The new edition of How to Read World Literature, a highly popular guide by David Damrosch, addresses the unique challenges and joys of approaching literature from diverse cultures and eras. Fully revised to incorporate important developments in the field, this second edition broadens its scope with new material and covers various genres—from lyric and epic poetry to drama and prose fiction. It explores how each form has been utilized across different times and cultures.

Ideal for beginners in World Literature or foreign literature studies, the book offers a variety of “modes of entry” to engaging with these texts. Drawing on his extensive teaching experience, Damrosch provides readers with creative and systematic approaches to key issues such as reading across time and cultures, reading works in translation, emerging global perspectives, postcolonialism, orality and literacy.

Accessible and enlightening, the book equips readers with tools to navigate a wide range of literary works, including Homer, Sophocles, Kalidasa, Du Fu, Dante, Murasaki, Moliere, Kafka, Wole Soyinka, and Derek Walcott. The revised edition reflects the changing landscape of World Literature studies in the English-speaking world, featuring more major authors within a fuller critical context.