Our group is exploring the concept of “Reading the World,” as inspired by Ann Morgan, a London-based book editor who embarked on a project to read a book from every UN-recognized country. Please watch Anne’s TED talk “My Year Reading a Book From Every Country in the World” and then respond to the following questions in the comments:
-What non-American or non-British books have you read in the past (K-12)? Did you read these books in translation, or were they written in English by an international author?
-Take a look at Ann Morgan’s blog and her reading list: https://ayearofreadingtheworld.com/thelist/. Read at least one of her book reviews. What books from her blog are you most interested in, and why?
Thanks! – From Teodora, Meg, Julie, Sarah, and Lexi
Hi all! Thanks for this TedTalk and these discussion prompts.
This question makes me realize I don’t always know the nationality of the books I read, and I’m also not sure how to determine what nation they belong to. For example, your question prompted me to look up a recent book I read, Julia Phillips’ Disappearing Earth, which took place entirely in Kamchatka, a remote region of Russia, because I had no idea what language it was originally written in or where the author was from (turns out English and New Jersey). Same with Joanne Ramos’ The Farm (but is it Philipino or American!?). Do the books of Canadian writer Miriam Trowes’ meet the criteria? Other books I’ve recently enjoyed (all in English) and written (all in English) include Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things, Chris Abani’s GraceLand, and Han Kang’s The Vegetarian. I haven’t attempted to read a book in Spanish since college, but that stands out in my mind as one of the most challenging and formative experiences in my education.
2. I read the review of Miguel Syjuco’s Ilustrado because the Philippines was the last country I visited before the pandemic. I’m also part of a writing group, where one scholar does research on Asian literature, so I’ve read his interpretation of Ilustrado, but never read the book itself.
To me, these readings raise questions about the extent to which nationality makes sense as a rubric for organizing literature. That’s often how courses are organized, but why? What assumptions are embedded in that organizing principle? To what extent are works of literature about (or do they reflect) the author’s origins? If I was born in the U.S., but then moved to Spain, and then moved back to the U.S. and wrote a book in Spanish about Spain — would it be considered American or Spanish? I’m thinking too about courses on women writers, or ghosts, or magical realism, or LGBTQ literature. These frameworks all represent different ideas about literature and could (maybe should?) include works of literature whose authors hail from many different countries. In short, what assumptions are embedded in this framing of literature in terms of nationality? What does this framework of reading enable and what does it foreclose?
Thank you for giving us so much food for thought — looking forward to Monday’s conversations!
Thanks for being the first to respond Dr. Savonick. Your question brings up so many questions of nationality, identity, and representation in a constantly moving and globalized world. As I teach a global literature component for my double period HS Global Studies, I think about this question a lot–especially since a lot of the literature that I’ve added to the curriculum is from the perspective of people who identify as immigrants or refugees! I think it’s especially accentuated by the fact that there is a particular genre of “migration stories” that seem to fall in a uniquely American tradition. How do we count Chimanada Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah–it takes place more in the US and UK than in Nigeria, but the protagonist and her lover are Nigerian, and the author is Nigerian-born but American educated? What about the experiences of first generation American authors like Jhumpa Lahiri–do they “count” as international literature? And what do we do about the role of translation when English is such an international language, and there are many authors such as the Bosnian writer Aleksander Hemon (who only learned English in his late 20s) that write in English more exclusively?
In terms of my own schooling, my reading was very much all-American and British. I loved British literature (and really, all things British), to the point that I felt more “at home” visiting the UK than the one time that I went to the West Coast, but besides that, I can’t remember reading a single book by a non-American author in high school. Heart of Darkness is a slide because Conrad was born in Poland, but we’ve already picked that apart. Honestly, the closest I got to reading “internationally” in high school was indigenous author Louise Erdich’s Love Medicine or Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Interpreter of Maladies” (which is still my favorite collection of short stories, ever).
I’ve tried to expand the internationalization of my reading over the past ten years since I graduated from high school. In a large part, this reflects my degree focus in 20th century history, the time that I spent teaching and living in Eastern Europe, as well as my more recent time in the Middle East. I first discovered “reading internationally” in a big way through learning about the impacts of Communism in the Czech Republic and reading Milan Kundera and Vaclav Havel, but I have expanded significantly since then. Some of my favorite books with an international authorship or books I’ve read recently are Chimamanda’s “Purple Hibiscus” and “Half a Yellow Sun” (although “Americanah is still my favorite), “Mornings in Jenin” and “The Map of Salt and Stars” (although the last two are actually by authors in diaspora). I would also recommend the Bosnian-American author Aleksander Hemon (especially his essays “The Fishbowl” and “Mapping Home”) and Vietnamese-American Viet Thanh Nguyen.
