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If you were going to set a curriculum with the intention of making your way through all the great classics of literature, what would be your plan?
u/Mr_Mike013
• If you were going to set a curriculum with the intention of making your way through all the great classics of literature, what would be your plan?
Discussion

I’m interested in working my way through as much of the classics of literature as I can. I majored in English literature in college, so I am familiar with the basics and have touched on a lot of it, but that was over ten years ago I would like to revisit everything now. I know there are many different beliefs about what makes “classic literature” and I’ve seen several examples of curriculums for studying it so I’m just hoping for some discussion over the merits of the different methodologies.

Here are some ideas I’ve seen in my research;

  • Start with Shakespeare or the works of Homer (depending on how far back you want to start) as your jumping off point and work forward through history charting the influences as you make your way to the modern day.

  • Find a list of the top 100 greatest novels of all time and work your way through that, and expanding on it based on what you personally find interesting.

  • Read the top 10 works of each period of literature, Victorian, Renaissance, Modernist, Romantic, etc.

  • Start with the great works of modern literature and work your way backwards tracing influences as far back as you can.

  • Follow the published reading list of a great university literature program.

These are obviously only of some of the possibilities. Please give me your thoughts and opinions!

Edit: For all the people commenting to make sure you include female, poc and non European authors, I just want to add part of the reason I’m looking for input is because I don’t want to just go through the typical English literature catalogue again. I’ve done that once before and while great, I also want to try and branch out some.

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What sort of translator notes do you imagine modern literature will have in the future?
u/Annual-Arugula473
• What sort of translator notes do you imagine modern literature will have in the future?
Discussion

I havent read many old books so I’m not sure how common this is, but I’m currently reading Crime and Punishment and it has a ton of translator notes describing references to other works that were popular at the time it was written. So, now I’m wondering how often modern books make pop culture references that would need to be explained to future readers or what phrases might lose their original meaning.

The way language and culture changes and shifts is so intriguing and it’s incredible to think about how things that are commonplace now will one day be obsolete. I will certainly have to pay attention to this in the next book I read, but have any of you noticed things that wont make sense in time?

Sorry if this doesnt belong in this sub, i dont visit it super often.