World Literature II

Course Description

LIT2120 – World Literature II is a 3-credit lecture-discussion course that surveys major works of world literature from the Enlightenment (c. 1650) to the present. The course examines representative literary works in their cultural, historical, and philosophical contexts, tracing the development of literary movements including the Enlightenment, Romanticism, Realism, Naturalism, Modernism, and Postmodernism. Most institutions integrate works from European, North American, Latin American, African, Asian, and Middle Eastern traditions, supporting both the traditional Western-canon framework and a more globally inclusive contemporary survey.

The course sits within the Florida Statewide Course Numbering System (SCNS) under Literature > World Literature and is offered at approximately 25 Florida public institutions. LIT2120 is the chronological continuation of LIT2110 (World Literature I), which covers world literature from antiquity through the Renaissance (c. 1650). The two courses are typically interchangeable in either order at most institutions.

LIT2120 is designated under Florida State Board of Education Rule 6A-10.030 ("Gordon Rule") as a writing-intensive course. A grade of C or higher is required for the course to satisfy Gordon Rule requirements at most institutions. LIT2120 satisfies the humanities general education requirement and the literature requirement for the AA degree at every Florida public institution.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

Upon successful completion of LIT2120, students will be able to:

• Identify and describe the major literary movements from the Enlightenment to the present (Enlightenment, Romanticism, Realism, Naturalism, Modernism, Postmodernism).
• Apply close reading techniques to representative works of poetry, fiction, drama, and creative nonfiction from this period.
• Analyze the literary techniques employed in major works: characterization, narrative structure, point of view, imagery, symbolism, irony, voice, and tone.
• Connect literary works to their historical, cultural, philosophical, and political contexts: the Enlightenment political revolutions, industrialization, imperialism, world wars, decolonization, globalization.
• Compare and contrast literary works across cultural traditions within the period, identifying both shared concerns and culturally distinctive responses.
• Articulate the development of major themes across the period: the individual self; reason and emotion; nature and civilization; alienation; modernity; identity; power and resistance.
• Construct analytical arguments about literary texts, supported by textual evidence and grounded in scholarly conventions.
• Demonstrate college-level writing in critical analysis essays, response papers, and (typically) one or more research papers (typically 6,000+ words across the semester to satisfy Gordon Rule).
• Apply literary research methods: locating credible secondary sources; integrating sources; documenting using MLA style.
• Use discipline-specific terminology for poetry, fiction, drama, and literary analysis.

Optional Outcomes

Depending on instructor approach and institutional emphasis, students may also:

• Apply contemporary critical approaches (feminist, postcolonial, Marxist, psychoanalytic, ecocritical, queer theory) to literary texts.
• Engage with thematic or genre-based organization: thematic clusters across cultures rather than strict chronological survey.
• Engage with specific national or regional literatures in greater depth (e.g., Latin American magical realism, postcolonial African literature, contemporary East Asian literature).
• Consider translation theory: the practice and limitations of reading literature in translation.
• Engage with multimedia adaptations: film, theatre, and graphic-novel versions of literary works.
• Conduct creative writing exercises in response to course readings.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• The Enlightenment (17th–18th centuries): Reason, science, and the public sphere. Representative authors: Voltaire (Candide), Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels, "A Modest Proposal"), Alexander Pope, Molière, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Mary Wollstonecraft. Asian counterparts (e.g., Cao Xueqin's Dream of the Red Chamber) at some institutions.
• Romanticism (late 18th–mid 19th centuries): Imagination, individual emotion, nature, the sublime. Representative authors: Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Shelley, Byron; Goethe (Faust); Pushkin; selected Hispanic, German, and French Romantics.
• Realism and Naturalism (mid–late 19th century): Social observation, the novel of everyday life, scientific naturalism. Representative authors: Flaubert, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Ibsen, Zola, Whitman, Dickinson, Twain, James.
• Early Modernism (late 19th–early 20th centuries): Symbolism; aestheticism; psychological interiority; experimentation with form. Representative authors: Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Yeats, Conrad, Kafka, Mann.
• High Modernism (1910s–1940s): Fragmentation, stream of consciousness, modernist epic, experimentation. Representative authors: Eliot, Pound, Joyce, Woolf, Faulkner, Hemingway, Stein, Lorca, Borges, Akhmatova.
• Postwar and Postcolonial Literature (mid–late 20th century): Existentialism; trauma and witness; decolonization. Representative authors: Camus, Sartre, Beckett, Achebe (Things Fall Apart), Soyinka, Walcott, Naipaul, García Márquez (One Hundred Years of Solitude), Mahfouz, Rushdie, Lessing, Levi.
• Contemporary and Global Literature (late 20th–21st centuries): Magical realism, postmodern fiction, globalization, translation, diaspora. Representative authors: Murakami, Adichie, Atwood, Coetzee, Pamuk, Saramago, contemporary Indian and East Asian writers.
• Critical Reading and Analysis: Close reading; literary terminology; argumentation; documentation (MLA); engaging with secondary sources.
• Writing in Literary Studies: The critical analysis essay; the comparison-contrast essay; the research paper.

