Department of English

This course will introduce students to a wide array of literary works from across the world.  It operates on the assumption that cultures have never been isolated from each other and that literature has always been in motion across national boundaries; it has been translated, adapted, and circulated.  We will explore the genres, forms, and thematic preoccupations of major works that strive to imagine a wider world, while also studying the critical debates around the concept of world literature, from its origins with Goethe’s essay on Weltliteratur to contemporary arguments about cosmopolitanism and globalization.