EWL 115 Reading World Literature II
This course is the second of a two-part sequence, and covers literature from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries. The course will begin with a historical overview of the state of the world at the beginning of the eighteenth century, situating the studied literary texts in a broader historical context, and introducing the concept of “modernity”. The course will focus primarily on the global history of prose fiction from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries, looking at the birth and evolution of the novel, the emergence of written literary fiction in traditionally oral cultures, and the development of modern variations on traditional storytelling forms across the world. We will also examine modern experimental poetry and drama, comparing it to the traditional forms studied in Reading World Literature I. All works will be read in English.