Laurence Chan, Class Summary

Our World Literature Class taught me a fairly large amount on the texts we've read in class as well as random facts on literature in general. I thoroughly enjoyed many of the required readings especially the Greek tragedies. I think other classmates would agree with me when I say the choices were fantastic except for the Sufi poetry. Perhaps it was just a lack of my own patience that I did not enjoy such work. Overall the class went well and I was happy to be a part of it. Diviani, if you remember what you told me in the library that night we both stayed up to do work (haha), then I still disagree with you.

The class was a very nice experience for me, and I'm glad for being exposed to, and understanding the books we needed to read. Thanks.

Laurence Chan, Class Presentations Pt. 2

For my own presentation, I had decided to go a different route to the rest of the class, but similiar to the original course. I followed our own class themes of reading world texts, epics, stories of origins, and comparative literature. For my own idea I wanted to suggest a text that would easily mix and match with our other texts. In picking Virgil's The Aeneid, the class would have more material to compare and contrast with the other stories and texts of our class. I suggested some of my ideas in class for possible comparisons and contractions. Examples were comparing the tragic stories of women in Greek and Roman tragedies, such as Medea vs. Dido. A comparison of the heroes and their different glorified characteristics would also be a topic; Achilles was famous for his bloodlust and strength, but Aeneas while also a fighter was known as a respectful and dutiful leader.

Besides, the book was just fun to read.

Laurence Chan, Class Presentations

I was very interested in seeing the choices and methods in which my classmates tackled the class presentations. Actual student made variations of the syllabus, powerpoint presentations, and handouts helped make each presentation unique and engaging. Common ideas were taking famous texts from many different locations in the world. Books and stories like Things Fall Apart and the Chinese Legend of the Monkey King were stories I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend. A book that was recommended several times wasDon Quixote. I have never read it but now I am very curious about it and will definitely be checking it out.

Overall I felt the presentations were a great idea as it offered the rare chance of a student's perspective and suggestion. If I ever had to make my own real syllabus for class I would definitely add student presentations in it.

William Chiu

This semester has been a great for me to discover teh text fro around the world which emcompass every theme imaginable. Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this class had to have been the beginning material concerning the creation myths. The myths grabbed my attention because of the different ways the world's creation was represented within time periods and cultures. it was also very striking in the way the flood myths possessed similarities which hint at the actuality of such events looking at the assumption that the stories may be too extreme to have occurred. The stories that had the least positive effect on my enjoyment would have to be the tragedies. the content is of course gloomy and telling of acts which exemplify violence and trickery. although i didnt not take much pleasure in reading the genre of tragedy, it was very informative of the culture of Shakespearean and Greek times. By reading those tragedies i was able to not only interpret the ways in which peopled lived according to customs and religion but the way they thought and acted towards one another as well.

Felicia Ooi; Class Summary

I enrolled in World Literature I because I really do enjoy reading books and literature in general. I realize that my own reading experience is not as vast as many others' and I would love to be able to expand my horizons by reading literature from around the world. This class introduced me to texts that I had mostly never read before, as I am an international student and I do not learn world literature in high school back home. 

Though I must admit I did not enjoy reading each and every one of the books assigned to us, I especially enjoyed reading the Greek Tragedies because I found them very interesting, albeit slightly morbid, what with all the killing and revenge stories. I also really liked reading the excerpt from Aristophanes' Frogs that we read, as it was really funny.

Overall, I think the syllabus was very well-rounded and really fit the subject of World Literature. I learnt many new things about writing and it also gave me chances to improve on my "compare/contrast" essays.  

Felicia Ooi; Class Presentations

I watched several presentations by my classmates, and I found their choices of books to be very diverse and very interesting. There were some books that I would have loved to learn about, some books which I had already read, and some I had never heard of before.

My own syllabus consisted of 3 different areas of comparison. The first area 2 novels were ones that dealt with the darker side of human nature/animal nature that were brought to the surface by a total liberation of rules and authority - William Golding's Lord of the Flies versus George Orwell's Animal Farm. The next area was a lighter one, satirical comedies that involved the respective authors making fun of society in their respective eras - Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest versus Aristophanes' Frogs. Finally, I also chose 3 poems that dealt with family and the importance of appreciating family - William Wordsworth's We Are Seven versus D.H Lawrence's Piano versus E.E Cummings' Parents.

Felicia Ooi; Sufi Poetry

Sufi Poetry was a rather different style of poetry than the others that we have been exposed to in the class. The poems were mostly about love, and God, and each different poet has a different style of writing. Symbols like birds and flowers and water were used to represent several different aspects of love and religion.

I enjoyed reading Sufi Poetry because the poems were very soothing and easy to read, and they were also very meaningful.