Ders

World Literature aims to take students on a literary and cultural journey through fiction from four different countries: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (2013), a Japanese novel by Haruki Murakami; Disgrace (1999), a South African novel by J.M. Coetzee; Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1981), a Columbian novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez; Woman at Point Zero, an Egyptian novel (1975) by Nawal El-Saadawi. Through close reading of the four novels and discussions, the course helps students gain an understanding and appreciation of literature in general and of the selected authors’ countries, their histories and cultures in particular. By engaging critically with the novels, students explore, demonstrate and discuss how great writers from other countries reflect their world through their own unique, authorial and artistic modes and how their works can contribute to contemporary global cultural landscape. The course also encourages students to reflect on how studying world literature can help them as both university students and world citizens.