Description
Second Edition
This course focuses on seeing the world through non-western eyes. Students will read novels by internationally recognized authors from Nigeria, Egypt, and Japan. Students will also read poetry from many countries as well as an autobiography of someone from a non-western country.
Students read in the following order:
- Chinua Achebe (novel: Things Fall Apart)
- African poetry (poems selected from This Same Sky)
- Kazuo Ishiguro (novel: An Artist of the Floating World)
- Poetry of the Far East (poems selected from This Same Sky)
- Naguib Mahfouz (novel: Fountain and Tomb)
- Middle Eastern poetry (poems selected from This Same Sky)
- An autobiography of a national, to be chosen and obtained by the student, from a list of recommendations in the Guide
- Poetry as Life Stories (poems selected from This Same Sky)
Lessons include cultural values & worldviews, historical fiction, symbolism, autobiography, themes, and point of view. Poetry lessons include imagery, repetition, rhythm, themes, and memories & emotions.
Recommendations: Â World Literature I is a prerequisite for World Literature II. Students with cross-cultural experience could use this in grades 9 and 10. This course is especially recommended for juniors & seniors, students interested in literature beyond that of Europe & America, students interested in cultural issues in literature, and students studying modern world history. These should not be viewed as restrictions; this course can profitably be used by high-school students of any grade regardless of which previous Lightning Literature courses they have completed. Generally speaking, this course is more difficult than the two American Literature courses, Speech, and the two nineteenth-century British Literature courses.
