” (1784) (105-109) Homework 1 F] Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) (D 133-136) sign up for Digital Project Homework 2
Week 3 (Sept 7-11) M] Alexander Pope (1688-1744) (D 321-325), "Essay on Man" (1733-1734), Epistle I (D 344-351) Homework 5 W] Cao Xueqin (1715-1763), from Story of the Stone (1740-1750), intro (D 517-522), from Ch. 1-2 (D 523-540) F] Story of the Stone (cont.), from Ch. 3 (D 540-553), from Ch. 119-120 (D 575-583) Homework 6
Unit Two: Romanticism and Realism Week 4 (Sept 14-18) [An Age of Revolutions] M] Introduction (E 3-15) "Declaration of Independence" (1776) (E 17-21) Edmund Burke, from Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) (E 29-35) "Declaration of Sentiments" (The Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention of 1848) (E 50-52) Homework 7 W] Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), from Confessions(1769, 1782) (E 52-72) Homework 8 F] William Blake (1757-1827) (E 330-334), Songs of Innocence (1789): Introduction (E 334-335), "The Lamb," "The Chimney Sweeper" (E 335-337), Songs of Experience (1794), Introduction (E 337-338), "The Tyger," "The Chimney Sweeper" (E 339-341) Short Unit Essay (1) Due
Week 5 (Sept 21-25) [The Romantic poets and their successors] M] William Wordsworth (1770-1850) (E 345-348), Preface to Lyrical Ballads, "We Are Seven" (E 349-350), "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey" (E 351-354), "Ode on Intimations of Immortality" (E 354-359) Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) (E 360-362), “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (E 363-379), “Kubla Khan” (E 379-381) Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) (E 395-397), "Ozymandias" John Keats (1795-1821) (E 403-406), “Ode to a Grecian Urn” (E 410-411), “Ode to a Nightingale” (E 411-413) Homework 9 W] Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) (E 421-422), "The Cry of the Children" (E 422-426) Robert Browning (1812-1889) (E 437-438), "My Last Duchess" (E 442-443) Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) (E 427-429), "The Lady of Shalott" (E 431-435) Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) (E 490-491), "Goblin Market" (E 493-504) F] Walt Whitman (1819-1892) (E 446-447), from Song of Myself (E 448-453), "O Captain! My Captain!" (E 465) Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) (E 466-468), from The Flower of Evil (E 468-475) Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) (E 480-482), No. 449, 465, 712, 754 (students are welcome to read more) Homework 10
Week 6 (Sept 28-Oct 2) [Realism] M]Introduction: Realism (E 625-630) Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) (E 631-635), “The Death of Iván Ilyich” (E 740-778) W] “The Death of Iván Ilyich” (cont.) Homework 11 F] Higuchi Ichiyō 樋口一葉 (1872-1896), "Separate Ways" (E 905-913) Homework 12
Week 7 (Oct 5-9) M] Henrick Ibsen (1828-1906), A Doll's House (1879), Act I & II [PDF 29-95] W] A Doll's House, Act III [PDF 96-124] Homework 13 F] Anton Chekhov (1860-1904), “The Cherry Orchard” (1904) (E 845-889) Homework 14
Unit Three: Modernity and Modernism, 1900-1945 Week 8 (October break; Oct 14-16) M] No class W] Introduction [F 3-13]; Thomas Mann (1875-1955), Death in Venice (1912) (F 84-138) F] Death in Venice (cont.) Homework 15 Short Unit Essay (2) Due
Week 9 (Oct 19-23) M] Franz Kafka (1883-1924), The Metamorphosis (1915) (F 207-241) W] The Metamorphosis (cont.); Review Homework 16 F] Midterm Exam
Week 10 (Oct 26-30) M] Lu Xun (1881-1936), "Diary of a Madman"(1918) (F 242-253); Lao She (1899-1966), "An Old and Established Name" (1936) (F 409-417) Homework 17 W] James Joyce (1882-1941), “The Dead" (1914) (F 174-207) F] Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), “A Room of One’s Own” (1929) (F 336-371) Homework 18
Week 11 (Nov 2-6) M] William Faulkner (1897-1962) (F 371-374), "Spotted Horses" (F 387-400) Homework 19 W] Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), “The Garden of Forking Paths” (1941) (F 487-496) F] Modern Poetry, Intro (F 507-508); William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) (F 518-522), “Leda and the Swan” (1924) (F 525); Pablo Neruda (1904-1973), “Tonight I Can Write,” “Walking Around” (F 583-587); T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) (F 537-541), “The Waste Land” (1922) (F 545-558) Homework 20
Unit Four: Postwar and Postcolonial Literature, 1945-1968, and the Contemporary Week 12 (Nov 9-13) M] Intro. Postwar and Postcolonial Literature (F 671-675) James Baldwin (1924-1987), "Notes of a Native Son" (F 736-751) Homework 21 W] Doris Lessing (b. 1919), “The Old Chief Mshlanga” (1951) (F 716-726) Homework 22 F] Workshop on bibliography Short Unit Essay (3) Due
Week 13 (Nov 16-20) M] Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), Endgame (1957) (F 763-795) Homework 23 W] Clarice Lispector (1920-1977), "The Daydreams of a Drunk Woman" (1960) (F 808-814) F] Chinua Achebe (1930-2013), "Chike's School Days" (F 825-830) Homework 24