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Good Morning.

 

I'm having some problems deciding on a world lit "course" for my 11th / 12th grader (still haven't quite decided which year to use it in, but I'm leaning toward 12th).

 

I don't want "Christian" books, exclusively. That knocked out Hewitt and Smarr (not that Smarr is all Christian. . .there were other books I didn't care to do on their list). And based on others I've seen, I'm down to coming up with my own list.

 

Worse, I'm trying to come up with a list having read VERY little world lit myself. (Candide, I think is the only book I've read that would qualify.)

 

So, I want a 1 years chronological list of world literature (not just western).

 

I currently have:

 

Epic of Gilgamesh *

Odyssey -- Homer *

The Inferno -- Dante

Candide -- Voltaire

A??? (can't read my writing :blush:) or ??? --Tolstoy *

Don Quixote -- Cervantes (I think this is out of order) *

 

I'm not particularly "sold" on this list either. The ones with asterix I'm fairly certain of (something by Tolstoy). Regardless, I need "more" to this list. I like to work with between 8-16. I don't even have 8.

 

Also, I'm wondering if I should add in poetry? We did 1.5 years of Am lit (with poetry and short stories). We will do 1 year of Brit lit (with poetry and short stories). I feel we should probably add poetry and short stories with world lit. . .

 

(meekly) Help? Please. . .

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Some ideas

 

Theban Trilogy (ancient Greece)

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Russian)

Night (Poland--I think)

All Quiet on the Western Front

Cry, the Beloved Country (South Africa)

Quo Vadis (about Rome, prize winner)

These are all easy reads.

 

 

There are also some religious texts you might want to consider--selections from the Koran, the B Gita (sorry, I can't spell it), etc.

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and Winston, 1998. It is what Scholars Online uses this for their "World Literature" course. It is a chronological survey. We just finished the first unit called "World Myths and Folktales." I am very pleased with it. The Annotated Teacher's Edition provides you with all the helps you need to teach this course. I think the Holt website recommends it for Grade 12 but it can be used successfully in any highschool grade.

HTH!

Nissi

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Christine,

 

It sounds like you're leaning towards "whole books" vs. anthology and I understand that. However, have you considered purchasing a used copy of something on the order of Prentice Hall(PH) World Lit to use as a guideline? Especially since you mentioned not being well acquainted with World Lit yourself... it wouldn't be a bad idea to use a good anthology for your course. This would offer you a 1-year chronological sweep of World Lit plus excellent study notes/questions.

 

The text we enjoyed is entitled: "PH Literature World Masterpieces". You could cover LWM in one or two years. If doing it in one year, then for the second year you could pick and choose from their detailed "Table of Contents", a number of selected works from each time frame that you and/or your student found to be engaging and necessary to read in its entirety. In both TWTM and TWEM, SWB offers guidelines for doing literary analysis when reading whole books.

 

This is what PH Lit World Masterpieces offers:

 

It's secular yet it includes classic religious works.

It covers both east and western lit. (We studied both east and west lit and history in high school.)

It includes the poetry of World Lit.

It is written in chronological order.

Student text has excellent, built-in study questions and TE contains most of the answers.

Many questions in this text can be used as launching pads for extensive essay writing.

It is designed where you could cover it in either 1 or 2 years, your choice.

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As far as epics, I highly recommend Monkey: A Journey to the West, a retelling of the Chinese folk novel by David Kherdian. This is more of a retelling than a translation, making it a very pleasant read while it stays true to the original. Monkey's antics are the source material for many a Peking Opera and for current popular cartoons in East Asia and Vietnam, and you can see elements of it in Japanese anime and manga. The story is an epic journey, telling the tale of Monkey traveling to India to retrieve some sacred Buddhist scriptures.

 

Dream of the Red Chamber is considered the first novel from China and is usually assigned in Asian lit classes. I haven't read it since college, and don't remember it as being the most compelling reading, but it does present the picture of a wealthy family's life in traditional China.

 

I haven't re-read any of the Japanese novels I read back in college, but remember many had, shall we say, adult situations. Same thing with the Indian epic, Ramayana. I read parts of it aloud to my middle schooler last fall, and edited while I read. There must be retellings of it out there for youth as it is also a foundational epic.

