Reading World Literature : Theory, History, Practice.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lawall, Sarah.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (376 pages)

Place of Publication:

Basel/Berlin/Boston : University of Texas Press, 1994.

Summary:

As teachers and readers expand the canon of world literature to include writers whose voices traditionally have been silenced by the dominant culture, fundamental questions arise. What do we mean by "world"? What constitutes "literature"? Who should decide? Reading World Literature is a cumulative study of the concept and evolving practices of "world literature." Sarah Lawall opens the book with a substantial introduction to the overall topic. Twelve original essays by distinguished specialists run the gamut from close readings of specific texts to problems of translation theory and reader response. The sequence of essays develops from re-examinations of traditional canonical pieces through explorations of less familiar works to discussions of reading itself as a "literacy" dependent on worldview. Reading World Literature will open challenging new vistas for a wide audience in the humanities, from traditionalists to avant-garde specialists in literary theory, cultural studies, and area studies.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Introduction: Reading World Literature

Part I. Initial Perspectives: Teaching the Unfamiliar; Locating Canonical Values

Introduction

1. Misunderstanding Poetry: Teaching outside the Western Canon

2. Classical Criticism and the Canon, or, Why Read the Ancient Critics?

Part 2. Canonical Variations: Working with Texts and Their Countertexts

3. Men Working: Community under Construction

4. Playing Caliban: Cesaire's Tempest

5. Celtic Literature and the European Canon

6. Love and Country: Allegorical Romance in Latin America

7. Reading Genres across Cultures: The Example of Autobiography

Part 3. Languages of Community: Reading the Language(s) of the Text

8. The Many "Worlds" in World Literature: Pound and Waley as Translators of Chinese

9. Under the Palimpsest and Beyond: The World, the Reader, and the Text in the Nigerian Novel in English

Part 4. Literacies: Patterns of Understanding

10. The Phonograph behind the Door: Some Thoughts on Musical Literacy

11. Informing Adult Readers: Symbolic Experience in Children's Literature

12. In the Canon's Mouth: Being Lucid about the Local

Contributors

Index

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-292-76341-7

OCLC:

1309036086