Charyn A.

Role Grade=Demeter

1.What is world literature?

World literature was long defined in North America as an established canon of European

masterpieces, but an emerging global perspective has challenged both this European focus and

the very category of “the masterpiece.” The first book to look broadly at the contemporary scope

and purposes of world literature, What Is World Literature? Probes the uses and abuses of world

literature in a rapidly changing world

In case studies ranging from the Sumerians to the Aztecs and from medieval mysticism to

postmodern metafiction, David Damrosch looks at the ways works change as they move from

national to global contexts. Presenting world literature not as a canon of texts but as a mode of

circulation and of reading, Damrosch argues that world literature is work that gains in

translation. When it is effectively presented, a work of world literature moves into an elliptical

space created between the source and receiving cultures, shaped by both but circumscribed by

neither alone. Established classics and new discoveries alike participate in this mode of

circulation, but they can be seriously mishandled in the process. From the rediscovered Epic of

Gilgamesh in the nineteenth century to Rigoberta Menchú’s writing today, foreign works have

often been distorted by the immediate needs of their own editors and translators.

Eloquently written, argued largely by example, and replete with insightful close readings, this

book is both an essay in definition and a series of cautionary tales.

2. Give at least 1 example of representative text and authors

from Asia, North America, Europe, Latin America, and Africa

REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM ASIA

THEIR LAST VISITOR(sudden fiction) by Kim Young Ha (South Korea) translated by

Dafna Zur

Yŏngsŏn was twenty

-four. She had majored in sculpture at a prestigious art school, then married

Chŏngsu, a graduate o

F the same school, before the ink was dry on her diploma. It happened soquickly that most of

their friends thought the wedding invitations were a practical joke. She wasalready working as a

graphic designer at an Internet firm, and a friend had gotten ChŎNgsu a job

As a set designer for a movie producer. Yŏngsŏn’s small

-scale start-up company kept her busy,

But Chŏngsu was even busier. He usually worked through the night. Movies were

alwaysproduced on a tight schedule. Chŏngsu basically lived with his to

Ol belt on. He’d pound away fordays constructing an elaborate set only to bash it to pieces

within hours. That was life: good workwent completely unnoticed while carelessness was

criticized ruthlessly. He had to put up with a

Lot of crap. Yŏngsŏn tended

To think her husband’s talents were going to waste, but she kept heropinion to herself

YOUNG-HA KIM (November 11, 1968)

Young-ha Kim was born in Hwacheon. He moved from place to place as a child, since his

fatherwas in the military. As a child, he suffered from gas poisoning from coal gas and lost

memorybefore ten. He was educated at Yonsei University in Seoul, majoring business

administration, buthe didn’t show much interest in it. Instead he focused on writing stories. Kim,

after graduatingfrom Yonsei University in 1993, began his military service as an assistant

detective at the militarypolice 51st Infantry Division near Suwon. His career as a professional

writer started in 1995 rightafter discharge.

Representative text from North America

A HISTORY OF EVERYTHING, INCLUDING YOU(sudden fiction) by Jenny Hollowell

(United States)

A History of Everything, Including You.” By Jenny Hollowell was overall very descriptive, so

Descriptive one could imagine everything that she was speaking of. She started this story as

avery broad and simple statement of how Earth started and or created. As the story starts

toblossom one can tell that this story became more personal than the Earth being created.

Jennystarts to open up and goes on explaining what seems to be the most important events of her

lifein a metaphorical way. Through descriptive sentences one can feel the emotional connection

shewas having toward this writing. Also since Jenny is telling this story in first person
everythingseems very personal at this point. Overall I loved this story and how open she seems

to be withher life events, from the beginning of time to the end of her life.

Jenny Hollowell is an American novelist and short fiction writer, and a partner and

executiveproducer of music house and record label Ring The Alarm. Her debut novel Everything

Lovely,Effortless, Safe was published in 2010, leading her to be named one of the “best new

writers” byThe Daily Beast. Hollowell received a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth

University, where shestudied film and photography, and an MFA in Creative Writing from the

University of Virginia,where she was a Henry Hoyns Fellow in Fiction and recipient of the Balch

Short Story Award. Hershort fiction has appeared in Glimmer Train, Scheherezade, and the

anthology New SuddenFiction, and was named a distinguished story by The Best American

Short Stories.

