NAME: CINDY L.

MACEREN

SECTION: 11- EDISON

REACTION PAPER TO “INTRODUCTION TO WORLD LITERATURE”

“Literature is the reflection of human experience.” This quote is true because it

allows people to look back the happenings from the past. Our experiences differ with
each other. Many people believe that literature comes from the writers’ imagination and
that literature is just words that form sentences on a piece of paper. People think that
words do not mean anything to anybody. Moreover, out from these literatures we can
also get something from it, it allows the readers to learn a life lesson through other’s
experiences from the stories that have been shared.

From the text we have read, the term “world literature” was introduced by Jogann
Wolfgang von Goethe. He used the word “Weltliteratur” first in 1827. Goethe studied the
characteristic features and interrelationships of different national literatures, the
tendencies of their development and their achievements. He studied the works of
famous writers which presented different literary phenomena of different historic
periods. I have learned that, literature shouldn`t be restrained by national boundaries. In
1894 the world saw the first book about world literature – “The history of world
literature”. The world literature emerged because of the development of
global economic and cultural relations. This global literary process was also caused by
the rapid development of national literatures. In the history of world literature we define
several stages of its development such as the literature of Bronze Age, Classical
literature, Early Medieval literature, Medieval Literature, Early Modern and Modern
literature.

World literature is the cultural heritage of all humanity. It is essential to study

world literature because it helps us understand the life of different people from all over
the world, which forms our world-outlook and acquaints us with the masterpieces of
literature. It’s not just that, through world literature we can understand each other’s
nationalities and differences which binds us all.