This document contains a syllabus and lecture notes for a World Literature II course covering works from the Renaissance to the present. It outlines upcoming reading assignments in Shakespeare's Othello and discusses concepts like realism in literature. Socialist realism mandated Soviet literature support communist ideals, while Anglo-European realism reflected dominant social norms. The document prompts analyzing how earlier authors like Boccaccio, Rabelais, and Shakespeare fit within these frameworks and if their works should still be appreciated today for representing the full human experience.

1. World Literature II
Renaissance to the Present
Dr. Michael Broder
University of South Carolina
January 31, 2012

2. Daily Write #7
Rabelais says that Gargantua’s father Grandgousier, with his
wife Gargamelle, “often played the two-backed beast together,
happily stroking their bacon” (p. 216). Shakespeare’s Iago tells
Desdemona’s father Brabantio that Othello and Desdemona
“are now making the beast with two backs” (1.1.115). What
does this phrase mean? Do you think Shakespeare borrowed it
from Rabelais? If so, how does the difference in context affect
the meaning, if at all? That is, is Shakespeare practicing the same
kind of grotesque realism in the same kind of carnival context,
or is he doing something different?

3. Upcoming Assignments
• 1/31 Shakespeare, Othello, Acts 1 & 2
• 1/2 Shakespeare, Othello, Act 3
• 2/7 Shakespeare, Othello, Acts 4 & 5

4. Socialist Realism
• After 1934, literature and art in the Soviet Union, by
official state decree, were required to be
– Proletarian = relevant to the workers and understandable
to them
– Typical = scenes of every day life of the people
– Realistic = strictly representational of “real life” (no
science fiction, fantasy, or supernatural elements)
– Partisan = supportive of the aims of the Soviet State and
the Communist Party
• Boccaccio, Rabelais, and Shakespeare might all
have been banned according to this definition
of acceptable literature

5. Anglo-European Realism
• Beginning in the 19th century, literature and art in
England and the United States, by a combination of
social standards and legal censorship, were under
social, political, and legal pressure to be
– Relevant to affluent white men and their families
– Patriarchal and heteronormative
– Supportive of the aims of the wealthy and powerful in
government and business
• How do Boccaccio, Rabelais, and Shakespeare
fit these expectations for Anglo-American
literature?

6. Anglo-European Realism
• Relevant to affluent white men and their families
– No racial or ethnic minorities or women except in subordinate
positions
• Patriarchal and heteronormative
– Men are in charge, the only acceptable kind of intimacy is
marriage, the only acceptable kind of marriage is between a
man and a woman
• Supportive of the aims of the wealthy and powerful in
government and business
– No poor or working-class people as heroes, only as villains or
passive recipients of the charity of the wealthy and powerful

7. Would you want to read stories
only about people who…
• Are wealthy, privileged, elite?
• Predominantly white, male, married to a woman, successful
in business, and conservative in politics?
• Spiritual, idealistic?
• Always talk about ideas, never about people, places, things,
or real life?
• Always well-fed, never hungry or thirsty?
• Always healthy, never sick?
• Always in suits or dresses, never jeans or sandals?
• Never eat, drink, piss, shit, have sex, or give birth?

8. Chacun à son goût
Each to his or her own taste. As educated
citizens of a democracy, however, should you
understand and appreciate the full range of
literary, artistic, and cultural expressions that
are part of the human experience?

9. “Appreciate” can mean to value
or admire, but it also means:
• To grasp the nature, worth, quality, or
significance of something
• To judge something with heightened
perception or understanding
• To be fully aware of something (not closed
off to it or willfully ignorant of it)

10. Laughter’s the property of man.
–François Rabelais

11. Othello: Identification
• Author = William Shakespeare
– Nationality: British
– Dates: (1564–1616)
• Title = Othello
• Genre = Play, drama, tragedy

12. Authors and Texts
1. Giovanni Boccaccio (Italian, 1313-1375), The Decameron
2. François Rabelais (French, 1494-1553), Gargantua and Pantagruel
3. William Shakespeare (British, 1564-1616), Othello
4. Molière (French, 1622-1673), Tartuffe
5. Denis Diderot (French, 1713-1784), Jacques The Fatalist
6. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German, 1749-1832), The Sorrows
Of Young Werther
7. Fyodor Dostoevsky (Russian, 1821-1881), Notes From Underground
8. Virginia Woolf (British, 1882-1941, Mrs. Dalloway
9. Wisława Szymborska (Polish, b. 1923), Miracle Fair
10. Tomas Tranströmer (Swedish, b. 1931), Half-finished Heaven

13. A World of Rapid and Radical Change
• Black Death (1348-1350)
• Boccaccio’s Decameron (1353)
• Coluccio Salutati comes to Florence (1396)
• Western Schism (1378)
• Council of Constance (1417)
• Thomas More’s Utopia (1516)
• Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses (1517)
• Erasmus & Christian Humanism (1466–1536)
• Rabelais’s Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532-1564)
• Shakespeare’s Othello (1603)
• Cervantes’s Don Quixote (1615)

14. Quick-and-Dirty Plot Summary
• Othello, a Moor, is a respected general in the service of Venice
• Iago is Othello’s ensign (junior officer) but aspires to higher rank
• Othello promotes the Cassio to lieutenant and Iago is jealous
• Iago plots to use his knowledge of Othello’s relationship with
Desdemona against him
• Othello is sent to Cyprus by the Venetian Senate to fight a Turkish
invasion
• Iago convinces Othello that Desdemona is cheating on him with
Cassio
• Othello kills Desdemona
• Iago’s wife Emilia tells Othello the truth about Iago’s scheme and
Desdemona’s innocence
• Othello wounds Iago; Iago kills Emilia; Othello kills himself

15. Upcoming Assignments
• 1/31 Shakespeare, Othello, Acts 1 & 2
• 1/2 Shakespeare, Othello, Act 3
• 2/7 Shakespeare, Othello, Acts 4 & 5

16. World Literature II
Renaissance to the Present
Dr. Michael Broder
University of South Carolina
January 31, 2012