The History Of World Literature

by Grant L. Voth

This is a series of 48 half-hour lectures by Professor Grant L Voth, professor emeritus of English and Interdisciplinary Studies at Monterey Peninsula College. The course as a whole is the evolution of story telling; it explores cross-cultural themes, techniques, and modes of representation over nearly 5000 years of history.

Course Lecture Titles, 48 Lectures, 30 minutes / lecture
1. Stories and Storytellers
2. The Epic of Gilgamesh
3. The Hebrew Bible
4. Homer's Iliad
5. Homer's Odyssey
6. Chinese Classical Literature
7. Greek Tragedy
8. Virgil's Aeneid
9. Bhagavad Gita
10. The New Testament
11. Beowulf
12. Indian Stories
13. T'ang Poetry
14. Early Japanese Poetry
15. The Tale of Genji
16. Inferno, from Dante's Divine Comedy
17. Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales
18. 1001 Nights
19. Wu Ch'eng-en's Monkey
20. The Heptameron
21. Shakespeare
22. Cervantes's Don Quixote
23. Molière's Plays
24. Voltaire's Candide
25. Cao Xueqin's The Story of the Stone
26. Goethe's Faust
27. Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights
28. Pushkin's Eugene Onegin
29. Flaubert's Madame Bovary
30. Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground
31. Twain's Huckleberry Finn
32. Dickinson's Poetry
33. Ibsen and Chekhov—Realist Drama
34. Rabindranath Tagore's Stories and Poems
35. Higuchi Ichiyō's "Child's Play"
36. Proust's Remembrance of Things Past
37. Joyce's Dubliners
38. Kafka's "The Metamorphosis"
39. Pirandello's Six Characters
40. Brecht's The Good Woman of Setzuan
41. Anna Akhmatova's Requiem
42. Kawabata Yasunari's Snow Country
43. Faulkner—Two Stories and a Novel
44. Naguib Mahfouz's The Cairo Trilogy
45. Achebe's Things Fall Apart
46. Beckett's Plays
47. Borges's Labyrinths
48. Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Literature, Audiobook, Literary Criticism, Classics, World Literature

24 pages, Audio CD

First published July 8, 2013

About the author

Dr. Grant L. Voth is Professor Emeritus at Monterey Peninsula College in California. He earned his M.A. in English Education from St. Thomas College in St. Paul, MN, and his Ph.D. in English from Purdue University.

Throughout his distinguished career, Professor Voth has earned a host of teaching awards and accolades, including the Allen Griffin Award for Excellence in Teaching, and he was named Teacher of the Year by the Monterey Peninsula College Students' Association. He is the author of insightful scholarly books and articles on subjects ranging from Shakespeare to Edward Gibbon to modern American fiction, and he wrote many of the official study guides for the BBC's acclaimed project, The Shakespeare Plays.

Before joining the faculty at Monterey Peninsula College, Professor Voth taught at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University and for several years served as a consultant on interdisciplinary studies programs for the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has led travel-study tours to countries including England, Ireland, France, Greece, and Turkey, and he is a frequent guest lecturer for the internationally acclaimed Carmel Bach Festival in Carmel, California.