I try to bring this international taste in books to what I teach. Interestingly, this semester, every book that I’m teaching is in translation (“Anne Frank” with middle schoolers and”All Quiet on the Western Front” and “Night” with high schoolers), and I teach a variety of Middle Eastern texts, including “Persepolis” in the spring, as well as short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri and Viet Thanh Nguyen. In doing so, I hope to teach not what I was taught as a student, but what I *wish* I was taught.
When I looked at the blog, I first took it as a motivation to order two books that I had longed to read for a while– “Half a Yellow Sun” and Ocean Veong’s “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous.” I’ve read the former and I’m looking forward to reading the latter soon. I gravitated towards Iran on the list, as it is a country that has always grabbed my interest, and choose “The Man Who Snapped His Fingers.” I guess I’m just a dark individual, but I’m always fascinated at how individuals survive under totalitarianism and especially the role of women in Iran. I’m also excited to make connections to books I’ve read previously, especially Persepolis and “Reading Lolita in Tehran.”
Hi Teodora, Meg, Julie, Sarah, and Lexi! Thank you for sharing this material and these discussion prompts.
To answer your first question, I have not read too many non-American or non-British literature in the past (K-12). After creating a list all of the literature I read before college, I found that there were only 4 texts (from what I remember) that are not written by an American or British author; Haroun and the Sea of Stories By Salman Rushdie, Volar By Judith Ortiz Cofer, A Doll House By Henrik Ibsen, and Girl By Jamaica Kincaid. However, they all were written in English. Since, I created a list of all the texts I read through my high school, I thought it might be beneficial to add the other texts I read.
Romeo and Juliet By William Shakespeare
To Kill a Mockingbird By Harper Lee
Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury
The Pearl By John Steinbeck
Heroes, Gods, and Monsters of the Greek Myth By Bernard Evslin
Crime and Punishment By Fyodor Dostoevsky
Macbeth By William Shakespeare
The Iliad By Homer
Lord of Flies By William Golding’s
1984 By George Orwell
A Raisin in the Sun By Lorraine Hansberry
Into the Wild By Jon Krakauer
The Stranger By Albert Camus
A Brave New World By Aldous Huxley
Doubt By John Patrick Shanley
Hamlet By William Shakespeare
Cathedral By Raymond Cavers
Hills Like White Elephants By Ernest Hemingway
Good People By David Foster Wallace
The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin
A Rose For Emily By William Faulkner
Araby By James Joyce
Jesus Shaves By David Sedaris
A Good Man Is Hard to Find By Flannery O’Connor
Home Burial By Robert Frost
Trifles By Susan Glaspell
Dothead By Amit Majmudar
Locked Ward, Newtown Connecticut By Rachel Loden
After looking through all the texts I have read, I am not surprised that most of the texts are from American or British authors. Though, I am sadden that literature taught in K-12 classrooms in America are not more diverse and culturally inclusive.
As for your second question, I read the book review for Elena Varvello’s “Can You Hear Me?”. I chose an Italian novel because my family is from Italy and I have always wanted to visit. Unfortunately, the pandemic ruined my plans to visit Italy over the summer with my family, however, hopefully soon we will be able to go visit.
Hi all!
Thank you for all your great comments. The translation books I read as part of the high school curriculum included All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (German) and The Stranger by Albert Camus (French). While reading Remarque’s novel, I kept imagining the protagonist as an American rather than a German. Looking back, that is surely part of the point of the novel written by a German war veteran: to show readers from both sides of the war what they had in common rather than what divided them.
I confess Camus’ novel irritated me. SPOILER ALERT: I could not understand why someone would murder another person because he was hot and he could. But that’s absurdism; I’d rather have real-ish-ism.
The book review I read was of “Allah is not Obliged” by Ahmadou Kourouma. I think it highlights what would be the hardest part for me of doing an around the world reading project: I would have to read books that make me “squirm”, that would offend me and deal with difficult topics, such as child soldiers, that I don’t want to think about. Maybe in a future world where the academic reading is a lesser load (does that world exist?) I would be able to give over some of my leisure reading to a such a project. But at this moment in the world, I need the mental health boost entertaining leisure reading can give.
Hi All,
Because I’m not feeling very up to writing a big elaborate post, right now, I think I’m going to just answer your questions in order! I found the TED talk very interesting though, and I’m excited to see what you guys do!
What non-American or non-British books have you read in the past (K-12)? Did you read these books in translation, or were they written in English by an international author?
