Introduction to World Literature 195:01, 02, 03, H1 Fall 2010

Professor Janet A. Walker, with the assistance of teaching assistants Lauren Fanelli,
Matthew Mangold, and Mavis Tseng

All students enrolled meet Tuesday 2nd period in Milledoler 100. Sections meet at the
following times and locations:

Section 01 Matthew Mangold Thursday 1st period Campbell A1

Section 02 Lauren Fanelli Thursday 3rd period Campbell A1
Section 03 Mavis Tseng Friday 3rd period Murray 115
Section H1 Janet Walker Thursday 2nd period Education 025 A

This course satisfies the SAS Liberal Arts Distribution Requirements under
Part II Section C: Arts and Humanities and Global Awareness.

This course will fulfill the following requirements when the new core
curriculum is in place: SAS Core Curriculum Learning Goal, under section C.
Arts and the Humanities. p. An arts and humanities course analyzes arts
and/or literatures in themselves and in relation to specific histories, values,
languages, cultures, and technologies.

This course also fulfills the following Comparative Literature Learning Goals:

1) Students will demonstrate familiarity with a variety of world literatures as

well as methods of studying literature and culture across national and
linguistic boundaries and evaluate the nature, function and value of
literature from a global perspective.
2) Students will analyze a specific body of research and write a clear and well-
developed paper or project about a topic related to more than one literary
and cultural tradition.

Course objectives: The goal of the course is to introduce students to fiction, plays,
and poems from various periods and from various parts of the world in comparative
contexts, focusing on questions of culture, class, and gender, and on the role of
translation in the study of world literature. The course will concentrate on the
development of skills in thinking, in close reading of literary texts, and in writing.

Course format: The course has two meetings a week: one lecture and one section.
The weekly lecture is on Tuesday 9:50-11:10 A.M. in Milledoler 100, CAC. The
lectures will be given by Professor Walker with the occasional assistance of the
teaching assistants. The four sections meet once a week in smaller classrooms; each
student registers for a particular section, which automatically includes the Tuesday
lecture. Attendance will be taken at the lecture meetings and at the section meetings.

1
Students will receive a separate syllabus for their section, which will indicate the
requirements for that section.

Lecture meeting procedures and etiquette: At the end of each lecture, time will be
reserved for questions and discussion, but students may ask a thought question (not a
factual question) during the lecture. No electronic equipment (cell phones, laptops,
ipods, iPhones, etc.) may be used during the lecture meetings. Students are
expected to bring the texts assigned (in book or paper form) to the lecture as well as
to the section meeting. Occasional quizzes will be given.

Instructor information: Professor Janet Walkers email address is

jwalk@rci.rutgers.edu. Her mailbox is in Scott 330, CAC. She can be reached by
phone at 732-932-7605 (Office of the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures).
Her office hours are: Tuesday 1:30-2:30 P.M. and Thursday 11:15 A.M.-12:30 P.M.
in Scott 238.

Program information: This course is one of three 100-level courses taught by the
Program in Comparative Literature as introductions to the discipline of Comparative
Literature. Comparative Literature is an exciting interdisciplinary program that
allows you to study literature as it shapes and is shaped by the world of science,
religion, economics, politics, sexuality, and other cultural and historical forces. It is a
discipline that should be attractive to students with a wide-ranging interest in
literature, theory, and cultural studies. Students may choose from a minor that
requires 18 credits and a major that offers several attractive options. See the
Comparative Literature website, which includes descriptions of the major and minor,
and faculty pages: http://complit.rutgers.edu. The current Undergraduate Director is
Professor Jorge Marcone (jtmarcone@yahoo.com).

Required readings: The following five books for the course are available for
purchase at Rutgers University Bookstore:

1) Euripides: Bacchae (trans. Paul Woodruff) Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co.,

1998
2) Jean-Baptiste Molire: Tartuffe and Other Plays (trans. Donald Frame) (Signet
Classic) New York: Penguin, 1981 (We will read only the play Tartuffe.)
3) Ousmane Sembene: Xala (trans. Clive Wake) Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books,
1976
4) Toni Morrison: Beloved. Vintage International. New York: Random House, 2004.
5) Bertolt Brecht: Mother Courage and Her Children (trans. John Willett, ed. Ralph
Manheim, introd. Norman Roessler) Penguin Classic, 2007.