Reviews

[Livewithbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

از آخرین باری که ریویو گذاشتم شش ماه می‌گذرد. شش ماهی که تکلیفم با خود و دنیایم مشخص نبود و هنوز هم نیست. در دور باطل سوال‌هایی از قِسم اینکه چه سود از گفتن‌ها و‌ خواندن‌ها؟ از نخواندن اما هیچ گاه غافل نبوده‌ام گرچه کمتر از ایام قدیم می‌خوانم و متأسفانه آثاری هم در این کم خواندن‌ها خوانده‌ام که چنگی به دلم نزده‌اند.
به هر روی آمده‌ام تا از کتابی بگویم که درباره همه کتاب‌ها سخن می‌گوید. کتابی که نیازت را به دیگری کمتر می‌کند چرا که خودش می‌شود راوی و سخنگو و ادیب و تو می‌شوی گوش شنوای حریص. درس گفتارهای گرنت ال.وات از سخنرانی‌های او در کلاس‌های آموزشی ثبت و ضبط شده و هدفش کشاندن مخاطب به هزار‌‌ تو‌های ادبیات یونان باستان و از آن هم دورتر به لمس لوح های به جای مانده از میان رودان « گیلگمش » است.
سپس سراغ قهرمانان سرزمین های دیگر از شرق و غرب می رود و هر چه جلوتر می‌آید به ادبیات رئال و ساخت رمان از ابتدا تا دوران معاصر و شکل گیری آن می‌پردازد. از شعر و نمایشنامه می‌گوید تا می‌رسد به ادبیات پست مدرن.
اگر آثار مشهور جهان را خوانده باشید و یا حتی آشنایی کلی داشته باشید قطعاً خواندن این اثر لذت بخش‌تر خواهد بود.
شخصاً چون به ادبیات شرق دلبستگی آنچنانی ندارم آن قسمت‌ها برایم لذت بخش نبودند. لذت بخش ترین بخش این کتاب همان قسمت‌های اول است که به یونان باستان و قهرمانان ایلیاد و ادیسه هومر و آثار آخیلوس و اورپید و‌ سوفلکس می‌پردازد. اگر مخاطب جدی ادبیات هستید حتماً سراغ این کتاب بروید.

[Kaveh Rezaie · Rating 5 out of 5]

از ۴۷ درسگفتار تشکیل شده است و تاریخ ادبیات را از گیلگمش شروع می‌کند و تا بورخس ادامه می‌دهد. در هر درسگفتار یک اثر از یک نویسنده تحلیل و تفسیر می‌شود. البته در چندتایی هم بیش از یک اثر یا یک نویسنده.
خواندنش عیش مدام بود.
* بخش اول

درس‌گفتار نخست: داستان‌ها و داستانسراها

درس‌گفتار دوم: حماسۀ گلیگمش

درس گفتار سوم: کتاب مقدس عبرانی (عهد عتیق)

درس‌گفتار چهارم: ایلیاد

درس‌گفتار پنجم: ادیسه اثر هومر

درس‌گفتار ششم: ادبیات کلاسیک چین

درس‌گفتار هفتم: تراژدی یونانی

درس‌گفتار هشتم: انئید، اثر ویرژیل

درس‌گفتار نهم: بهاگاوادگیتا (سرود انسان نیکبخت)