 

I do think you might do well with an anthology, especially for all the wonderful poetry from Asia. An anthology would give you some context for understanding the culture in which the works were written. Or dig around at Amazon.com for some of those lists people create of favorite reads. Laura in China, from these boards, has a list of books on China as I recall.

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Guest Katia

My dd did Hewitt's World Literature and none of the book were Christian. You might want to take another look at that.

 

Also, if there were only a few books in the Smarr World course list that you didn't want to do, did you know they have a whole list from which to choose and you can substitute books? We did this with their British Survey course and plan to do it again in 12th with their World Lit course.

 

Just for your info so that you don't just automatically discount Hewitt and Smarr.

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WOW!

 

I apologize for not responding sooner. Between getting stuck in life and looking up some of the recommendations. . .

 

WOW.

 

You guys are awesome! Here I was thinking I'd struggle beefing up the list, but now I see the struggle will be in the whittling.

 

Eliana, have you read all those books???! Maybe you could star your favorites? (Given that I obviously haven't read them, I'm clueless.)

 

"Adult situations" -- like that phrase, and don't necessarily want to expose my boys to it.

 

The Hewitt thing: My catalog has a cross by the World Lit courses. . . Smarr: didn't know that. . .(how does that work)

 

Had indeed thought of getting a World Lit text, but I do learn more towards whole books vs. anthologies. . .that doesn't mean I'm still not considering it. (I could combine. . .I love to make things more difficult for myself after all.)

 

Okay, just so you know I truly appreciate all of you for responding. I'm going to "chew" on this list for a bit and then try to come up with something "manageable" to do in a year. . .

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I would suggest you go to the Hewitt site. Hewitt uses whole books and in some classes, books of short stories and poems, but not shortened versions. I don't remember anything Christian about the course at all. As someone else pointed out, the books are not Christian. The website is very useful since it has a list of books in the course and a sample. For some if not all the Lightning Lit, they also have the schedule up on the site. This is waht I will be using this year if my older daughter isn't doing English with her homeschool Academy.

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Guest Katia

I agree with the PP that for Hewitt you should go to their web-site and take a look at the books used in the World Lit course. You can even look up reviews of each on amazon. They are not Christian books, nor is the LL guide Christian. I'm not sure why there would be a cross beside it in your catalog, but even in the catalog are listed the book titles and authors, so you can check out reviews on them.

 

As for the Smarr, go to their web-site and look at their list of individual courses. I used their chronological link. Then, I decided which books I didn't want, looked at how many lessons those books had, and then decided which books on the chronological list I wanted that had a similar number of lessons. Last, you email or call the owners of Smarr and tell them what you'd like to do. They will work with you. I am very pleased with my customized British Lit package.

 

As far as Hewitt and Smarr goes, all it takes is a little more research. I had wanted to create my own literature course this year as well, but didn't have the time, energy or 'umph'. Good luck on whatever you decide.

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  • 2 months later...
Guest PatNNC

I would include some contemporary world literature in the course, if I were you. Literature that has themes similar (or vastly opposing) to those depicted in the classics you mentioned so that a comparative/contrast, persuasive or analytical expository writing assignment can tie the two units together. My partial list is as follows:

 

“Medea†– Euripides

“So Long a Letter†– Mariama Ba

“Nervous Condition†– Tsitsi Dangarembga

“Houseboy†– Ferdinand Oyono

“Waiting for the Barbarians†– J.M.Coetzee

“Blindness†– Jose Saramago

 

Since NC standards for world literature exclude British and American authors, I focused on African, Latin American and Asian authors. I also made sure that half of the required reading for the course consisted of contemporary authors because I did not want to give the impression (based upon the raising of one eye brow) that only aged pieces had literary value. As long as the student is able to demonstrate:

 

1. Familiarity with a selected literary work of enduring quality

2. Increased competence in general skills and strategies for reading literature (recognizes the use of specific literary devices and complex plot elements)

3. The ability to analyze the effects of complex literary devices on the overall quality of the literary work

4. Competence in making abstract connections between one's own life/contemporary viewpoints and the characters, events, motives and causes of conflict in the story

5. Proficiency in analyzing the effectiveness of complex plot elements (e.g., setting(s), major events, conflicts, resolutions)

6. An understanding of historical perspective and the influence specific ideas and beliefs had on a period of history; the interplay of literature and history

 

(This is a partial quote of the course objective in the syllabus)

 

 

I hope my two cents made sense, LOL

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