What is World Literature?

In 1827, Goethe proclaimed that a new era of Weltliteratur, or “world literature,” had begun. The understanding of world literature as the best literature the world has to offer has been revised in recent decades. Any of the following might apply:

a)    literatures in translation (though the instructor strives toward intimate familiarity with the original language of the text)

b)    literatures not exclusive to the American or British literary canons (see Norton Anthology)

c)    literatures that depict the colonial and/or postcolonial experience

d)    literatures that belong (perhaps owing to their a priori status) to no one single national tradition

e)    the study of the classical root(s) of modern literary genres or of genres on an international scale

f)    literatures originating among diasporic and immigrant communities (“multicultural literature”)

g)    an exploration of international literary traditions or literatures from diverse geographical areas tied together through shared identity, artistic credo, and/or genre (as opposed to national and linguistic tradition)

World Literature Courses at MSU:

ENFL 255 World Film

ENLT 230 Images of Muslim Women in 20th-Century Literature and Culture

ENLT 235 Contemporary Chinese Women’s Literature

ENLT 250 Special Topics in Comparative Literature

ENLT 260 Myth and Literature

ENLT 274 20th-Century Literature of Immigration

ENLT 315 American-Indian Themes

ENLT 316 African, Asian, and Caribbean Literature in English

ENLT 349 Contemporary Irish Literature

ENLT 367 Contemporary African Literature

ENLT 372 Women Prose Writers

ENLT 373 Literary Modernism

ENLT 375 Modern European Drama

ENLT 376 Modern European Novel

ENLT492 Seminar in Comparative Literature

Bibliography

Abrams, M. H., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 2 vols. New York: W. W. Norton, 1999.

Arnone, Michael. “Bill Would Provide Funds for Colleges to Develop Specialized Language Programs.” Chronicle of Higher Education. 20 Feb 2004. 23.

Bhabha, Homi K.. Nation and Narration. 1990.

Cixous, Hélène and Catherine Clément. La Jeune Née [The Newly Born Woman]. Paris: Union Génerale d’Éditions, 1975.

"Career Opportunities for Multilingual Graduates." Sunday Tribune. 18 Jan. 2004. 15.

Damrosch, David. What is World Literature? Princeton and Oxford: Princeton UP, 2003. 

Lind, Beth Beutler. Multicultural Children's Literature: an Annotated  Bibliography, Grades K-8. 1996.