درس‌گفتار دهم: عهد جدید

درس‌گفتار یازدهم: بیوولف

درس‌گفتار دوازدهم: داستان‌های هندی

* بخش دوم

درس‌گفتار سیزدهم: شعر دورۀ تانگ

درس‌گفتار چهاردهم: شعر کهن ژاپن

درس‌گفتار شانزدهم: دوزخ، بخش نخست کمدی الاهی دانته

درس‌گفتار هفدهم: حکایت‌های کانتربری اثر چاسر

درس‌گفتار هجدهم: هزارویک شب

درس‌گفتار نوزدهم: سفر به باختر/ میمون اثر ووچانگ آن

درس‌گفتار بیستم: هپتامرون

درس‌گفتار بیست‌ویکم: ویلیام شکسپیر

درس‌گفتار بیست‌و دوم: دُن کیشوت اثر سروانتس

درس‌گفتار بیست‌‌وسوم: نمایشنامه‌های مولیر

درس‌گفتار بیست‌وچهارم: کاندید اثر ولتر

* بخس سوم

درس‌گفتار بیست‌وپنجم: داستان سنگ اثر سائو شیو چن

درس‌گفتار بیست‌وششم: فاوست اثر گوته

درس‌گفتار بیست‌وهفتم: بلندی‌های بادگیر اثر امیلی برونته

درس‌گفتار بیست‌وهشتم: یفگینی اونیگین اثر پوشکین

درس‌گفتار بیست‌ونهم: مادام بواری اثر گوستاو فلوبر

درس‌گفتار سی‌ام: یادداشت‌های زیرزمینی اثر داستایفسکی

درس‌گفتار سی‌ویکم: ماجراهای هاکلبری فین اثر مارک تواین

درس‌گفتار سی‌ودوم: اشعار دیکنسون

درس‌گفتار سی‌وسوم: ایبسن و چخوف، نمایشنامۀ رئالیستی

درس‌گفتار سی‌وچهارم: داستان‌ها و اشعار رابیندرانات تاگور

درس‌گفتار سی‌وپنجم: پایان کودکی اثر هیپگوچی ایچیو

درس‌گفتار سی‌وششم: در جستجوی زمان از دست رفته اثر مارسل پروست

* بخش چهارم

درس‌گفتار سی‌وهفتم: دوبلینی‌ها اثر جیمز جویس

درس‌گفتار سی‌وهشتم: مسخ اثر کافکا

درس‌گفتار سی‌ونهم: شش شخصیت در جستجوی نویسنده اثر لویجی پیراندلو

درس‌گفتار چهلم: زن خوب سچوان اثر برتولت برشت

درس‌گفتار چهل‌ویکم: رکوئیم اثر آنا آخماتووا

درس‌گفتار چهل‌ودوم: سرزمین برف اثر کاواباتا یاسوناری

درس‌گفتار چهل‌وسوم: ویلیام فاکنر: دو داستان و یک رمان

درس‌‌گفتار چهل‌وچهارم: سه‌گانۀ قاهره اثر نجیب محفوظ

درس‌گفتار چهل‌وپنجم: همه چیز از هم می‌پاشد اثر چینوآ آچه‌به

درس‌گفتار چهل‌وششم: نمایشنامه‌های ساموئل بکت

درس‌گفتار چهل‌وهفتم: هزارتوها اثر خورخه لوئیس بورخس

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent lecturer. I have read almost all of the works discussed at least once, most in whole, a few in part, but also mostly on my own and not in chronological order. The lecturer added significantly to my understanding of aspects of each work. He also was skillful in relating each work to one or more of his unifying themes without becoming repetitive. The definitions of the heroic, the purpose or meaning of life, man's relationship to or belief in god(s), and narrative techniques are explored from the perspectives of many cultures and periods.

[Dovydas Pancerovas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pradžioje knyga nustebino nemaloniai, nes, priešingai nei tikėjausi, tai nėra pasakojimas apie literatūrą kaip reiškinį. Tai atskirų kūrinių analizė: siužeto, personažų, pasakojimo technikos, raiškos, o kartu ir tą kūrinį supančios aplinkos ir įtakų.

Ir, supratęs knygos sudarytojo logiką, likau labai patenkintas. Neįtikėtina, kiek daug galima pasakyti apie skirtingus žmonijos laikotarpius, kultūras, socialines santvarkas, pasaulėžiūras, kalbant apie ryškiausius, įdomiausius, maištingiausius to laiko kūrinius.

Ypač patiko, kad autorius pasakoja ne tik apie Europos, bet ir apie Kinijos, Indijos, Japonijos, Artimųjų Rytų, Afrikos, JAV literatūrą. Buvo įdomu suprasti, kad tam tikrą pranašumą vakarietiškoji kultūra įgijo tik prasidėjus modernistų judėjimui.

Ši knyga man padėjo geriau suprasti, kaip skirtingi literatūriniai judėjimai (o gal reiktų sakyti srovės) keitė vieni kitus, ir kodėl keitėsi būtent taip, kaip keitėsi.

Išvada tokia pati, kokią pasidariau kažkada mokydamasis dailės: meno istorija labai svarbi, kad suprastume, kas buvo kuriama anksčiau, ir susikurtume erdvės bent jau pabandyti dabar kurti kitaip :)

[Shahab Samani · Rating 4 out of 5]

حقیقتا بسیار از این کتاب آموختم.

[mohamad jelvani · Rating 5 out of 5]

حیف که حس ریویو نوشتن نیست
فقط توصیه می کنم بخوانید

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, how would you choose the 60, or so, best literary works produced over the last 5000 years...or so? I suppose you'd have to read a whole bunch of works (thousands, I would guess), define their generalized genre, rank them (according to your, by this time, refined tastes) and prepare summaries and justifications for your various categories... and place each work into an historic timeline, just to make sure your audience is aware of the historic context during which the book/poem was written. Then, if I was capable, I would present them in a conversational, well-organized style, within 48 thirty minute lectures.

Well...I couldn't do it, but Dr Voth certainly did!

