About This Book

This text is collected from several copyright-cleared resources and its readings would serve as the basis for my ENG 195: Survey of non-Western Literature course at Jefferson Community College. The balance of the readings for ENG 195 come from non-Western cultures, although there are some key texts from Western cultures. See the List of Changes for more specific information on the readings.

To create the course, I adopted Lumen Learning’s Introduction to Literature course shell, whose How to Use This Collection is authored by Thomas Chester and which operates with a CC-BY license and was provided by Ivy Tech Community College. Most of the texts are available at Project Gutenberg. I included specific licensing information for each text.

Because it is mostly Western, this original Introduction to Literature material is mostly hidden from student views, but is kept in case instructors wish to use it. It may appear in student views of the Table of Contents even if it is kept private, so students should be notified of this fact.

The non-Western readings are derived from Project Gutenberg texts. While they are listed among the genre parts (chapters), they could as easily be grouped either chronologically, geographically, or even thematically.

Again, the original version of this book was released under a CC-BY license and is copyright by Lumen Learning. The changes to this book listed are released under a CC-BY-SA license and are copyright by Joshua Dickinson of Jefferson Community College in Watertown, NY.

I also adapted a Writer’s Handbook resource for the College that goes into far more depth in coverage of the writing process and MLA style. This resource should be available on the SUNY list of OER textbooks and–especially in the free electronic formats–pairs well with the literature text.

List of Changes

Added Instructor Resources ENG 195 Grading Rubric, Short Story Terms Assignment, and Sample Syllabus
In Genre Introduction section, I added Connecting Reading & Writing: The Voice You Hear Assignment; (Re)Reading Poetry: Challenges to Expect; and Stress in Poetry.
In Literary Analysis part, I retitled the second Reader-Response Criticism page to More About Reader-Response Criticism to differentiate it from the previous page of the same name.
In Literary Conventions part, I added Tragedy and Comedy, and the Defining Literature pages.
In Writing About Literature, added several pages, including: Academic Writing Review; Self-Diagnosis of One’s Writing Ailments can be Fun!; Troubleshoot Your Reading; How to Avoid Plagiarizing; The Paragraph Body: Supporting Your Ideas; How not to Write the Introduction and Conclusion; Works Cited Entries: What to Include; Paragraph Menu Settings Use no Extra Vertical Spaces; Annotation: Why Mark Up Your Texts?; Not Taking Sides is Like That Waiting-Room Scene in Beetlejuice. . .; With Analysis, Focus Upon Functions or Effects; How Might I Avoid Letting Source Use Take Over?; and Binary Patterns: A Western Obsession.
In Poetry Readings and Responses part, added Kabir, Songs of Kabir; The Persian Mystics: Jalaludin Rumi; Lao Tzu, Tao te Ching; and an excerpt from Valmiki, The Ramayana; Haiku Sheet; Background on the Sufis; and The Poems of Sappho.
In Fiction Readings and Responses, added Rabindranath Tagore, Stories from Tagore; Cao Xueqin, The Dream of the Red Chamber (Chs. I-IX).
In Nonfiction Readings and Responses, added Plato, Symposium; Sun Tzu, The Art of War; Izumi Shikubu, et al., Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan; and Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal.
Added About the Author section to End Matter.

You are free to use, modify or adapt any of this material providing the terms of the Creative Commons licenses are adhered to.