Example 1

Sample Activities for Use in Class

1. Examining Texts

Read or have students read (aloud or silently) the following passage:

In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no desire to call to mind, there lived not long since one of those gentlemen that keep a lance in the lance-rack, an old buckler, a lean hack, and a greyhound for coursing. An olla of rather more beef than mutton, a salad on most nights, scraps on Saturdays, lentils on Fridays, and a pigeon or so extra on Sundays, made away with three-quarters of his income. The rest of it went in a doublet of fine cloth and velvet breeches and shoes to match for holidays, while on week-days he made a brave figure in his best homespun. He had in his house a housekeeper past forty, a niece under twenty, and a lad for the field and market-place, who used to saddle the hack as well as handle the bill-hook. The age of this gentleman of ours was bordering on fifty; he was of a hardy habit, spare, gaunt-featured, a very early riser and a great sportsman. They will have it his surname was Quixada or Quesada (for here there is some difference of opinion among the authors who write on the subject), although from reasonable conjectures it seems plain that he was called Quexana. This, however, is of but little importance to our tale; it will be enough not to stray a hair's breadth from the truth in the telling of it.

You must know, then, that the above-named gentleman whenever he was at leisure (which was mostly all the year round) gave himself up to reading books of chivalry with such ardour and avidity that he almost entirely neglected the pursuit of his field-sports, and even the management of his property; and to such a pitch did his eagerness and infatuation go that he sold many an acre of tillageland to buy books of chivalry to read, and brought home as many of them as he could get. But of all there were none he liked so well as those of the famous Feliciano de Silva's composition, for their lucidity of style and complicated conceits were as pearls in his sight, particularly when in his reading he came upon courtships and cartels, where he often found passages like "the reason of the unreason with which my reason is afflicted so weakens my reason that with reason I murmur at your beauty;" or again, "the high heavens, that of your divinity divinely fortify you with the stars, render you deserving of the desert your greatness deserves." Over conceits of this sort the poor gentleman lost his wits, and used to lie awake striving to understand them and worm the meaning out of them.

- Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote

Once students have read the passage, discuss it by focusing on temporal and geographical setting, point of view, and similar clues. Questions to discuss may include:

1. Where and when was the passage written? How can you tell? (Possible Answers: Don Quixote was written in Spain in the early seventeenth century and is presumably set in the same place and time. The names of the author and the characters provide the strongest clue as to place. Students may have difficulty setting it in time, but should realize, with help, that the story occurs somewhat after the time of chivalry.)

2. Which words, if you looked them up, might help you better understand this passage? (Possible Answers: “hack,” “buckler,” “chivalry,” “ardour.” Have students look up the words they select and discuss what information the definitions provide and what light they shed on the passage.)

3. Which parts of the passage indicate it belongs to a specific world culture? (Possible Answers: the food, the members of the main character’s household, the mention of keeping a servant, and the authors the main character likes to read all help place this passage in some part of Europe and in the household of someone with at least a little money.)

Example 2

2. Creating Narratives

Once students have had a chance to discuss various pieces of world literature, have them try and construct it themselves. On a printed list or series of index cards, describe several characters who either come from works of world literature or deal with cultural pressures found in other countries. Describe characters in general terms. For instance, characters may be “a young woman who would like to go to college but knows that caring for her parents comes before any other responsibility” or “a boy who wants to be a farmer but is pressed into becoming a soldier to protect his home from marauders.”

Have each student or group of students choose one of the descriptions and write a short story, poem, or skit about the character. The students’ writing should focus on the character’s conflict within the culture or circumstances described, and not on what the student’s own cultural upbringing tells him or her to do in the character’s place. For instance, a story about “a young woman who would like to go to college but knows that caring for her parents comes before any other responsibility” should focus either on how the young woman learns to accept staying home or how she gets an education without abandoning her responsibility to her parents; but it should not be about how “she leaves home and doesn’t worry about her parents” merely because that’s what the student might do. You may wish to give students more information by providing names of nations, regions or ethnic groups, or leave students to work these out on their own.

Quiz 1 Questions

Quiz 2 Questions