Laura Getty, PhD

Rhonda Kelley, PhD

Kyounghye Kwon, PhD

Douglass Thomson, PhD

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Table of Contents

Korea

Sijo Poetry

The Tale of Hong Gil-Dong

Europe

Don Quixote

Gargantua and Pantagruel

Hamlet

The Journals of Christopher Columbus

The Prince

The Tempest

Utopia

Native America

Myths of the Cherokee

Aw-aw-tam Indian Nights: The Myths and Legends of the Pimas

Of Cannibals

Popol Vuh

Bibliography

Appendix

Editor’s Note

Reading about any culture foreign to one’s own tends to create a form of culture shock in the reader. In a world literature class, students frequently face texts that are completely unfamiliar to them, and the typical culture shock reactions set in. We tend not to like things that we do not understand, in part because we do not like the feeling of not knowing something. I have had students complain that they did not “like” a story before we discussed it in class, and then the same students decide after the class discussion that they now like it. Again, understanding and liking go hand in hand. Give the literature a chance; something that might not make sense at first may end up being one of your favorite stories after finding a way to approach it.

That being said, whether students like a story is not the point of reading that text in a literature class. We read literature in these classes to learn something. It is a nice addition to the experience if students like the works, but we can read and analyze texts that we do not enjoy just as effectively as the ones we do: In some cases, it is actually easier. Critical thinking comes from taking something that is unfamiliar, breaking it down into manageable chunks of information, fitting it back together, and using the experience to replicate the process in other situations in the future.

A literature class is, of course, a perfect place to learn critical thinking skills. When interpreting a text, pretend that you are a lawyer in a courtroom arguing a case. Not all cases have smoking guns; most are won or lost on circumstantial evidence alone. The interpretation needs to be based primarily on evidence from the text; therefore, there can be more than one possible approach, but some interpretations can be wrong if there is no support in the text for the generalizations that the student uses. Evidence is the key; based on what the text tells us, what do we actually know? Expert opinions (secondary sources) may help, but remember that both sides in a court case usually can call some expert who will agree with them. Authorial intention is not entirely out of bounds in such an argument, but it operates on the same principles: What can we actually argue, based on the evidence? For instance, any knowledge of Hemingway’s personal history makes it unlikely that the story “Soldier’s Home” could be interpreted as unsupportive of soldiers. Alternately, there are cases when the author’s life is of little or no help. Faulkner refused to tell an interviewer what the meaning of “A Rose for Emily” was, preferring perhaps that the reader not be limited by a simple (or simplistic) explanation of meaning.

In every interpretation, remember to distinguish between the views of the original audience and the views of the modern reader. While a text may remind students about their grandfathers, that association does not often help when interpreting a story written by someone years ago who did not know their grandfather. (It may, of course, help students interpret their interpretations, but, except for the very best reader response theorists out there, that approach is more commonly found in a different field of study.) If the story is about a grandfather in ancient Greece, the comparison with their grandfather would be most useful if it helped focus them on what the characters in that time period in Greek society thought about grandfathers (or treated them, or talked to them, etc.) back then that is similar to or different from modern expectations. In other words, what does the work tell us about the expectations of the original audience? Without at least a solid guess about what the original audience thought about the work, it is impossible to discuss whether the author is writing something that conforms to society’s expectations or argues against them, let alone what the original audience was expected to learn from the story, or how it expected to be entertained.

The expectations of the audience bring us full circle to the issue of culture shock once again. Students in U.S. universities often feel more comfortable with American or British literature, since the K-12 school system in the U.S. usually emphasizes those works. Even if some students have not lived through the 1960s in the U.S., there is still a sense of familiarity to students raised in the U.S., although they might not understand as much of the deeper social context as they think they do. A world literature class may be the first place that some students have encountered European works, let alone non-Western texts. The emphasis in this anthology, therefore, is on non-Western and European works, with only the British authors who were the most influential to European and non-Western authors (such as Shakespeare, whose works have influenced authors around the world to the present day). In a world literature class, there is no way that a student can be equally familiar with all of the societies, contexts, time periods, cultures, religions, and languages that they will encounter; even though the works presented here are translated, students will face issues such as unfamiliar names and parts of the story (such as puns) that may not translate well or at all. Since these stories are rooted in their cultures and time periods, it is necessary to know the basic context of each work to understand the expectations of the original audience. The introductions in this anthology are meant to be just that: a basic overview of what students need to know before they begin reading, with topics that students can research further. An open access literature textbook cannot be a history book at the same time, but history is the great companion of literature: The more history students know, the easier it is for them to interpret literature.

