Erin Wood
Western Literature in a World Context. Vol. 1: The Ancient World
through the Renaissance. Ed. Paul Davis, Gary Harrison, David
M. Johnson, Patricia Clark Smith, and John F. Crawford. New York, 1995.
The book I had the priveledge of possessing was “Western
Literature In A World Context: The Ancient World Through The Renaissance.”
It is an anothology of works by both sexes, from cultures all over the world.
It’s table of contents lists many well-known titles and authors, such as Homer’s
“The Iliad” and “The Odyssey”, Aesop’s Fables, Plato, Aristotle, Shakespeare,
and Galileo.
Flipping through the pages, reading this and that
(some pieces had me reminiscing of high school English classes), I found the
lay-out to be of a great help. The book is divided into six periods, that
are supposedly usually studied in world literature courses. Such topics include
“The Ancient World”, “The Renaissance”, to “The Twentieth Century”. Each
one of those six parts are again divided into 4 chronologically arranged
sections: Representative, Western, The World, and Background texts. By
concentrating on such divisions of the different periods, you are introduced
to important stories and themes that characterize those periods. Headnotes
to each section set the pieces of writing in their literary, historical,
and cultural contexts.
This book would definitely be most beneficial to English professors, literary
fiends, and those interested in the history of the most influencial works
that have shaped our culteral world. It would also look pretty nice on your
coffee table, too.
Link
to Melissa Bennett's follow-up response