A Concise Companion to World Literature - by Ken Seigneurie & Paula Karger (Paperback)

About the Book

"The Concise Companion to World Literature will be drawn from the six-volume, 3808-page Companion to World Literature, and will offer some 72 chapters selected and edited from the 300 chapters currently contained in the full-length work. Meeting a demand for more accessible resources, the Concise Companion aims to orient new and mid-university career undergraduate students to the field of World Literature while providing instructors with a pedagogical guide to survey courses. The Concise Companion is intended therefore to serve as the principal analytical text in the undergraduate classroom in World Literature. Coupled with primary texts, it will provide students with their first glimpse of scholarship on literary texts and authors from the standpoint of World Literature. Chapters in the Concise Companion will be more compendious and have more of an encyclopaedic feel about them than those of the full-length Companion. Likewise, the scholarly claims and support that make the full-length Companion a contribution to scholarship and useful for the advanced undergraduate and graduate students will be pared down for the sake of lower-level undergraduate student users. In this way, the Concise CTWL aims to become the go to theoretical text on authors and titles in World Literature for its target audience of undergraduate university students."--

Book Synopsis

Provides a student-friendly introduction to World Literature

Bridging the gap between introductory materials and advanced scholarly research, the Concise Companion to World Literature offers a streamlined selection of the most popular and essential essays from The Companion to World Literature, specifically tailored for undergraduate students and instructors. This single-volume resource, edited by Ken Seigneurie and Paula Karger, presents 100 carefully curated chapters, fully revised for clarity and accompanied by newly commissioned essays.

The Concise Companion, which retains the original work's three-tiered organizational structure--period essays, thematic bridge essays, and author-title chapters--offers a nuanced exploration of major literary traditions across time and geography. Each entry contextualizes major literary works within the broader framework of global literary traditions, enriching discussions on periodization, literary movements, and cross-cultural connections. With its accessible scholarship and enhanced learning tools, it is a vital resource for students beginning their journey in World Literature and for educators seeking a structured, easy-to-use reference.

Providing an engaging approach to the vast landscape of global literary traditions, the Concise Companion to World Literature:

• Features an entirely new introductory section that offers contemporary perspectives on World Literature
• Showcases a diverse array of global texts, authors, and traditions to deliver a broad and inclusive literary perspective
• Addresses key debates in World Literature, including periodization, cross-cultural exchange, and literary historiography
• Includes a new pedagogical supplement to assist instructors in course design and aid students in literary analysis

The Concise Companion to World Literature, designed for second- and third-year undergraduate students, is an essential resource for courses in World Literature, Comparative Literature, and Humanities programs. It is also a valuable tool for graduate students and faculty seeking an authoritative and easy-to-use reference for teaching and research in the field.

About the Author

Ken Seigneurie is Professor of World Literature at Simon Fraser University. His research explores Arabic, French, and English literatures of the Levant, with a focus on religious palimpsests in liberal cultures. He co-edited How My Days Passed: An Armenian Picaresque by Hagop Der Balian and has published in journals such as Middle Eastern Literatures, Comparative Literature Studies, and Public Culture.

Paula Karger is Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Toronto. Her research examines cultural exchanges among Arabic, Spanish, and Yucatec Mayan traditions in medieval and colonial contexts. She is co-author of Abiayala, Indigeneity, and Decolonial Teaching: Reflections from Turtle Island, to appear in the MLA Teaching Series textbook Teaching Indigenous Studies in and of Latin America.