World Literature 2026–27
Thirty-two weeks of literature, history, poetry, film, and conversation across cultures and centuries.
Fall Semester
WK 01
FRANCE AND GERMANY BLOCK
SEPT 4
Candide
Voltaire (Preferred: Lowell Bair, Bantam Classics)
WK 02
SEPT 11
The Misanthrope
Molière (Preferred: Richard Wilbur translation)
WK 03
SEPT 18
Vladimir Nabokov, “Details of a Sunset”
+ Selected Poetry: Heine / Rilke / Benn
Handout Provided (check Downloads in Course Materials tab)
WK 04
SEPT 25
Demian
Hermann Hesse (Preferred: Thomas Wayne translation)
WK 05
OCT 2
The Trial
Franz Kafka (Preferred: Breon Mitchell translation)
WK 06
HOLOCAUST LITERATURE
OCT 9
Maus I & II
Art Spiegelman (Complete Maus Graphic Novel)
WK 07
OCT 16
Man’s Search for Meaning
Viktor Frankl
WK 08
SCANDINAVIA
OCT 23
An Enemy of the People
Henrik Ibsen (Preferred: Nicholas Rudall translation)
OCT 30
RUSSIA BLOCK
A Short History of Russia, Part I
Mark Galeotti (Purchase required)
Wisława Szymborska poetry
Handout Provided (check Downloads in Course Materials tab)
NOV 6
A Short History of Russia, Part II
Mark Galeotti (Purchase required)
NOV 13
Fathers and Sons (Chapters 1-14)
Ivan Turgenev (Preferred: Michael R. Katz, Norton)
NOV 20
Fathers and Sons (Chapters 15-28)
Ivan Turgenev (Preferred: Michael R. Katz, Norton)
NO CLASS · NOV 27
Thanksgiving Break
DEC 4
The Death of Ivan Ilyich
Leo Tolstoy (Preferred: Pevear and Volokhonsky)
NO CLASS · DEC 11
Christmas Recital/Luncheon
DEC 18
White Nights
Fyodor Dostoevsky (Preferred translation: Ronald Meyer)
Purchase required
Charles Simic poetry
Handout Provided (check Downloads in Course Materials tab)
NO CLASS · DEC 25
Christmas Break
NO CLASS · JAN 1
Christmas Break
Winter Semester
JAN 8
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Preferred: H.T. Willetts)
JAN 15
ITALY
Invisible Cities
Italo Calvino (Preferred: William Weaver translation)
NO CLASS · FEB 19
Winter Break
MAR 5
CHINA BLOCK
The Shortest History of China
Linda Jaivin (Purchase required)
Analects selections
Confucius
Handout Provided (check Downloads in Course Materials tab)
Spring Semester
MAR 12
To Live
Yu Hua (Preferred: Michael Berry translation)
NO CLASS · MAR 26
Good Friday
NO CLASS · APR 23
April Vacation
MAY 14
INDIA BLOCK
Untouchable
Mulk Raj Anand (Penguin Classics edition)
WK 31 • MAY 21
CAPSTONE · AMERICAN IN THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Ernest Hemingway
(CAPSTONE WORK - Scribner Edition)
WK 32 • MAY 28
CAPSTONE · AMERICAN IN THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Ernest Hemingway
(CAPSTONE WORK - Scribner Edition)
Dialectic Method
