World Literature is an interdisciplinary program for students interested in studying literature and culture as these are produced and spread from one place to another. In pursuing the study of literature and culture in global contexts, our courses offer a variegated array of literary genres, historical periods, and translated texts from Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. Our affiliated faculty members represent a broad range of approaches and areas of studies, including postcolonialism; comparative literature; classics; film studies; women, sexuality, and gender studies; modern languages; religious studies, and translation studies.

With a long, intricate history, the dissemination and propagation of literature and culture remain topical in today's global economy and multipolar world. In aspiring to study Western and Non-Western works through innovative constellations and beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries, our students stand to gain a much needed perspective on what it means to navigate and circulate in today's world for a broad spectrum of people, characters, objects, and ideas. Moreover, students are called upon to develop a critical understanding of their own world citizenship.

Our program is especially committed to exploring translation as a model activity at the core of the liberal arts. World literature's inherently global perspective (both in historical and geographical terms), the practice of close reading and flexible interpretations, and above all, a focus on linguistic diversity and the art and politics of translation make World Literature a model interdisciplinary program in the humanities.

Students may minor in World Literature or create their own independent interdisciplinary major in World Literature. For more information on independent interdisciplinary majors and forms, go to http://www.depauw.edu/academics/departments-programs/interdisciplinary/requirements/

Course Catalog

Requirements for a minor

World Literature