Literary Studies 551: World Literature

Literature Studies 551 investigates an increasingly influential approach to literary studies—world literature. The course covers the seventeenth century to the present, including diverse forms of literary representation, from broadside ballads to Instapoetry, The Thousand and One Nights to Aboriginal science fiction, as well as drama, short fiction, graphic memoir, and manga, to explore international issues such as postcolonialism, globalization, and indigenization. As a multifaceted history of cultural transmission in global contexts, the course challenges traditional conceptions of world literature and considers new directions for literary studies in the twenty-first century.