World Literatures

There is indeed a lot of literature in the world, and there is no question of covering it all. Instead our World Literature courses focus on providing students with the tools necessary to negotiate the global literary landscape and their own position in it: openness, wonder, critical thinking, self-reflexivity, and an awareness of the centrality of translation to all human interaction, whether literary or otherwise.

World Literature courses are offered in English translation, cover a variety of themes and topics, and always feature a rich cross cultural selection of literary works. The resulting learning environment is compelling: you may find yourself identifying with characters widely separated from you in time, space and idiom; or wondering why so many writers from different parts of the world have turned to literature as a form of political expression; or noticed that it is often authors exiled from their own countries who become the most influential. And that is just the beginning. Scroll down on this page for course descriptions.