Heng, Geraldine. "Teaching early global literatures." Throughlines. www.throughlines.org/suite-content/teaching-early-global-literatures. [Date accessed].

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Teaching early global literatures

History does not begin when Europe arrives

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Geraldine Heng
University of Texas, Austin

History is understood through narrative. The stories that are written, repeated, and taught give shape to the past. By decentering European narratives in our teaching, we can expand the scope of historical understanding that our students carry with them into the world. Studying early global literatures shakes the preconceived notions about the past that students bring into the classroom, especially when they are introduced to early global civilizations that were far more complex and modern than Europe.

Further learning

Activity

Collaborative student research

A multidisciplinary and student-centered approach for early modern professors, inspired by Geraldine Heng’s Teaching Early Global Literatures and Cultures.

Geraldine Heng
Video

Premodern race as a critical canon

Heng offers insight on approaches to teaching the traditional, canonized literature of premodern Europe through the lens of premodern critical race studies.

Geraldine Heng

Recommended

Activity

Postcolonial theory and the medieval epic

Analyzing The Song of Roland and The Song of the Cid from a perspective of postcolonial theory. Students will write short papers identifying themes and images in medieval literature read through postcolonial frameworks.

Adam Miyashiro
Video

Comparative epics: Teaching The Epic of Sunjata

The Sunjata is just one of many cultural touchstones from a highly sophisticated and capacious literary and arts culture that remains understudied in most medieval literature classrooms.

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Adam Miyashiro
Reading list

Reading the medieval epic

A reading list to expand students' understanding of the medieval epic by incorporating texts that decenter Europe.

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Adam Miyashiro

Selected annotated bibliography