What is World Literature? World Literature is your airline ticket to visit countries around the globe.

It’s a bike ride through new terrain.

But don’t get the wrong idea because world literature is not all fun and games.

Understanding an unfamiliar cultural context as it is portrayed in world literature requires an understanding of social, political, geographical, cultural, religious, and historical circumstances.

Why is this understanding important? Without this information, we can’t fully understand the theme, characters, setting, plot and other literary elements in a novel. We can’t fully appreciate what we are reading without taking the time to explore the social, political, geographical, cultural, religious, and historical circumstances in the novel. This takes hard work and dedication.

Background and Setting: The Gift of Rain Pre-reading activities: the setting of the novel The author, Tan Twan Eng, was born in Malaysia and embeds his historical novel in the pre-World War II life of the country. What do you know about the country? Google Map work Worksheet

The Setting of the Novel: To Do Bookmark the Google Map site for future reference as you read the novel Read 30 pages in the novel for tomorrow Use the maps to locate the cities and countries you will encounter in the reading for tomorrow Begin to think about how setting impacts the characters you will meet / IMPORTANT

Homework for Wednesday (Day 3) Read to page 60 / 30 pages each night Continue to actively consider how the setting will impact the characters you meet. Write a complete paragraph with a thesis statement answering the question: How does the setting impact one character you meet in the novel? Include textual support. Follow the instructions on the rubric.