The Importance Of World Literature

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When asked the question, “what is world literature,” the typical response you get from people (mostly students) is, world literature is this boring college course in which students are forced to take, as it is a requirement for everyone’s education and is about what some dead guys wrote centuries ago. However, I personally do not have that same response because world literature is much more than that. In actuality, yes, world literature is composed of tremendous works of literature throughout the world that will forever be pasted down and learned from, although, it is much more important and serves as a bigger purpose. This purpose is to enlighten today’s society on how the world once was, making world literature important for three main reasons. …show more content…

In other words, world literature contributes much more to today’s society than many people would think, yet, how is this possible when most world literature pieces we read about today are centuries old? Well, good question, world literature in itself is history, which is then passed down and translated for generations providing insight for how people think, react, live, and love. By reading literature, we gain the education about different places, people, and cultures. Therefore, after educating ones self of world literature pieces from authors long ago. An individual or society can then take that situation, experience or etc. into consideration next time humanity run into a similar circumstance. This is not only what world literature is but in fact the core meaning behind why we need to keep the topic …show more content…

For starters, when people read books and stories they tend to try and interpret the storyline by illustrating images in their head; putting themselves in the footsteps of the characters if you will. This not only helps the reader stay interested but also enlightens them on how history has influenced and evolved the thinking of humanity today. Placing world literature readers in the timeline in which they are reading about is a tremendous interest of humanity for generations; if anyone believed this to be a lie, then why do we still own books? In fact, a man many people learn about in world literature, Mark Twain, had a famous quote stating, “A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” This again all relates to the colossal importance of putting ones self into someone else’s shoes because then you truly understand how life could’ve

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