If you purchase these books online, please buy these editions. The rest of the
readings are available on online reserve via the Rutgers University Library website.
Get on the Rutgers library website, then log in, then click Reserve, then Walker, and

2
finally Introduction to World Literature. If you do not log in, you will be unable to
access the course readings.

Required readings available on online reserve for the course are the following: 1)
Chinese philosophical texts: Confucius, Laozi, Zhuangzi; 2) Indian poetry; 3)
Cervantes, background, Don Quixote (excerpts) and Amads of Gaul (excerpts); 4)
Molire (background); 5) Japanese Haiku; 6) Dostoevsky, background, Beatitudes
and The Meek One; 7) Xala (background); 8) Chinweizu reading; 9) Supplementary
Readings on Plagiarism and Outlining; 10) Supplementary Readings on Translation.

Syllabus and schedule of lectures:

Please note: items in bold type refer to the number of the item on online reserve.

#1--Syllabus

Sept. 7 Introduction to content and format of the course; introduction to the concept
of world literature and its relation to translation

Sept. 14 Euripides: Bacchae. Greek 5th century, B.C.E. [book]

Sept. 21 Chinese philosophical and religious texts: Confucius, Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi
#2Readings #1 for Sept. 22:
1) Confucius (background): Confucius (Kongfuzi) 551-479 B.C.E.
The Bedford Anthology of World Literature: The Ancient World,
Beginnings-100 C.E. Ed. Paul Davis et al. New York: Bedford/St. Martins,
2004.

2) Confucius: The Analects. 6th century B.C.E. Trans. Arthur Waley. New
York: Random House, 1938.

3) Lao Zi (background) and Lao ZiDao De Jing. 6th century or later.

The Bedford Anthology of World Literature: The Ancient World,
Beginnings-100 C.E. Ed. Paul Davis et al. New York: Bedford/St. Martins,
2004.

4) Zhuang Zi (background) and Zhuang ZiThe Zhuang Zi. 4th century

or later. The Bedford Anthology of World Literature: The Ancient World,
Beginnings-100 C.E. Ed. Paul Davis et al. New York: Bedford/St. Martins,
2004. [all on Alexander Online Reserve]

Sept. 28 Classical Indian poetry. Sanskrit and Urdu. Ca. 700-1850

#3--Readings #2 for Sept. 28:
1) Sanskrit Poetry from Vidykaras Treasury. Trans. and ed. Daniel H.
H. Ingalls. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1965. Sanskrit
700-1050 C. E.

3
 2) The rasa theory, suggestion, and impersonality in Sanskrit poetry.
Sanskrit Poetry. Trans. and ed. Daniel H. H. Ingalls. [pp. 11-25read
these pages but there is no need to print them out and bring them to class]

3) Mirza Ghalib (background): India: Jewel in the Colonial Crown

and Ghalibpoems. The Bedford Anthology of World Literature: The
Nineteenth Century, 1800-1900. Ed. Paul Davis et al. New York:
Bedford/St. Martins, 2004.
Urdu. 1800-1850. [all on Alexander Online Reserve]

Oct. 5 Miguel Cervantes: Don Quixote. Spanish. 1604 (Part I)

#4Readings #3 for Oct. 5:
1) Don Quixote background. The Bedford Anthology of World
Literature: The Early Modern World, 1450-1650. Ed. Paul Davis et al.
New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2004.

2) Prologue to Don Quixote. Trans. Edith Grossman. New York: Ecco

(Harper Collins), 2003. 3-9.

3) Don Quixote. Trans. Walter Starkie. Signet Classic. New York:

Penguin, 1964. Part I, chs. 1-13, 25.

4) Rodriguez de Montalvo: Amads of Gaul. Spanish. 1300s. Amads of

Gaul, Books I and II. A Novel of Chivalry of the 14 th Century
Presumably First Written in Spanish. Trans. Edwin B. Place and Herbert
C. Behm. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1974. [all on
Alexander Online Reserve]

Oct. 12 Jean-Baptiste (Poquelin) Molire: Tartuffe (trans. Donald Frame).