These 48 lectures are his anthology of 60 (or so) literary works that he thinks represent some of the best examples of man's literary progress. Is this the only list of books that might have been used as examples? No...as Dr Voth explains, it is just one possible collection of works. Will any Joe-reader out there agree with all his choices? Probably not, but at least Dr Voth has done his homework...thoroughly!

I enjoyed these lectures, fully realizing that I will never read some of these books/poems, and perhaps if I did, I wouldn't enjoy them all that much. Some of these works, however, have intrigued me and have caused me to dig deeper into some of these classics (Don Quixote, Wuthering Heights and Haroun and the Sea of Stories are waiting on my Kindle).

This is a very good anthology, well worth your time...and worth revisiting often.
Find a sale and book a coupon, this one's a keeper.

[rick. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grant L. Voth delivers an energetic, engaging and cohesive lecture on a history of world literature. His selections touch on many literary movements from the beginning of written word to contemporary fiction, spanning the globe, exploring cultures as divergent as ancient China, British Colonial Africa and India, Japan, Brazil, Russia, and much more. Voth's contextual, historical footnotes ground the stories in time and culture marking how each story is a response to previous literary thought and reaction to the social and political environment of the author. His passion is palpable. You can hear the laughter in his voice at the recollection of a anecdote from a story or the empathy he feels in the many moments of tenderness and loss. Several synopses had me at the edge of tears. This is a great survey course and has added several new books to my "to read" list and several to my "re-read". Highly recommended.

[Peyman · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5💫
در کل کتاب مفید و آموزنده آیه ولی چیزی که در این کتاب برای خواننده آزاردهنده است نگاه سلیقه ای مؤلف به سیر ادبیات در جهان است که برای یک اثر تحقیقی ضعف بزرگی محسوب می‌شود.
به عنوان مثال میتوان به موارد زیر اشاره کرد:
برخی از درس گفتارها بر خلاف نظر مؤلف تأثیر بسزایی در سیر تکامل ادبیات در جهان و حتی کشورهایشان ندارند برای نمونه در درس گفتار بیستم بررسی هپتامرون که خود یک کپی از دکامرون بوکاچیو می باشد ضرورتی ندارد حال آنکه هیچ درس گفتاری به دکامرون اختصاص داده نشده است ،یا ��ر درس گفتار سی و پنجم پایان کودکی از هیگوچی ایچیو که حتی بر ادبیات ژاپن قرن بیستم هم تأثیر آنچنانی نداشته از این قاعده مستثنا نیست و چندین درس گفتار دیگر هم بدین منوال می‌باشد.
موضوع دیگر نادیده گرفتن نویسندگان بزرگ و جریان سازی همچون دیکنز ،تولستوی،همینگوی،هوگو،بالزاک،ولف،زولا،توماس مان،رومن رولان ،مارکز و....
سومین مورد نقص در بررسی برخی از شاهکارهای ادبیات حماسی و عرفانی به عنوان مثال:
شاهنامه و مثنوی معنوی و بهشت گمشده.
و در آخر عدم بررسی کامل جریان های تأثیر گذار ادبی قرن نوزدهم و بیستم :
ادبیات ضد برده داری (هریت بیچر استو،هارپرلی،الکس هیلی)
ناتورالیسم (امیل زولا)
ادبیات فلسفی (کامو،سارتر،کوندرا)
ادبیات سیاسی (اورول،سیلونه،استاین بک،یوسا)
ادبیات ضدجنگ (رمارک،سولژنیتسین)
و البته بررسی ناقص ادبیات پست مدرن و سردمداران این مکتب.

[Victoria Evangelina Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an encyclopaedia of Literature of the World, told with a great knowledge, insight and passion! I loved everything about this edition- the selection of books, the way the lecturer presented his material, and also his soft voice - which is a very important component when we are talking about some 26 hrs of listening! I HIGHLY recommend these lectures to everyone interested in literature and the way it was developing in our world.

[Tnahsin Garg · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the past few years, I've been plagued by a singular question: "Which books should I read?" Following this course was an attempt to find a potential answer.

