Modern Masterpieces of World Literature (offered by HarvardX)
This brief literature course, based on the second half of the edX MOOC Masterpieces of World Literature, looks at how writers transcend national and language barriers as worldwide readers and travelers, and how their modern fiction attains the level of world literature.
These current global literature masterpieces continue a pattern of integrating tiny stories into large undertakings that date back to medieval tales and continue to modern novels. You will study how these authors utilize their fiction to actively interact with the political and social challenges of their time and of globalized modernity, recounting experiences of exploration, migration, international war, and cultural exchange, throughout the course.
What you'll learn:
- The recent history of World Literature
- How literary works are transformed by cultural transmission
- How to critically analyze literary works
- The historical and political context in China, Argentina, Turkey, and more
Syllabus:
- Section 1: Introduction: What is World Literature? (Goethe)
- Section 2: West-Eastern Conversations ( The 1001 Nights )
- Section 3: Enlightenment in the Colonies (Candide)
- Section 4: China and Its Neighbors (Lu Xun and Eileen Chang)
- Section 5: Inventing Latin America (Jorge Luis Borges, Ficciones )
- Section 6: From Empire to Globe (Wole Soyinka, Death and the King's Horseman )
- Section 7: East-West Encounters (Salman Rushdie, East, West; Jhumpa Lahiri, The Interpreter of Maladies )
- Section 8: Istanbul in – or as – the World (Orhan Pamuk, My Name Is Red )
Enroll here: https://www.edx.org/course/modern-masterpieces-of-world-literature
