corlit

• World Literature


  A translation of the German word Weltliteratur, coined by Johann Wolfgang Goethe
• Johann Wolfgang Goethe


  • Prolific writer
  • Credited with beginning the literary movement known as Romanticism
  • Published the epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774)
• Goethe realized that the best way to help his country was to create a national identity for Germany through the medium of literature
• Once that national identity was established and accepted throughout Europe, then the literature would carry weight and become interesting to readers in other countries, leading to translations and the dissemination of works not only throughout Europe, but also to European colonies
• Goethe's theories about Weltliteratur would inspire not only the unification of Germany under Otto von Bismark (1871), but they also lead to a movement that would take hold in the Twentieth Century for an expansion of inclusive literature and the creation of departments devoted to the study of World Literature
• Literature from Latin America

  • Historically includes the literary expression of the highly developed American Indian civilizations conquered by the Spaniards
  • Saw many poets gaining recognition in the first half of the 20th century, including Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda, and Octavio Paz
  • Experienced a "boom" in the 1960s, with the likes of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Julio Cortazar gaining worldwide recognition
  • Saw the emergence of a host of recognized women writers, such as Isabel Allende, in the latter part of the 20th century
  • Contemporary Latin literature is now being shaped by younger writers whose voices and manner of speaking are arguably a far cry from their predecessors
• Literature from North America


  • Shaped by the history of the country that produced it
  • For more than a century, America was merely a group of colonies scattered along the eastern seaboard of the North American continent
  • After a successful rebellion against the motherland, America became the United States, a nation
  • By the end of the 19th century, it had taken its place among the powers of the world, inevitably becoming involved in two world wars, along with the problems of Europe and East Asia
  • The rise of science and industry, as well as changes in ways of thinking and feeling, wrought many modifications in people's lives, all of which molded the literature of the country
• Literature from Europe


  • What is generally classified as Western literature
  • Literature written in the context of Western culture in the languages of Europe, including the ones belonging to the Indo-European language family as well as several geographically or historically related languages such as Basque and Hungarian
  • Includes the famous "canonical works" such as the likes of Shakespeare, all of which came from the United Kingdom
  • As the continent undergoes current upheavals in its governing structures, its literature functions as a tool to both find a space for the individual stories each country has to tell and work to unite a vulnerable Europe
• Literature from Australia and the Pacific


  • Australian Literature covers works not only those coming from the European settlers, but also those of the indigenous tribes of the country, or the Aborigines
  • Many Australian literature feature a strong sense of values in the country that promote tradition and the celebration of the ethnic culture
  • Oceanic Literature presents a look into stories of the Pacific Islands, with most available downloadable sources consisting of the myths and legends of the Pacific Islands that are popular in the international scene
  • A number of Pacific Island authors and writers promote other forms of contemporary literature to raise awareness of the cultures of the Pacific Islands
• Literature from Africa


  • Dates back to Ancient Egypt and hieroglyphs
  • Influenced by Arabic poetry, which spread during the Arab conquest of Egypt in the seventh century C.E. and through Western Africa in the ninth century C.E.
  • Blended with the European culture and literature to form a unique literary form
  • Themes often reflect the hardships Africa had to undergo, such as colonization and slavery
  • Sub-Saharan Africa developed a written literature during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as a result of missionaries coming to the area to build churches and language schools in order to translate religious texts
  • Most of the popular works have come out since 1950, especially the noteworthy Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
• Literature from Asia and the Middle East

  • Dates back throughout history with the beginning of songs, poems, and historically written artifacts
  • Many consist of religious themes, spirituality, values, and war
• Literary Theories


  • Biographical Criticism
  • Feminist/Gender Criticism
  • Formalist Criticism
• Feminist/gender criticism


  • Examining how sexual identity influences the reader of a text
  • Examining how the images of men and women in imaginative literature reflect or reject the social forces that have historically kept the sexes from achieving total equality
• Othello


  • Depicts Desdemona as a loyal wife to the protagonist, but her agency is limited in a patriarchal society. She becomes a pawn in power struggles between male characters, leading to her tragic fate.
• Formalist Criticism


  Views literature as a distinct form of knowledge that requires examination on its own terms. It focuses on the literary elements within the text, such as style, structure, tone, and imagery, to determine how they shape the work's effects on readers.
• The Raven