My inclination towards adopting a highly selective nature in terms of books (and everything else in life, in general) is governed by the unavoidable restrictions of space and time around me. I'm currently 25 years old, and assuming I'll live for roughly 50 years more and will continue to read at the current speed of 12 (or more) books an year, I can possibly end up reading 600 or so books. Now, I'll be stupid if I don't make wise decisions about what to read before hand. It's not fun when you waste several years of your life doing something only to realize all that didn't add to anything. I'm not saying I don't want to read bad books ever, one should indulge in them once in a while but one shouldn't make a library out of them. Bad books are like junk food.

But then, good and bad are only a matter of perspective. However, since my goals are fixed, I must adopt some perspective, for a start. Professor Goth's course does exactly that. It gives you a perspective. A lot of influential books/authors are introduced in the course which are widely regarded as some of the major forces in world literature. So it was good to know who's who and what all they did to become who they were. Some of the names were familiar and some were completely new. Some of the literature pertaining to the Asia, specifically India and the Middle East was personally interesting to me. A lot of names have entered in my sub-conscious and next time I buy a book I might be able to make a more informed choice.

Only thing against this course is that at times it can become a bit boring due to its excessive length. Moreover, since the author summarizes the story of each epic and novel in this course, the spoilers are unavoidable. But then again, all these great books are famous for their storytelling techniques and literary prose - the plot is merely a background. Overall, this is a great literature review of world literature, spanning nearly 5000 years of history.

Final Verdict: For all literary geeks, this is a treasure. Casual readers, beware!

[Zara Karami · Rating 4 out of 5]

مطالعه کتابهایی که درباره ادبیات ملل هستند، همیشه وسوسه انگیز است. مرور آثار فاخر از جغرافیاهای متنوع و زمانه های گوناگون مثل یک تجربه زیسته در آن مکان و زمان است. اینکه هزاران سال قبل مردمان به چه می اندیشیده اند اثر جادویی دارد. نحوه تلقی از یک مفهوم مثل قهرمانی و حماسه در فرهنگ ها و گذار از آن به معناهای دیگر در دل این داستان ها قرار دارد و خواننده را مجذوب خود می کند.
وقتی از آثار فاخر حرف می زنیم، آثاری که محققی تمام عمر خود را صرف بررسی آن می کند و ماحصل کارش کتابی درباره یک جنبه آن اثر است، کار سختی پیش رو داریم. چنین کتابهایی گاهی به ارایه خلاصه ای از داستان بسنده می کنند، یا گزیده هایی از متن را هم به آن اضافه می کنند یا گزارشی پیرامون زندگی نویسنده و آداب و رسوم زمانه شان می دهند. اما کتاب حاضر، قدمی فراتر می گذارد و جستجویی برای پاسخ به این سوال را آغاز می کند: این اثر فاخر چه تاثیری بر جهان ادبی گذاشت؟
از این رو، بررسی آثار ملل از هم مجزا نیست. مثل مهره هایی است که هر یک با رنگ و تلالو خاصِ خود، کنار هم می نشینند و نتیجه نهایی گوهر زیبایی است که زندگی و اندیشه و تلقی خواننده از جهان ادبی را تغییر می دهد.
چون تمرکز گرنت وات بر قصه گویی و داستان سرایی است، توضیحات او از کتابها خود به قصه ای هزار و یک شبی می ماند. از آن کتابهایی که نمی توانید زمین بگذارید و از طرفی دلتان نمی آید زود تمام شود.
با اینکه متن اصلی بعضی از آثار موجود در کتاب را خوانده بودم و نقدها و مطالب پیرامون آنها را مرور کرده بودم، نکته هایی که گرنت وال درباره آنها گفته بود تازگی داشت و منو شگفت زده کرد. جدای از حسن سلیقه در انتخاب آنها، این نکته ها مثل کلیدی درهای بسته را برایم گشود و ابهامات را برطرف و برداشت های نصفه نیمه را کامل کرد.
گرنت وال تجسم آرزوی همیشگی کتابخوانانی است که دوست دارند راجع به کتابی با کسی به گفتگو بنشینند و شنونده کند و کاوهای عمیق طرف باشند که معدنی از انواع سنگهای گرانبها را جستجو کرده و الماس یافته است.