Optional Topics

• Literary Theory: Introduction to feminist, postcolonial, Marxist, psychoanalytic, structuralist/post-structuralist, ecocritical, and queer-theory approaches.
• Specialized Traditions: Latin American Boom literature; African and Caribbean literatures; East and South Asian literatures; Indigenous literatures.
• Translation and World Literature: The role of translation in shaping the world-literature canon.
• Genre Studies: The novel; lyric poetry; the modern short story; modern drama.
• Creative Response: Original creative writing in response to course readings.
• Adaptation Studies: Comparing literary works to their film, theatre, or other media adaptations.

Resources & Tools

• Most-adopted textbooks at Florida institutions: The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Volumes D, E, and F (W. W. Norton) — the standard scholarly anthology for this period; The Bedford Anthology of World Literature; The Longman Anthology of World Literature.
• Open-access alternative: Compact Anthology of World Literature II (University of North Georgia Press) — free, open educational resource covering 1500–present; widely adopted at Florida community colleges as a zero-textbook-cost option. Project Gutenberg provides free public-domain texts for many older works.
• Online learning platforms: Norton's online resources (paired with the Norton Anthology); institution Canvas modules.
• Reference texts: M. H. Abrams and Geoffrey Galt Harpham, A Glossary of Literary Terms; The MLA Handbook; The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics.
• Library databases: JSTOR; MLA International Bibliography; Project MUSE; Literature Resource Center (Gale); typically available through institution libraries.
• Audio and visual resources: Audio recordings of poetry; theatre and film adaptations of major novels and plays (often available through institution libraries or streaming services).
• Tutoring and support: Institution writing centers (especially important for the analytic essays and research paper).

Career Pathways

LIT2120 supports career fields requiring strong reading comprehension, critical analysis, written communication, and cross-cultural literacy:

• K–12 English/Language Arts Teacher — pathway through Florida education programs.
• Editor / Publishing Professional — Florida and national publishing employers.
• Journalist / Content Writer / Communications Professional — Florida media, tourism, and corporate communications.
• Lawyer (long-term) — literary studies preparation supports legal study; many law students hold humanities and English bachelor's degrees.
• Library and Information Science — Florida public, academic, and special libraries.
• Public Relations / Marketing — strong reading and writing skills are valued.
• Translation and Interpreting — Florida's bilingual workforce demand (especially Spanish-English).
• Cultural Sector / Arts Administration — Florida's literary festivals (Miami Book Fair, Sanibel Island Writers Conference), bookstore industry, and humanities organizations.
• Higher Education / Academia (with graduate study) — pathway into English / comparative literature graduate programs.

Special Information

Articulation and Transfer

LIT2120 articulates to all Florida SUS institutions and satisfies the humanities/literature general-education requirement at every Florida public institution. A grade of C or higher is required for the course to count toward Gordon Rule satisfaction. LIT2120 typically counts as one of the literature courses required by English majors at SUS institutions.

The Gordon Rule

LIT2120 is designated as a writing-intensive course under Florida State Board of Education Rule 6A-10.030. The total writing volume across formal essays typically meets or exceeds 6,000 words. Common assignment types include short response papers (250–500 words), critical analysis essays (750–1,500 words), and at least one research paper (1,500–2,500 words) integrating secondary sources.

Companion Course: LIT2110

LIT2110 (World Literature I) covers world literature from antiquity through the Renaissance (c. 1650), and LIT2120 picks up from the Enlightenment to the present. The two courses can typically be taken in either order. Many English majors take both as part of their literary-survey foundation; many non-majors take only one to satisfy general education.

Other Florida Literature Survey Courses

• LIT2000 — Introduction to Literature (multi-genre survey, no chronological focus).
• ENL2012 / ENL2022 — British Literature I / II.
• AML2010 / AML2020 — American Literature I / II.

Students should consult their advisor about which literature course best satisfies their major and gen-ed needs.

Course Format and Workload

LIT2120 is typically a lecture-discussion course meeting three hours per week, often offered in face-to-face, hybrid, and fully online formats. Expect substantial weekly reading (typically 100–200 pages per week from the anthology, plus selected longer works), regular response writing, 2–4 major analytic essays, and 2–4 exams. Out-of-class workload typically runs 6–9 hours per week.

Course Code Variations

Florida institutions consistently title this course "World Literature II" or sometimes "World Literature: 17th Century to the Present." The starting period varies slightly: most institutions begin with the Enlightenment (c. 1650), some begin with the Restoration (c. 1660), and a few begin slightly later with Neoclassicism (c. 1700). Coverage details should be verified with the specific institution and instructor.