How to Read World Literature addresses the unique challenges faced by a reader confronting foreign literature. Accessible and enlightening, Damrosch offers readers the tools to navigate works as varied as Homer, Sophocles, Kalidasa, Du Fu, Dante, Murasaki, Moliere, Kafka, Soyinka, and Walcott.

* Offers a unique "set of modes of entry" for readers encountering foreign literature

* Provides readers with the tools to think creatively and systematically about key issues such as reading across time and cultures, reading translated works, and emerging global perspectives

* Covers a wide variety of genres, from lyric and epic poetry to drama and prose fiction and discuss how these forms have been used in different eras and cultures