  • Poe's use of rhyme, meter, symbolism, and repetition to convey themes of grief, loss, and despair. The poem's repetitive refrain of "nevermore" creates a sense of foreboding and obsession, while Poe's careful crafting of sound and rhythm contributes to the overall impact.
• Historical Criticism


  Aims to comprehend a literary piece by examining the social, cultural, and intellectual milieu that influenced it, including the artist's biography. Understanding how a literary work impacts its original readers is a significant objective for historical critics.
• To Kill a Mockingbird

  • Explores how the novel reflects the racial tensions and social issues of the 1950s and 1960s in the Southern United States.
• Marxist/Sociological Criticism


  Examines literature in the cultural, economic and political context in which it is written or received, exploring the relationships between the artist and society.
• Parasite


  • Analyzes how the film portrays class inequality and the struggle between the wealthy and the poor in contemporary South Korean society. Explores themes such as social mobility, exploitation, and the consequences of economic disparity.
• Psychological criticism


  Uses psychoanalytic theories, especially those of Freud and Jacques Lacan, to understand more fully the text, the reader, and the writer. The basis of this approach is the idea of the existence of human consciousness – those impulses, desires, and feelings about which a person is unaware, but which influence emotions or behavior.
• The Yellow Wallpaper


  • Explores how the narrator's descent into madness is portrayed and the psychological effects of her confinement and isolation. Examines the protagonist's deteriorating mental state, her hallucinations, and the symbolism of the yellow wallpaper in relation to her psyche.
• Reader-response criticism


  Removes the focus from the text and places it on the reader instead, by attempting to describe what goes on in the reader's mind during the reading of a text. Reader-response critics are not interested in a "correct" interpretation of a text or what the author intended. They are interested in the reader's individual experience with a text.
• The Hunger Games trilogy


  • Explores how the reader emotionally responds to the character of Katniss Everdeen and her struggles in a dystopian society. Examines how the reader empathizes with Katniss's experiences of survival, sacrifice, and resistance against oppression, and how the reader's own perspectives and values influence the interpretation of the story's themes of power, morality, and rebellion.
• Carol Ann Duffy


  A poet of self-discovery and the exploration of the human experience. Her monologues address issues about love, loss, and identity.
• Carol Ann Duffy was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in December 1955.
• She published her first written works in the early 1970s.
• She graduated in 1977 with a degree in philosophy from the University of Liverpool.
• In 2005, she won the prestigious T.S. Eliot Prize for her collection, "Rapture."
• She was named an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy in recent years.
• Interesting Facts about Carol Ann Duffy


  • She won the National Poetry Competition for 'Whoever She Was'
  • Duffy spent a brief period working as a poetry critic for The Guardian
  • She has also written picture books for children
  • She was named poet laureate in 2009 and stepped down in 2019
  • Duffy only accepted the position of United Kingdom's poet laureate because there had never been a woman in the role
• Famous Poems by Carol Ann Duffy

  • 'Havisham'
  • 'Mrs. Midas'
  • 'Nostalgia'
  • 'Prayer'
  • 'Anne Hathaway'
• Carol Ann Duffy was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in December 1955. Her family was Roman Catholic and lived in a poorer region of the city of Glasgow called Gorbals.
• In 1961, when Duffy was still young, the family moved to Stafford, England. She began her education the following year at Saint Austin's RC Primary School.
• Duffy went on to Stafford Girl's High School in 1970, where she stayed for four years. It was around this same time period that she first began to publish her adolescent work in poetry magazines.
• In 1974, Duffy began a degree in philosophy at the University of Liverpool. She graduated in 1977 with honors.
• The late 80s and early 90s saw Carol Ann Duffy's poetry continue to win awards; these included the Scottish Arts Council Award for her collection, Standing Female Nude, published in 1985, and the Somerset Maugham Award for her 1987 collection, Selling Manhattan.
• In 1999, the media released a rumor that Duffy had been considered for and lost out on a chance to be named poet laureate. She would later be renominated and accept the position in 2009.
• In 2005, she won the prestigious T.S. Eliot Prize for her poetry collection, Rapture, which is considered one of her most important volumes.
• Carol Ann Duffy currently lives in Manchester, England, and is the Creative Director of the Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University. She stepped down from the role of poet laureate in May 2019 and was replaced by Simon Armitage.