[Julie Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Three hours in (which is 6 classes) I am impressed and addicted to this series by Grant L. Voth. This might be more properly titled History of the World as Seen Through Literature. Voth uses major works to show us the people writing them and hearing/reading them. Thus we get a greater sense of the people themselves through time.

What has impressed me most so far was his coverage of the Old Testament. First of all how do you do that in half an hour? He gave a good sense of the essence both of the book (or collection of books) and the Hebrew people.

Secondly, he actually stopped me in my tracks with the sense of wonder invoked by the uniqueness of this people and their God, in the way that God is all-powerful and the people too are given ultimate power through free will. His comparison to Gilgamesh's gods and those of other regions at the time made me feel for just a moment a truer sense of what God did in history with that early nation.

HALFWAY THROUGH
Really, really good but here are so very many of these classes ... that I'm going to take a break and get back to the rest later.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice survey of World Literature in 30 minute bite-size lectures. I really enjoyed the discussions on "The Epic of Gilgamesh", Achebe's "Things Fall Apart", Yasunari's "Snow Country", and Borges's "Labyrinths". It made the times I washed the dishes feel more productive.

[William Adam Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

This 48 lecture course took a while to get through, but it was very worthwhile overall and I learned a lot about previous authors that I was not familiar with. This is the third course that I have listened to by Professor Voth, the other two being "Myth in Human History" and "A Days Read", which covers books which can be read in a short time. Professor Voth is well spoken, he doesn't have any distracting speech mannerisms and communicates ideas in a straight forward way. If he has to explain difficult concepts, he manages to break down the idea to make it more understandable for people who are just coming across the concept.

How much you like this course will depend on how well you enjoy hearing about these particular stories. Professor Voth centers European and Asian literature. I was especially interested in the Asian literature sections, as a lot of these writers I was less familiar with. Only three American writers were included in the 48 lectures, Twain, Faulkner, and Dickinson. I was okay with this, as there are lots of Great Courses on American writers. The thing that disappointed me the most is that there is only one lecture on a Latin American writer, Jorge Luis Borges. That's too bad, as their literature deserves to be known on a wider scale. Also, no Australian writers were included. There were two African writers. I would recommend overall though.

[Sireesha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really interesting and informative lecture series. I like that the title reflects the content, World literature. Topics covered range from the Epic of Gilgamesh, Hebrew Bible, Homer, the Bhaghavad Gita, to modernist and post modernist literature such as Goethe, Pushkin, Bronte, Beckett etc. While I'm not in a rush to read all these poems, plays and novels (there are 48 lectures), I can appreciate their influence and impact. I have, however, added several to my reading list!

Warning: These lectures have a lot of spoilers as many of these texts were written a long time ago. But if you don't want spoilers, maybe listen to a particular lecture after you read the book/play/poem.

[Jeremiah Lorrig · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the enthusiasm that infuses this work. The passion makes me want to love each work in its own way.

[sabagrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

World Literature in 48 lectures of about half an hour each: it's educative, enjoyable, and makes you want to read all the landmark works of literature re-told and discussed by Voth.

I like second best that several threads of inquiry are pursued across centuries (millenia, rather) and continents: it gives a sense of unity to humanity's achievements in telling stories. A sense of unity that can certainly be debated, and criticised, and what not, by scholars - but for the "common reader" that I am, it is helpful and enlightening.

And I like best that I get to hear so many stories. In a way, this course picks up the tradition of the old and famous collections of stories and makes a new one out of them. The history of stories becomes itself a story. How fitting that the course ends with Salman Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories.

Warmly recommended - also to myself, to come back.

[Nandan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Drinking Alone Beneath the Moon

A pot of wine among the flowers:
I drink alone, no kith or kin near.
I raise my cup to invite the moon to join me;
It and my shadow make a party of three.
Alas, the moon is unconcerned about drinking,
And my shadow merely follows me around.
Briefly I cavort with the moon and my shadow:
Pleasure must be sought while it is spring.
I sing and the moon goes back and forth,
I dance and my shadow falls at random.
While sober we seek pleasure in fellowship;
When drunk we go each our own way.
Then let us pledge a friendship without human ties
And meet again at the far end of the Milky Way.

