C LIT 200 B: Introduction to Literature

This course offers a grand tour of world literature as seen through the writings of Nobel Prize winners. Each year, it features a different group of authors from a range of countries, languages, and traditions. In Autumn 2018, we will read selections from Selma Lagerlöf (Sweden, 1909 laureate), Herman Hesse (Switzerland, 1946), Ivo Andrić (Yugoslavia, 1961), Pablo Neruda (Chile, 1971), Isaac Bashevis Singer (USA, 1978), Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt, 1988), Seamus Heaney (Ireland, 1995), José Saramago (Portugal, 1998), Mo Yan (China, 2012),  and Bob Dylan (USA, 2016). Along the way, this team-taught course also provides a unique view of the many language and literature departments at UW, including Classics, English, Germanics, Near Eastern, Slavic, Scandinavian, and Spanish and Portuguese, as well as Comparative Literature, Cinema and Media. Lectures by faculty from each unit will explore wide-ranging questions of literature and the politics of prizes. Who wins? (Who doesn’t?) And why? What does that tell us about literature and about the world in which we live? Assignments include online discussion posts and quizzes in section. 3 credits (for "credit or no credit"), VLPA.

Questions? Please contact Prof. Naomi Sokoloff  naosok@uw.edu