Summer 2004

E s316K • Masterworks of Literature: World

Course Description

In this course, we will ponder the problem of worldliness in a variety of literary texts from diverging genres, places and time periods. We will consider how writers have taken up the problem of representing the world from specifically local positions. Since the world is big and literature is long, the course is organized around thematic concerns – cosmology, travel, identity, diaspora, rather than claiming a representative sample of the literature of the world.

Grading Policy

The class will be run as a seminar. Attendance is mandatory. More than one unexcused absence will result in a grade penalty.

Class participation including one presentation 30%
1 response paper of 2-3 pages 20%
1 final exam, making up the remaining 50%

Texts

(available at the Co-op)
Ovid, Metamorphosis
The Arabian Nights, Trans. Haddawy
Shakespeare,The Tempest
Eliot, The Wasteland
Kincaid, Lucy

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