--- title: World Literature description: This topic explores global literary traditions from ancient times to the modern era. Learners will study translated works from diverse cultures, analyzing how texts circulate globally and how different societies address universal human themes. category: social-sciences subcategory: literature difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/world-literature --- # World Literature This topic explores global literary traditions from ancient times to the modern era. Learners will study translated works from diverse cultures, analyzing how texts circulate globally and how different societies address universal human themes. ## Available Resources 5 Books • 3 Courses • 6 Websites ## Websites ### 1. The Greatest Books (World Lit List) Aggregates over a hundred published critics' and institutional "best books" lists into a single ranked world-literature catalogue, with each title's sources shown, so readers can see which works repeatedly earn canonical standing and build a reading order. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://thegreatestbooks.org/lists/genre/world **Tags:** world-literature, book-lists, canon, reading-lists, literary-criticism ### 2. Asymptote Journal Quarterly online journal of literary translation publishing fiction, poetry, drama, essays and criticism from dozens of languages each issue, usually alongside the original text and audio. Free to read, and useful for finding contemporary writers outside English. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.asymptotejournal.com/ **Tags:** world-literature, literary-translation, contemporary-fiction, poetry, literary-journals ### 3. worldliteraturetoday.org World Literature Today is an international literary magazine and resource hub offering reviews, essays, translation features, interviews, and news on authors and literary trends from around the world. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://worldliteraturetoday.org **Tags:** websites, humanities-social-sciences, literature ### 4. wordswithoutborders.org Words Without Borders is an online magazine dedicated to world literature in translation, publishing contemporary fiction, poetry, and essays in English from writers around the globe. It also offers teaching resources, author interviews, and critical essays to explore translated literature and its cultural context. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://wordswithoutborders.org **Tags:** websites, humanities-social-sciences, literature ### 5. gutenberg.org Project Gutenberg is a free digital library of public-domain literature with thousands of classic novels, poems, and essays available to read online or download in formats like EPUB, Kindle, or plain text, making it a great source for Introduction to Literature. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://gutenberg.org **Tags:** websites, humanities-social-sciences, literature ### 6. asiancha.com Asiancha.com is an online resource focused on Asian literature, offering articles, author profiles, and curated reading lists to support study of world literature. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://asiancha.com **Tags:** websites, humanities-social-sciences, literature ## Courses ### 1. World Literature I Explore classic texts and diverse cultures in World Literature I, taught by IIT Madras faculty. Expand your literary horizons! **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://onlinecourses.swayam2.ac.in/cec20_hs29/preview **Tags:** world-literature, comparative-literature, literary-analysis, classics, swayam ### 2. Masterpieces of World Literature Embark on a global journey to explore the past, present, and future of World Literature. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.edx.org/learn/literature/harvard-university-masterpieces-of-world-literature **Tags:** world-literature, comparative-literature, literary-analysis, canon, harvardx ### 3. World Literature French-language course from the University of Geneva tracing the idea of world literature from Goethe onward, with roughly thirty contributors showing how writers and critics used it to think about cultural exchange and globalization. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.coursera.org/learn/litterature-mondiale **Tags:** courses, humanities-social-sciences, humanities ## Podcasts ### 1. Poetry Off the Shelf **Author:** Poetry Foundation Producer Helena de Groot talks to poets about language, dreams, love and loss, identity, connection, anger, discomfort, the creative process, the state of the world and the world of the soul. Hard conversations are welcomed—laughter is, too. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** en-us | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.poetryfoundation.org/ **Tags:** poetry, poet-interviews, creative-process, contemporary-poetry ### 2. Lit Century **Author:** Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols Host Catherine Nichols and guests choose one book for each year of the twentieth century (Nella Larsen's Passing, 1936, Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls, 1966; Mohandas Gandhi's Indian Home Rule, 1909) and talk about it in its historical and literary context. Tune in to find out what the 20th century was all about. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** en | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.lithub.com **Tags:** 20th-century-literature, book-discussion, literary-history, author-interviews ### 3. The History of Literature **Author:** Jacke Wilson Long-running podcast in which host Jacke Wilson discusses major authors and works from ancient epics to modern novels, often with scholar guests. Episodes stand alone, giving listeners historical context and close readings that make classic literature from many cultures more approachable. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** en | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://historyofliterature.com **Tags:** literary-history, world-literature, classic-literature, great-books ## Youtubes ### 1. Leaf by Leaf Explore world literature, one leaf at a time! Leaf by Leaf offers engaging YouTube discussions and analyses of classic works. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://youtube.com/@leafbyleaf **Tags:** book-reviews, world-literature, classics, booktube, reading-recommendations ### 2. Better Than Food Explore world literature with insightful reviews and engaging discussions on the "Better Than Food" YouTube channel! **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://youtube.com/@betterthanfoodbookreviews **Tags:** book-reviews, literary-fiction, world-literature, booktube, reading-recommendations ## Books ### 1. The Tale of Genji **Author:** Murasaki Shikibu Eleventh-century Japanese court narrative following Prince Genji and his descendants across roughly seventy years. Reading it shows how Heian aesthetics, poetry exchange and rank governed private life, and why it is often called the first novel. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0679729534?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, literature ### 2. The Periodic Table **Author:** Primo Levi Primo Levi's collection of autobiographical stories, each named after a chemical element, moving from his youth and chemistry training in Fascist Italy through the Holocaust to postwar industrial work, showing how scientific thinking shaped his moral and literary vision. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0349121982?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** primo-levi, italian-literature, memoir, holocaust-literature, literature-and-science ### 3. One Thousand and One Nights **Author:** Anonymous Frame-tale collection in which Shahrazad postpones her execution by telling stories nightly, drawing on Arabic, Persian and Indian sources. Shows how nested narration works and how the cycle shaped later European and world storytelling traditions. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1494493969?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, literature ### 4. World Literature: A Reader **Author:** Theo D'haen, César Domínguez, Mads Rosendahl Thomsen Routledge anthology collecting thirty foundational essays on world literature, from Goethe and Marx to Damrosch, Casanova and Spivak. Working through it gives a grounding in canon formation, translation, cosmopolitanism and the debates shaping comparative literature today. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0415602998?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, literrature-analysis ### 5. Don Quixote **Author:** Miguel de Cervantes Two-part Spanish novel about a gentleman who reads too many chivalric romances and sets out as a knight-errant. Introduces the unreliable narration, parody and self-aware fiction that later novelists built on. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0198306156?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, literature --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/world-literature