These works can help students understand the present, as well. In an electronic age, with this text available to anyone with computer access around the world, it has never been more necessary to recognize and understand differences among nationalities and cultures. The literature in this anthology is foundational, in the sense that these works influenced the authors who followed them. For Western literature, it is necessary to know something about the Trojan War (and the Trojan Horse) to understand everything from literary references to them (for almost three thousand or so years) to why a computer virus would be named a “Trojan Horse” because of what it does. In India, the characters in the Mahabharata and the Ramayana still show up in regular conversations, and it would be impossible to read modern Indian literature without a basic knowledge of these texts, which are referenced frequently. Chinese literature is infused with Confucian concepts, which influenced Chinese culture for thousands of years. These are just a few of the examples of why these texts are important to this day, and the introductions will explain the influence of each work.

A word to the instructor: The texts have been chosen with the idea that they can be compared and contrasted, using common themes. Rather than numerous (and therefore often random) choices of texts from various periods, these selected works are meant to make both teaching and learning easier. Students often learn better when there is a theme or a set of themes that they can use to make sense of the stories. For example, the differences among cultures and time periods in the definition of a hero are found throughout the anthology. As the time periods progress, the type of hero changes as well: warriors in the ancient world, knights and samurai in the medieval period, and soldiers in works set in the Renaissance. Many of the works examine the role of women in society, and each time period contains numerous works of social commentary. There are epics across world literature to compare, belief systems from the Greek pantheon of gods to Native American origin stories, and philosophical questions about ethical and moral behavior.

It is by comparing similar topics and themes that students are most easily able to see the significant differences in the cultures. If I ask students to discuss a work such as the Analects of Confucius, they often do not know where to begin or what to say. If I ask students to suggest what would happen if Gilgamesh were dropped into the environment of the Analects, they immediately see the problems: Gilgamesh is not a “gentleman” by Confucian standards, nor does he have the temperament to attract gentlemen retainers, who would expect courteous and proper behavior from him.

While cultural expectations are not universal, many of the themes found in these works are. Human beings have always cared about friendship, love, and finding their place in the world; we still read and watch stories of heroic journeys, bravery in its many forms, family relationships (good and bad), and the triumphs and tragedies of people who are not so different from ourselves.

As an example, the following assignment is one possible way to compare the texts in the Ancient World section.

Culture Shock Essay: take a character such as Achilles and place him in a story with a culture that would be completely foreign to him (such as the Mahabharata). How would he react to the people around him, and what would they think about him/his behavior? This topic could be mixed and matched: Hector in Gilgamesh, Arjuna in the Aeneid, Aeneas in the Art of War, etc.

Again, by asking the students to compare cultures, it is easier for them to identify differences. Obviously, a similar type of essay would work in the medieval period and the Renaissance, and Ancient World texts could be compared to medieval or Renaissance texts as the term progresses.

A note about calendar systems: The anthology uses B.C.E. (Before Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era). As a world literature text, it seeks to be as inclusive as possible of belief systems around the world. Of course, the numbering system used comes from the Christian calendar’s B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini—in the year of our Lord); basically, Christianity is the determiner of what is Common Era and before. Since there needs to be a way of comparing time periods across these cultures, and today’s world uses the numbering system that stems from the Christian calendar, it is the system used throughout. It would be too unwieldy to use all of the relevant calendar systems, although it is worth noting to students that they exist. For instance, 2015 C.E. is the year 5776 in the Hebrew calendar, the year 4713 in the Chinese calendar, and 1436 in the Islamic calendar. For Hinduism, the current Epoch of this cycle of the universe (which is destroyed and remade numerous times) started in 3012 B.C.E., and the current Era in that Epoch started in 78 C.E. Obviously, it would be both difficult and confusing to employ more than one system.