This is a Chinese poem written in 8th century by Li Po/Li Bai. Quite post-modern in the subject matter and treatment. Just one of the gems encountered in this wonderful series.

[Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A 48-lecture series describing the evolution of world literature (here defined as storytelling, and focused on poetry, drama, and novels), told by focusing on a single relevant work in each lecture. Very good for someone like me who didn't have a strong sense of unity and evolution. Voth is careful to make clear that this is "A history" of World Literature despite the title, and that others would pick different works. But it does a wonderful job of being truly worldwide in scope (only 3 of the works are British and 3 are American), of including writers of multiple ethnicities and genders. Most importantly, Voth gave me a structure of evolution, and triggered me to have a philosophy about what literature is, what it's for, and why it changes.

While I had taken the required survey courses as an undergraduate, those courses always felt like a random walk through writing someone was telling me is great. The courses seemed to have even less structure and logical framework than management courses (i.e. pretty low). So I decided to devote over a day of listening to get a better idea, and I wasn't disappointed. I really liked the sense of synergy that came from discussing this as the human need for storytelling, and therefore all types of writing (poetry, drama, novels) and all foci of the stories (heroic deeds, spiritual quests, the lives of ordinary people, etc.) are just different parts of that evolution, elements that fit the trends of the time when stories are being told.

It really did give me an overview of many works I had heard of but never read. In the cases where he covered a story I have read, his analysis of what made it great matched my own perspectives, which gave me more confidence in the many I had not read.

I had never given much thought to "what is literature about" and "why do I read it?" (other than for entertainment). Voth does a nice job of raising those questions without answering them. He makes clear when literature changes from the protagonist as god-like hero to protagonist as focus figure for the human condition, but only highlights such changes as evidence that there is a function literature is fulfilling.

For the moment, at least, I came away with the idea of literature as, in addition to fun, a tool I use to see exploration of the questions "how should I live?" and "how should we interact with each other?" And I found it interesting at the end to realize that literature has given many different answers to those questions over the last 300o years of preserved writings.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

At the very beginning of the pandemic being acknowledged as an actual problem, I made sure to check out a number of these lecture series since I knew the libraries would be closed and while I had plenty of books, I only had a limited number of things to listen to. The first half of this series (it is divided into 4 parts in the library) was one of these, chosen partly because it seemed a bit different from what I usually listen to, and partly just because it was there. Of course, I hadn't realized at the time that I would be doing hardly any driving during the shutdown, so it took forever before I actually listened to all of them-- and even then I ended up listening to another lecture series halfway through before completing this one (partly because I had to wait to get the final two parts).

It wasn't bad to listen to, but ultimately I finished it more out of a stubborn desire not to leave it half done, and out of a mild desperation to have something to listen to since I've gotten through most of the audio lecture series that interest me, and current conditions make it harder to browse for more as I might otherwise have done.

On the plus side, it made a valiant effort to cover a range of literature beyond just Western literature. It also introduced me to a range of interesting works which I should probably try to read at some point in the future. Also, in the final lecture the professor presents an argument for stories-- that the provide an escape from the world, useful both for refreshment and as a point from which to gain a perspective on reality-- that just clicked for me, and helped answer my own uncertainty over why I should read, and maybe even write something.

On the negative side, there is still a definite Western bias in the lectures. For example, we are told that the New Testament provides the literary standard of depicting the lives of common people seriously, even though there are plenty of examples of common people being treated seriously in the literary traditions of India or China long before either had come into contact with Christianity. And my desire to read many of the works is undercut by the fact that I know what happens in them, often with painstaking detail, and what I believe is a somewhat biased interpretation of their meaning and value. It is sort of cutely naive and optimistic how the professor keeps referencing "when you read it yourself," even though some of the featured works fill multiple volumes; I can't imagine actually trying to read all of the featured works and get through this series in any sort of timely fashion.

Also, I couldn't help but think how weird it is the way that literature is commonly analyzed. Especially in the more "recent" works (from the 20th century mostly), where it is apparently common to try to psychoanalyze characters. To what end? There is no person to analyze, and their actions are not driven by their internal workings, but by the external decisions of the author and the needs of the plot as fits the needs of the style and culture the work was created in.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bah! No. Scratch that. Double Bah! This entire jaw-jamming condescending spoiler is everything that causes people to avoid "great books". Go read the book. Form your own opinions. Heck, peruse some on-line trot or modern Classics Illustrated version but do not get mired in this vapid waste of time!

