List of Readings For the First Semester

Each period has corresponding historical and literary readings, the former explains what the milieu of a certain period was and the latter gives an example of the kind of texts produced.
Period / Place	Text
The Invention of Writing and the Earliest Literature	Background (2-6) Timetable (8-9) Ancient Egypt Poetry (41-42) Love Songs (49) The Bible (52-56) Jonah (101-103)
Ancient Greece and the Formation of the Western Mind
Poetry of Thought in Early China
India’s Heroic Age
The Roman Empire
From Roman Empire to Christian Europe
India’s Classical Age
China’s Middle Period
The Rise of Islam and Islamic Literature
The Formation of a Western Literature
The Golden Age of Japanese Culture
Mystical Poetry of India
Africa: The Mali Epic of Son-Jara
The Renaissance in Europe
Native America and Europe in the New World
Vernacular Literature in China
The Ottoman Empire: Celebi’s Book of Travels
The Enlightenment Period in Europe
The Rise of Popular Arts in Premodern Japan
Revolution and Romanticism in Europe and America
Urdu Lyric Poetry in North India
Realism, Naturalism, and Symbolism in Europe
The Modern World: Self and Other in Global Context