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Why do we study world literature?

We need to study world literature, because we are human. Our experiences

as humans connect us to eac the medium of literature. You may ask, "Why

not connect through the medium of television, since it is so The answer,

simplified, is that television is constrained by several factors: programming isreliant on spo subject to censorship by those sponsors; television

programming is too short in duration to allow for a fu part of the human

condition; programming has, unfortunately, devolved into slick, fast-paced

"nuggets" deliver entertainment for a large audience, not true information.

There's much more, but lest I start to d If we allow ourselves to live a "small

life" -one in which we never experience anything beyond our imme we do not

learn about other cultures. We do not get the opportunity to see how others

handle situations own. We feel isolated and alone in our daily challenges. We

do not feel the empathy with our global neig from developing detrimental

biases against them. Perhaps the argument can be made that keeping

oneself isolated from the world could lead to some form sociopathic

tendencies. Literature can remove the obstacle of social isolation for those

unable to physica about to the rest of the world's issues. We also learn how

to better communicate through literature. Conversation is too peppered with

jargon a at teaching us communication in a wider setting than literature. We

can learn appropriate phrasing in dif help us to possibly fit in or get ahead.

Plus, the more we read good literature, the more we "get it" when references

to various, fitting quotes from it. Just think of how many headlines have gone

misunderstood read more . . .

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE OR WORLD LITERATURE

World Literature or Comparative Literature? Harry Levin, a famous professor

of comparative literature, once had a dream in which two workmen knocked

on his door and announced that they "had come to compare the literature."

Many explanations of what comparative literature is, begin with this

anecdote, which raises the central issue: just how does one compare

literature? The terms "Comparative Literature" and "World Literature" are

often used to designate a similar course of study. Comparative Literature is

the more widely used term in the United States, with many universities

having Comparative Literature Departments or Comparative Literature

Programs. There are also scholarly associations such as the InternationalComparative Literature Association (ICLA), the American Comparative

Literature Association (ACLA), whose secretariat has been housed at the

University of Alabama since August 1998, and the Southern Comparative

Literature Association (SCLA). The latter two organizations sponsor annual

conferences and publish journals, Comparative Literature and The

Comparatist respectively. Other well-known comparative literature journals

published in the United States are: Comparative Literature Studies (Penn

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State University), World Literature Today (University of Oklahoma), and

Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature (Indiana University).

At the University of Alabama the Comparative Literature Program underwent

a name change and has been been known as World Literature for a number

of years. The World Literature Program is directed by Dr. Elaine Martin(Modern Languages and Classics) and offers the minor in world literature as

well as courses that can be taken for graduate credit. The World Literature

faculty is drawn from various disciplines such as Italian, English, German,

French, Women's Studies, and Religious Studies. In addition to the core

courses of the World Literature Survey I and II and Major World Authors I and

II, the program also offers a wide variety of special topics courses, which may

treat a movement (ex. Romanticism), an individual author (ex. Boccaccio;

Goethe); issues of influence (ex. Petrarch and Petrarchism); a genre (ex. the

novel; lyric poetry; drama), or a specific subject or theme (ex.

Representations of Food in Literature and Film).

What is Comparative Literature?

Comparative literature is the discipline of studying literature internationally:

across national borders

across time periods

across languages

across genres

across boundaries between literature and the other arts (music, painting,

dance, film, etc.)