What is

World Literature?

You are now in the world because you are in the air and it is in the world.

- Aristotle, Athens, 4th century BCE

A man sets out to draw the world. As the years go by, he peoples a space with images of provinces, kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, fishes, rooms, instruments, stars, horses, and individuals. A short time before he dies, he discovers that that patient labyrinth of lines traces the lineaments of his own face.

– Jorges Louis Borges, Buenos Aires , 1960

As if Japan weren't small enough to begin with, I fail to understand why it is necessary to think of it in even smaller units. No matter where I go in the world, although I can't speak any foreign language, I don't feel out of place. I think of the earth as my home. If everyone thought this way, people might notice just how foolish international friction is, and they would put an end to it. We are, after all, at a point where it is almost narrow-minded to think merely in geocentric terms. Human beings have launched satellites into outer space, and yet they still grovel on earth looking at their own feet like wild dogs. What is to become of our planet?

– Akira Kurosawa, Tokyo, 1981

My father was kidnapped in Nigeria on a Saturday morning in early May. My brother called to tell me, and suddenly there was not enough breathable air in the world.

– Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, New York City, 2015

Welcome to the homepage for World Literature at New West Charter High School for the 2017-2018 school year!

In World Literature, students immerse themselves in literary cultures outside the Western (or Global North) perspective, while also studying the global origins of the Western canon – those Ancient, Classical and Early Modern stories that continue their influence today. For these reasons, you will need a map. This site will act as much as possible as a comprehensive online resource for both College Prep (CP) and Honors (H) classes. Think of it as a sort of GPS for the course.

Overview

In scope and depth, the study of World Literature is intimidating yet familiar. On one hand, students are exposed to literature from dozens of countries, cultures, traditions – separated not just by geography but also time, years, centuries, even millennia! However, letters penned long ago in distant lands have the ability to influence current events, songs written in another tongue thousands of miles away still tug at our hearts, and the oldest stories known are often the very ones we retell the most. World Literature is an adventure, a voyage, an epic exploration into uncharted water – as well it is a mirror, reflecting back the narratives and stories we hold most dear, on a human scale and a personal one.

Throughout the year, students will practice critical engagement with World Literature through four primary tasks: READING, WRITING, SPEAKING and LISTENING. As straightforward as that may sound, World Literature is nothing if not full of contradictions. This course values attention to detail AND creativity. This course values eloquence AND awkward silence. This course views unsuccessful attempts at personal work AND strong disagreements between classmates as essential steps toward academic excellence. This course respects unspoken, difficult and hitherto unimaginable thinking AND lifelong passions, customs and beliefs that help shape and define individual students.

It is a goal of this class that students ...

  1. Grow receptive to literature as something that both “delights and instructs” (as the Roman poet, Horace, put it) no matter where it was written
  2. Gain confidence in their skills to analyze and interpret new, complex, strange (occasionally incomprehensible) texts, with cultural sensitivity and academic precision, AND
  3. Find meaning in a world full of variant, often competing–even polarizing–points of view (some explicit, some implicit; many unspoken) through a more global understanding of storytelling and the rich possibilities of language.

Course Materials Checklist

To succeed and thrive in this course, most days you will only need to bring four objects to class:

  1. Your reading/s. The College Prep course will be assigned roughly 15 pages per night (or 30 minutes, on average); Honors students will be assigned something like 25 pages on average (or roughly 50 minutes of reading per night). To read the full list of course books you need to acquire, select whether you are in the College Prep or Honors course.
  2. Something to write with; pens are preferable. When annotating your course books, however, pencils work best.
  3. Something to write on; every student needs to have a stand-alone college-ruled notebook designated for World Literature. These notebooks will be collected at the end of each semester and count for 20% percent of your final grade.
  4. Yourself. As someone writing in iambic pentameter might say, "A syllabus does not a classroom make." Classrooms are made up of individuals whose commitment, participation and respect for other members are essential to the program of study. The classroom is substantively different without YOU. Be in attendance, be prepared; (students who are best prepared often come to class with far more questions than answers). You can be shy, but never be too shy: share your passions, your antipathies; come enthusiastic, come frustrated; let your voice be heard. You are vital to every lesson, everyday.

Click here for more information on student responsibilities and the grading system.