French.1669.
#5Readings #4 for Oct. 12: Molire background. The Bedford
Anthology of World Literature: The Eighteenth Century, 1650-1800. Ed.
Paul Davis et al. New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2004. [Alexander
Online Reserve]

Tartuffe. In Tartuffe and Other Plays. [book]

Oct. 19 Translation and Comparative Literature

Readings for Oct. 19: See Supplementary readings on translation at
the end of the syllabus

Oct. 26 Haiku. Japanese. From late seventeenth to early nineteenth centuries.

#6Readings # 5 for Oct 26:
1) Matsuo Bash (background): Japan: The Tokugawa Era, Matsuo
Bash, and The Narrow Road Through the Back Country (trans.
Richard Bodner, excerpts), The Bedford Anthology of World Literature:

4
 The Eighteenth Century, 1650-1800. Ed. Paul Davis et al. New York:
Bedford/St. Martins, 2004.

2) Matsuo Bash. A Visit to Sarashina Village. The Narrow Road to

the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches. Trans. Nobuyuki Yuasa.
Baltimore: Penguin, 1966.

3) Haiku of Yosa Buson and Kobayashi Issa. Late eighteenth century

and early nineteenth century. Robert Hass, ed. and the one responsible
for verse translations of the haiku. The Essential Haiku. New York:
CCC. An Imprint of HarperCollins, 1994. [all on Alexander Online
Reserve]

Nov. 2 Fyodor Dostoevsky: The Meek One. Russian. 1876

#7Readings #6 for Nov. 2:
1) Dostoevsky background. The Bedford Anthology of World
Literature: The Nineteenth Century, 1800-1900. Ed. Paul Davis et
al. New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2004.
2) Dostoevsky: The Meek One. In The Eternal Husband and Other
Stories. Trans. and annot. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.
New York: Bantam Books, 1997.

3) The Beatitudes. The Bible: The Book of Matthew: The Sermon on

the Mount. The New English Bible with the Apocrypha. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1971. [Alexander Online Reserve]

Nov. 9 Bertolt Brecht: Mother Courage and Her Children. German. 1939
Reading for Nov. 9: Mother Courage and Her Children [book]

Nov. 16 Toni Morrison: Beloved. American. 1987.

Reading for Nov. 16: Beloved pp. 1-156 [book]; Excerpts from the
film Beloved, directed by Jonathan Demme (1998)

Nov. 23 Beloved (continued)

Reading for Nov. 23: Beloved pp. 157-324
Excerpts from the film Beloved

Nov. 25 THANKSGIVING

Nov. 30 Ousmane Sembene: Xala. French. Sngal. 1973.

Readings for Nov. 30:
1) Xala (background). Colonialism: Europe and Africa. The
Bedford Anthology of World Literature: The Twentieth Century,
1900-The Present. Ed. Paul Davis et al. New York: Bedford/St.
Martins, 2004 [Alexander Online Reserve]

5
 2) Xala pp. 1-53 [book]
Excerpts from the film Xala, directed by Ousmane Sembene
(1980)

Dec. 7 Xala (continued)

Readings for Dec. 7:
1) Chinweizu and his Decolonizing the African Mind. The
Bedford Anthology of World Literature: The Twentieth Century, 1900-
The Present. Ed. Paul Davis et al. New York: Bedford/St. Martins,
2004. [Alexander Online Reserve]

2) Xala pp. 53-103 [book]

Supplementary Readings on Plagiarism and Outlining [Alexander Online

Reserve]
Plagiarism. Joseph Gibaldi. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. Fifth
Edition. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 1999.
Outlining. Joseph Gibaldi. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. Fifth
Edition. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 1999.

Supplementary Readings on Translation [Alexander Online Reserve]

1) Jean Aitchison, The Bother at Babel. From The Seeds of Speech: Language
Origin and Evolution. Canto. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 26-
37.
2) Genesis 11:11 (the story of the Tower of Babel). The New English Bible with
the Apocrypha. New York: Oxford University Press, 1971. 11.
3) George Steiner, After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation. Third
Edition. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. 28-31, 51-62.
4) David Damrosch, Reading in Translation. In How to Read World Literature.
Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. 65-85.
5) Andr Lefevere, Mother Courages Cucumbers: Text, System and Refraction in
a Theory of Literature. In Lawrence Venuti, ed. The Translation Studies Reader.
Second edition. New York and London: Routledge, 2004. 239-255.