An eight-week, on-line course, English 335 introduces readers to what will be for many a rather new world of literature, to material you might not otherwise have either occasion to encounter or the inclination to read.
As you will discover this semester, common themes and human interests bind the drama, fiction, and poetry of the entire world. As you will come to appreciate, moreover, what looks familiar often reveals significant differences; and these differences in turn make the similarities all the more striking.
Non-Western Literature will familiarize you with works by African, Caribbean, Asian, Middle Eastern, Latin American, Pacific, and Native American authors and help you broaden your appreciation of all literature, my promise to you.
In addition to being sophisticated literature, the reading material is additionally exciting and always challenging.
Know that sophisticated authors such as Chinua Achebe (Nigeria), Zee Edgell (Belize), Michio Takeyama (Japan), and Witi Ihimaera (New Zealand) are not interested in attacking Western Civilization; they have more important themes to emphasize, such as the necessity for people of different backgrounds and cultures to understand one another and to treat one another with mutual respect.
None of the conflicts the works address admits a simple solution.
And as a glance at either the evening newspaper or CNN underscores, what you will read about over the next few months remains very much in the news, from the frightening AIDS epidemic in southern Africa to the equally horrifying fighting in the Middle East; from our country's involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq, to the potential for nuclear confrontation between India and Pakistan.
In addition to the drama, poetry, and short stories included in your anthology, you will read a novel by one of the world's foremost authors, Chinua Achebe (Things Fall Apart), about the confrontation of white colonists with Igbo culture in a section of modern Nigeria.
This class will also introduce you to a challenging and at times hilarious narrative, Beka Lamb, by Zee Edgell, one of the Caribbean's great voices and a prize-winning novelist. This novel concerns the struggles of a young girl's coming of age, torn between colonial and ancestral values as she struggles to affirm her identity. In addition, you will read Michimo Takeyama's sympathetic account of Japanese soldiers in Burma at the end of WW II. Likewise, you will have the opportunity to experience the novel Whale Rider, a wonderful work made into an excellent film about a young Maori girl's coming of age in modern New Zealand.
Acquainting you with this literature, the class grapples with complex issues concerning Art and Artifice, Gender Roles, Racism, Colonialism, Religion, and other matters involving human relations, often in the context of political and economic oppression.
As you will discover, however, this literature of conflict points always to a difficult and requisite healing process.
To analyze and to appreciate cultural differences without obvious prejudice requires both that you keep an open mind and that you willingly question the social norms our society nurtures in each of us. Bear in mind that making the effort necessary to appreciate new perspectives brings gratifying results.
In a traditional class setting, I strive through the use of multi-media presentations--film, music, guest appearances, etc.--to reinforce recurrent themes. While viewing an excellent film from Mali on-line is not possible for us (at least not at this juncture), I will make suggestions as the semester turns about films you can watch and supply video supplements to class material.
Our library offers an excellent selection of literature from Africa and the Caribbean; and over the years, we have increased our film holdings to approximately 50 examples of excellent African cinema.