Introduction

In the European context, the Renaissance is traditionally dated from Christopher Columbus reaching North America in 1492 C.E. Of course, since Columbus thought that he had reached the East Indies (from which mistake the native peoples of the Americas came to be called “Indians”), it wasn’t until 1513 C.E., when the conquistador Balboa crossed the isthmus of Panama and saw the Pacific Ocean, that Europeans began to grasp fully the enormity of what had been discovered: two continents about which they knew nothing. In some ways, the European perspective of the world had just turned upside down. Everything that was “known” before could potentially be questioned, leading to various reactions in literature: Throw rules to the wind (as Francois Rabelais does in his Gargantua and Pantagruel), speculate about the ways that society could—or should—change (as Miguel de Cervantes does in his Don Quixote and Thomas More does in his Utopia), or try to explain the New World in the context of the Old World (as Shakespeare does in The Tempest).

As mentioned in Part Two, the Renaissance is a European concept at its heart: the re-naissance (re-birth) of classical Greek and Roman literature and culture. There is a certain egotism in naming one’s own time period, but even more so in naming the previous time period: According to Renaissance writers, everything after the classical period and before the Renaissance is that stuff in the middle—the Middle Ages. Such a perspective tells us very little about medieval authors, but it reveals a great deal about Renaissance writers. The world is always changing, but the “world upside down” concept separates the time periods. In Machiavelli’s The Prince, the author asserts that the uncertainty of the times call for a strong (dictatorial) leader, who will impose order. In Cervantes’ Don Quixote, the title character attempts to be a knight in shining armor to restore order. Although presented as insane, Don Quixote’s actions—to help the weak and defend the good—take place in an environment where helping others seems old-fashioned. The critique of society is a biting one.

Culturally, Europe saw several important changes, including the widespread use of the printing press (with the accompanying rise in literacy rates). The availability of books made possible the idea of a Renaissance man, celebrated by Rabelais and others. Guns and cannons altered the landscape for a hero; since bullets could penetrate a knight’s armor, soldiers began to take center stage. As Cervantes writes about someone clinging to the ideals of knighthood, he himself lived in a world where he was shot in the hand during the Battle of Lepanto.

Worldwide, the spread of books and writing led to the recording of oral stories. Since the stories had been in circulation for a long time before they were written down, there is very little that is Renaissance about these works by the European definition. The act of writing them down, however, sometimes was itself a world upside down experience, since the means of recording the stories came from outside cultures. In Guatemala, the Popol Vuh survived as a written document because Christian missionaries were teaching the Mayans to translate the Bible; instead, one scribe used the new writing system to preserve the Mayan origin story. In Africa, the Epic of Sundiata/ Sonjara may have been first recorded during the Renaissance, but it still exists as an oral story to the present day. In Asia, the Renaissance time period does not correspond particularly well with the dates of the various literary movements, which continued to focus on poetry and the emerging genres of prose narratives and drama.

For Students:

The works in this section are meant to be compared and contrasted. Consider the following questions while reading:

• What views of the New World and the Old World do we find in Renaissance literature? What do we learn about the writers who present those views?

• How does the definition of leadership change in works such as The Prince, Hamlet, and Don Quixote?

• What do we learn about heroism in the Renaissance? How has it changed?

• What concepts of morality do we find in Gargantua and Pantagruel, Hamlet, and The Prince?

The texts also can be compared and contrasted with earlier time periods:

• What are the differences among ancient world warriors, medieval knights, and Renaissance soldiers? How does that affect the Renaissance definition of a hero?

• How has the view of authority (and authority figures) changed from the Ancient World to the Renaissance?

• How has the role of women in society changed over time in these works? In what ways has it not changed?

• Culture shock: How would Hamlet react if he were dropped into the Iliad? What would the characters in the

• Iliad think about him, and why? How would the situation change if Hamlet were dropped into the Tale of Genji?

Written by Laura J. Getty