CCOG for ENG 107 Winter 2025


Course Number:
ENG 107
Course Title:
Introduction to World Literature (Up to 16th-Century)
Credit Hours:
4
Lecture Hours:
40
Lecture/Lab Hours:
0
Lab Hours:
0

Course Description

Introduces a broad spectrum of literature in translation that begins in antiquity and concludes at the dawn of the Renaissance. Includes works of fiction, poetry, drama and non-fiction. Examines the uniqueness and interconnectedness of literature from a variety of worldwide traditions, both western and non-western. ENG 107 and ENG 108 do not have to be taken in sequence. Prerequisites: (RD 115 and WR 115) or IRW 115 or equivalent placement. Audit available.

Addendum to Course Description

Instructors may choose an anthology, individual works, or both.  This course meets the requirements of a survey, emphasizing breadth over depth.

Intended Outcomes for the course

Upon completion of the course students should be able to:

  1. Identify the ways in which literary texts from different cultures and time periods up to the 16th-century are interconnected.
  2. Analyze the effects of war, religion, technology, economic development, racism, and culture on world literature from antiquity up to the 16th-century.
  3. Compare and contrast important similarities and differences between the various literary forms, periods, and histories in both western and nonwestern literatures up to the 16th-century.
  4. Write clear, focused, coherent essays about literature for an academic audience, using standard English conventions of grammar and style.

Integrative Learning

Students completing an associate degree at Portland Community College will be able to reflect on one’s work or competencies to make connections between course content and lived experience.

General education philosophy statement

English and Writing courses align with the PCC General Education philosophy by providing an appreciation of writing and literature from global and personal perspectives. Students in English courses engage the imagination, critical inquiry and self‐reflection, and in the process of doing so, cultivate a more complex understanding of their own culture(s), linguistic/communication practices, and perspectives in relation to others. Because the literary arts lie at the heart of most human cultures, they are essential for understanding each other and navigating our differences. In literature classes, students explore significant texts from diverse cultures and periods in history. Students look closely at texts from a range of genres, articulating the way elements of writing, content, form, and style are interrelated, and considering how values and interpretations have changed over time and through different theoretical lenses. Students engage texts through critical analysis and creative response, learning to use evidence to support their interpretations and to navigate critical conversations. Students explore literature both as an art form designed to provoke thought and challenge social norms, and as an expression of human experience. Writing and Literature courses foster a stronger sense of engagement with history, culture, and society. Writing and Literature students develop an awareness of themselves as readers and writers in a global world, and an enlarged understanding of the relationships between language, identity, ideas, scholarship, communication, and transformation.

Course Activities and Design

Instructors are free to include any assortment of activities to enhance student enjoyment and learning, including lectures, small-group discussions, writing, film viewings, individual and/or class projects, attending a dramatic performance as a class, research, etc.

Outcome Assessment Strategies

Assessment tools may include--

 reading journals

class presentations

formal papers

research

group projects

study questions

in-class writing

exams 

Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)

explication of individual works

comparison of works

literary vocabulary  

genres 

literary periods, canons, cultures

analysis of individual works

synthesis of knowledge about literature as a global phenomenon

variety of styles

literary themes unique to world literature

 Suggested Texts:

 Instructors may choose to work exclusively with a single anthology or to include individual works as well.  The following list shows only a few examples of what is possible for an English 107 class.

 The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces: Expanded Edition in One Volume (includes new selections from Asia and Africa).

 The Longman Anthology of World Literature (Volume 1).

 The Bedford Anthology of World Literature (Package One).

 Gilgamesh: A New Translation.  Stephen Mitchell. 

 The Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and One Nights (Modern Library Classics).  A.S. Byat.

 The Selected Poems of T’ao Ch’en (Copper Canyon).  David Hinton.

 Sappho: A New Translation.  Mary Barnard.

 Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali.  D.T. Niane.