Representative text and authors from Europe

HAZARAN(short story) by Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio (France),translated by Patricia

E. Frederick

In the story “Hazaran” draws upon the genre of the fairy tale are the motifs of the quest;

theobstacle; the test, the supernatural assistance offered the hero or heroine; and the

transformationof the hero or heroine who passes from a state of deprivation to a state.In

“Hazaran” these traditional element to structure a parable of modern life. Modern fairy tale

isgiven a realistic setting. Resident of a shanty town of immigrants on the outskirts of a modern
city,the heroine alia is a victim of capitalist exploitation. Her encounter with Martin the

supernaturalagent will transform her life by showing her the path to spiritual happiness. At the

same time,Martin will transform the life if the entire community.The name “Hazaran” has at

least three meaning in his story;It refers to the story we are reading;it is the name of the fairy tale

that Martin tells the children; it is the name of fabulous county of the birds in that story

EAN-MARIE GUSTAVE LE CLEZIO (April 13, 1940)

Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, usually identified as J. M. G. Le Clézio, is a French writer

andprofessor. The author of over 40 works, he was awarded the 1963 Prix Renaudot for his novel

LeProcès-Verbal and the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature for his life’s work, as an “author of

newdepartures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below

thereigning civilization

Representative text and authors from latin America

LIKE HERCULES(microstory) by Ana Maria Shua (Argentina)translated by Steven J.

Stewart

Yŏngsŏn was twenty

-four. She had majored in sculpture at a prestigious art school, then married

Chŏngsu, a graduate of the same school, before the ink was dry on her diploma. It happened so
Quickly that most of their friends thought the wedding invitations were a practical joke. She

wasalready workin

G as a graphic designer at an Internet firm, and a friend had gotten Chŏngsu a jobas a set

designer for a movie producer. Yŏngsŏn’s small

-scale start-up company kept her busy,

But Chŏngsu was even busier. He usually worked through the night. Movies were a

Lways

Produced on a tight schedule. Chŏngsu basically lived with his tool belt on. He’d pound away for

Days constructing an elaborate set only to bash it to pieces within hours. That was life: good

workwent completely unnoticed while carelessness was criticized ruthlessly. He had to put up

with a

Lot of crap. Yŏngsŏn tended to think her husband’s talents were going to waste, but she kept her

Opinion to herself.

ANA MARIA SHUA

(April 22, 1951)

Ana María Shua (born in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine writer who has published over

eightybooks in numerous genres including: novels, short stories, micro fiction, poetry, drama,

children’sliterature, books of humor and Jewish folklore, anthologies, film scripts, journalistic

articles, andessays. Her writing has been translated into many languages, including English,

French, German,Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Korean, Japanese, Bulgarian, and Serbian.

Her storiesappear in anthologies throughout the world. She has received numerous national

andinternational awards, including a Guggenheim Fell

Owship, and is one of Argentina’s premier living

Writers. She is particularly known in the Spanish-speaking world on both sides of the Atlantic as

“the Queen of the Microstory.

Representative text and authors from africa

POISON(science fiction) by Henrietta Rose-Innes (South Africa) Henrietta Rose-Innes’

short story ‘Poison’ (f

Rom Homing 2010) is set in the aftermath of a chemicalexplosion of cataclysmic proportions in

Cape Town. The story’s protagonist and narrator, Lynn, isamong the last to flee the city; she

ends up alone at an abandoned highway petrol station. Shesips Coke and eats crisps and waits

passively

For a rescue team, for the will to try and escape,or for the (presumably) inevitable end. The

story provides us with some clues as to her lack ofmotivation, although she remains enigmatic

HENRIETTA ROSE-INNES (September 14, 1971)

Henrietta Rose-Innes is a South African novelist and short-story writer. She was the 2008

winnerof the Caine Prize for African Writing for her speculative-fiction story “Poison”. Her

novel Ninevehwas shortlisted for the 2012 Sunday Times Prize for Fiction and the M-Net

Literary Awards. InSeptember of that year her story “Sanctuary” was awarded second place in

the 2012 BBC(Inter)national Short Story Award