Scholarly Debate on History of World Literature

The book “History of World Literature”, a literary tour of the world and history, written by scholar, author, literary critic and lecturer Grant L. Voth, professor emeritus at Monterey Peninsula College in California, will be debated at the upcoming meeting at Book City Institute in Tehran.

Cultural Center of Book City, located on Ahmad Qasir Street, north of Beheshti Avenue, will host the meeting on Tuesday. Scholars and university instructors, including the Persian editor of the book Azim Tahmasbi, who is a literary researcher and author of Encyclopedia of the World of Islam, will attend.

Originally published in 2007, History of World Literature was recently released in Persian by the Tehran-based publishing house Niloufar. It was rendered from English into Persian by a group of translators namely Masoud Farahmandfar, Mahsa Jafari, Ali Kiani-Falavarjani, Sahar Davarpanah, Fahimeh Mirzapour and Yaser Lotfi, Honaronline reported.

The Book City meeting will be attended by writer, theoretician and translator Amir-Ali Nojoumian; scholar, author and literary researcher Bahram Parvin-Gonabadi; and freelance writer, translator and literary critic Masoud Farahmand.

History of World Literature contains 48 lectures that take one on a journey through time and around the world, from the enormous auditoriums of ancient Greece to a quiet study in the home of a 19th century New England spinster.

The book is an exploration of the ancient world, where tribal bards created national myths out of legends, history, philosophy, and local lore.

It explains how stories and folklore described magical men, terrifying beasts, alluring women, and conniving tricksters mentioned in today’s fairy tales and bedtime stories.

 It traces the evolution of storytelling from the poetic masterpiece of Dante’s Inferno to the great drama pioneered by Shakespeare to sophisticated narratives such as Wu Ch’eng-en’s Monkey and Voltaire’s Candide; and the rise of Realism in the works of Flaubert, Dostoevsky, and Chekhov and the development of experimental modes by Brecht, Beckett, and Borges.

Offering concise summaries and thought-provoking interpretations of some of the world’s greatest literary masterpieces, the book provides the reader the tools needed to appreciate these great literary works and understand how authors, playwrights, and poets throughout the centuries have practiced their craft.