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite Great Courses. Voth does a nice job highlighting works that move the progress of writing and literature forward. Many were familiar to me, though most are works I've not yet read or completed. Some were completely new to me. Overall I would highly recommend this course!

[Kurt Douglass · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The History of World Literature" is really the history of European literature and European interpretations of non-European literature. It is also a survey course, so naturally you will only get a tiny sampling of the sumptuous buffet that is world literature. I expected both of these things, but I was hoping Voth would elevate the material beyond the community college level "World Literature 101" course that he delivers. Some lectures are better than others, especially the ones dealing with lesser known writers and works. I knew almost nothing about Borges, Akhmatova, Mahfouz, Cao Xueqin, or Marguerite of Navarre before this course, and now I want to read their works. But his lectures on literary giants like Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, and Kafka barely give a glimpse of these writer’s oeuvre or their influence. But to be fair, how could anyone do justice to Shakespeare in 30 minutes? Voth is well aware of the limitations of such a course, and generally does a good job. I won’t evaluate him on the writers and works he omits – I am sure he agonized over his selections – but I will commend him for inspiring me to read new stories and reread others.

[Chris Leuchtenburg · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with all Great Courses, these lectures are concise, cogent and engaging. I especially enjoyed getting an introduction to works that I have often heard about but not read, such as A Thousand and One Nights, Canterbury Tails, Dante's Inferno, and Don Quixote. I also enjoyed hearing his analysis of books or authors with which I am familiar, such as Huckleberry Finn, Madame Bovary and Kafka.

The author focuses on how stories are told, which enables him to say something meaningful about authors even as complex and influencial as Shakespeare in a thirty-minute lecture. By and large, this works well, but breaks down in the twentieth century when he selects the most experimental authors with the most original methods of telling stories rather than the most influencial. As is common with all of the art forms in the twentieth century, these authors are mostly read by college students and literary critics. I was glad to see Achebe included, in this case for the content of his story rather than his groundbreaking method or philosophy of literature. But I don't share the author's enthusiasm for experimentation for experimentations sake.

[Dora Carson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful course that provides an introduction to different movements in literature from around the world. Each lecture focuses on one work by one author, using that work to demonstrate how it fits into the history of literature. The lecturer is clear and interesting, and he focuses on themes that carry over from one lecture to the next. He also chooses some lesser-known works by famous authors, encouraging the listener to pursue the more famous works on our own. I really enjoyed this lecture series and I learned a lot from it. I liked it so much that I will probably listen to it again in future.

[Sabrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Voth is an excellent lecturer and it was a well-made course. Some lectures didn't go as in-depth as you might hope or expect, but it was a survey course with a ginormous arc to trace and limited time allotted to each lecture. It did feel a little constrained by the imposed format (30 - 45 per lecture, one lecture per subject) but Voth did his best with that assignment from the Teaching Company.

3.75? I enjoyed this and will probably be listening to more teaching company courses in the future.

[Christopher Hellstrom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audible version. I was not familiar with many of the works, and all of the Eastern works, but I enjoyed this series of lectures. I stopped a few times to research or read the works I have not read, like "Six Characters in Search of an Author" by Luigi Pirandello. Love the Great Courses and have been listening to them since the early nineties, when they started advertising $99-$250 courses on tapes in the NYT Book Review. Now you can get them for a monthly $15 credit on Audible.

[Aerik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stimulating lectures on these works. Does a great deal to put them all into context. I didn't agree with everything that was said, but for the most part Voth is just relaying other people's readings of these works (and usually more than one reading per work), you're not necessarily being told what to think, just what certain people do/did think. Very useful in analysis, and, despite spoilers, a good way to crack the ice on some impenetrable tomes and works formerly of little interest.

[K.M. Fernandes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great sweep through history with proper social context to all the books that we read out of time. Loved everything about this journey—the professor, his compelling delivery and inclusions, and the perspective gained by journey’s end. Highly recommend.