This free course will introduce you to the fundamentals of world literature so that you can define and comprehend it in a historical context. You will delve into the relationship between antiquity and modernity with regard to texts from around the world. In the western canon you will explore the importance of ‘openness’ as found in the Old English narrative poem ‘Beowulf’.Then you will be introduced to the challenges and possibilities for world literature including the difficulties and modes of translation and how the practice of translation can be critically analyzed. Next you will be taught the four main challenges in the context of world literature and be introduced to postmodern narrative elements studying ‘fragmentation’ and ‘hypertextual references’ that are part of the work.Finally you will study the narrative technique used by Argentinian writer and universal literature theorist Jorge Luis Borges. Learn the story of a woman's tragedy and how the ‘old ways’ changed after the civil war in the American South in the 1860s. Start this free course now to boost your knowledge of the epic tales and poems of world literature today.