The purpose of this class is to extend the study of literature by applying the experience of reading a literary text to a variety of personal and social situations. We will use universal themes like life and death to discuss the significance of the traditional narrative, chronology and plotting in the face of moral and ethical issues. We will look at works published between the turns of the 20th and 21st centuries, going backward and forward in time to experiment with our conventional approach to study literature.

Parts of this approach will include looking at the textual and cultural form and content of the literary works through the prism of a translator's needs - how is a thorough understanding of the literary original important for the translation process?