Thinking back, I’m not really sure if I read any non American or British books during my younger years. The only ones I know for sure that I read are all about the Holocaust. Night by Elie Wiesel and The Diary of Anne Franke. Other than that, I don’t think I had to read any culturally diverse books. Which is a shame, really.
Take a look at Ann Morgan’s blog and her reading list: https://ayearofreadingtheworld.com/thelist/. Read at least one of her book reviews. What books from her blog are you most interested in, and why?
I ended up reading her book review on a Romanian book called Sword. It was interesting to see her discussion of the book and how much it differed from traditional anglocentric books. Really, I’m interesting in reading any of them. This one in particular was interesting to me because it was mostly dialogue apparently and I’m a sucker for dialogue. The idea of reading a book that’s mostly dialogue actually interests me a lot.
I will start by saying that I really enjoyed the TEDTalk and that I kind of admire Ann Morgan – dedicating yourself to reading a book a week is something I think would be really cool to do, but incredibly difficult, even without having each book by from a different country. Reading a book a week is definitely something I’d like to try, so hopefully I keep this motivation for more than this semester (lol).
As far as what books I read from K-12 that weren’t American or British, none spring into my mind immediately. For a while, I was sure that I had and that I was just not remembering, but now I’m not certain at all. I know that I once started to read an autobiography about a baseball player from the Dominican Republic, but it wasn’t translated (and I didn’t finish it, although it still sits on my bookshelf), so I’m not really sure if that counts. If I remember another one before class, I’ll be sure to add it to my comment.
As for your second question, I initially started to look at books from the list that I might be interested by reading the titles of the books. However, I felt like I was putting too much weight into the title, so I decided to look at the countries and see which one interested me the most. In the end, I think Nicole Brossard’s Mauve Dessert seemed interesting. At first, I thought about how Canada is so close to us, especially being in New York, but how I don’t know a lot about Canadian culture, literature, etc. What I also found interesting about this book is that it is translated from French-Canadian, which only adds to the mystery I feel towards Canada, because I’ve never been to a French speaking part of Canada, and it’s crazy to me that different parts of the country speak decisively different languages. On top of that, Brossard’s review and description of the story made it seem like an interesting Young Adolescent piece that also seems kind of meta in an interesting way. YA literature interests me for a number of reasons, including the fact that I plan on teaching young adolescents literature in the near future, and that YA literature often offers some pretty real and raw stories and emotions to its readers.
I read Ann Morgan’s Fiji: No Man is an Island, the book review on Peter Thomson’s Kava in the Blood. I have always wanted to travel to Fiji, but the reason for that is thanks to The Truman Show (An old Jim Carrey movie). Carrey had said in the movie that where Fiji is located, “you can’t get any further away before you start coming back”. I have always had an interest in Egypt and Greece as well, so I think I would like to read the collection of stories Morgan listed for those too. I don’t recall reading any non-American/non-British books in K-12.
Hi Teodora, Meg, Julie, Sarah, and Lexi!
Thank you for sharing this eye-opening TedTalk and discussion prompts. To answer your first question, I honestly never realized where the books I was reading came from or where the authors came from until I came to college. Throughout high school, I remember reading books like To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, 1984 by George Orwell, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, and many plays from William Shakespeare. The texts I listed are mostly from American or British authors, which is not very surprising to me because these are the types of books that are expected to be read by high schoolers. After making a list of all the books I have read from K-12, almost all of them come from American or British Authors. So to answer your first question, I have no read much non-American or non-British literature in the past (K-12). When I think back to what literature I have read in the past that came from non-American or non-British authors, nothing stands out to me. Last year while I was doing one of my teaching observations I sat in on a ninth-grade English class that was reading Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. I remember thinking to myself why was I never taught many books by non-American or non-British authors. I also remember thinking that this was a step in the right direction that some K-12 teachers today are trying to bring more diverse literature into their classrooms. But it deeply saddens me that throughout my K-12 schooling I was not taught much, if any, non-American or non-British literature. It’s sad that today the literature taught in K-12 classrooms is still not very diverse.
To answer your second question, I read the book review for “The Good Immigrant” by Nikesh Shukla. I chose to read this book review because it focuses on the black, Asian, and minority ethnic writers whose voices aren’t often being heard in the UK because of their ethnicities. This book review stood out to me because during Ann Morgan’s TedTalk she spoke about how French literature that is translated into English mostly comes from France and Switzerland and not from the French-speaking parts of Africa. After hearing that part of the TedTalk I felt that the book review I read was similar to how the voices and stories of the African people who speak French often go unheard. Overall, I thought that this concept of “Reading the World” was very eye-opening!