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.

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.