Compact Anthology of World Literature II

Reviewed by Molly O'Donnell, Instructor, James Madison University on 3/18/24

Comprehensiveness rating: 3 see less

This is a compact edition, so comprehensiveness can be difficult to rate. However, the textbook is much more comprehensive for post-twentieth-century works.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The introductions are accurate and interesting. There are a number of illustrations that help being the introductions and works to life.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The content is relevant, and would be easy to update. However, greater inclusion of later works than earlier can hamper this somewhat.

Clarity rating: 5

The text is accessible to college-level readers and free of disciplinary jargon.

Consistency rating: 4

While the introductions are consistent, the fact that there are fewer works in the early period and that the text is arranged chronologically could make it difficult for implementation in a class where each period is given weight. If the course is organized by theme, this should of a problem.

Modularity rating: 4

This text would be more easily assigned for a course that used thematic modules, despite its chronological and period organization.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 3

Again, avoiding chronology would've served this textbook better since earlier periods are neglected.

Interface rating: 5

There are no interface issues.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I see no major grammar problems.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

A heavy reliance on canonical works is expected and there are plenty of post-colonial, diverse texts included in the later parts.

Comments

I can see this being useful for a seminar that approaches works less as a survey.

Reviewed by Anna Proffit, Associate Professor, City Colleges of Chicago on 6/11/23

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

The Compact Anthology is very comprehensive in its inclusion of a variety of genres and texts (poems, short stories, excerpts from novels, etc.). It is more Western-leaning in Parts 4 & 5, although I appreciate the selection of texts from the Near East and Asia in Part 4. Part 6 on more contemporary literature is the most inclusive, with texts from Latin America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the United States.
Each section has a brief introduction to the main literary movement for context and each reading selection has an introduction to the author and text, as well as a few reading comprehension questions. These additions, while concise, are a great place to begin to orient readers to the texts and time periods.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

Overall, the text is very accurate and accessible. All links to texts on other websites were functioning. The links to a few readings were to WorldCat to help students find them at their local library. While understandably not as easy as clicking on a link to the text, I think this was a creative way to include the play by Yasmina Reza and the essay by Virginia Woolf.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The content is highly relevant for a world literature course, and the contemporary section is very complete in its selection of texts from throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. The text will surely continue to be relevant for a long period of time.

Clarity rating: 5

The introductions to literary movements and to authors and works are written in clear and accessible prose. Explanations are brief and easy to follow.

Consistency rating: 5

The organization of texts into historical/chronological sections and subsections is helpful and consistent.

Modularity rating: 5

The text’s sections and subsections are easy to follow.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

It would be easy to organize a chronological world literature course around this text. I utilize a more thematic approach in my course and would still utilize selections from this anthology; it would just take a bit more effort to organize a course in this way.

Interface rating: 5

The online interface is clear and easy to use. All the links are working and connect to the available texts.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I found no grammatical or spelling errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

While the readings in Part 6 on the contemporary period were very diverse, the inclusion of more texts from the Eastern world would be welcome in the other sections.

Comments

This anthology provides access to a variety of texts in a well-organized format. I would utilize selections of the anthology in a world literature course and appreciate the “additional” materials, such as brief descriptions of time periods/literary movements and introductions to each work. The anthology is very accessible and easy to use.

Reviewed by Yuni Kim, Professor of English, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth on 12/8/22

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

The introductions of each chapter are comprehensive yet could have been more extensive. They are still useful for intro 100- or 200-level literature courses. The selection of authors is limited and slightly Western-leaning, but, considering that this is a compact anthology, it still covers the most essential readings.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

The information that this book delivered is generally accurate and unbiased.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

Content is up-to-date, especially in the last chapter of modernism, covering quite contemporary authors and relevant information.

Clarity rating: 5

This book is written in an easy-to-follow language, very accessible to students.

Consistency rating: 5

Some texts are linked to external sources, which could generate some confusion among students. However, when instructors give some additional guidelines in class about how to use open lit sources online, such as Gutenberg Project, Poetry Foundation, and library ebooks, this could be a good learning opportunity as well. (My students always enjoy knowing more about open online sources for literature.)

Modularity rating: 5

Easy to navigate, using a similar interface to typical ebooks.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The index and overall structure of the book are very straightforward.

Interface rating: 4

Overall there is no issue, but if it implements a "scroll back to the top" button, it could be easier to navigate, especially when it comes to a longer text.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

No grammatical errors have been spotted so far

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

This book mostly deals with British or European cultures, which could be more balanced in the next edition. However, when it comes to providing the cultural, historical, and racial backgrounds relevant to each text/author, it does quite a good job, by limiting itself to generalized information, rather than diving deeper to contain possibly sensitive contents.

Comments

This book provides a generalized content/selection. If used with some additional supplements by individual instructors, it would be a good book to let students start reading and learning about the world lit.

Reviewed by Oana Popescu Sandu, Associate professor, University of Southern Indiana on 11/28/22

Comprehensiveness rating: 3 see less

The text has several essential readings for a survey of World literature, especially one oriented towards Western world literature. The selection leans heavily towards English language texts, which makes it less useful for programs that have separate surveys in British and American lit and more appropriate for general Literary Humanities classes. There are also fewer selections from the non Western European world. Again, this serves well the general 'great books' survey but does not help us as much to decenter the curriculum. I could not see an index or glossary. There are brief introductions to each historical period highlighted, shorter than the ones included with the Norton anthologies, and focusing almost exclusively on intellectual developments in the Western World. There are also brief introductions to each author, including some questions for discussion.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The introductions are clear and written in a language accesible to students. A few works are not available, full text or linked to full text with the suggestion to use local libraries. I would probably not include these texts in my syllabus unless I find good online source.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The text stops in a similar place as the equivalent Norton anthology, with writers that have already proven their longevity. For newer materials instructors can use online sources like World Literature Today, Asymptote or Words Without Borders.

Clarity rating: 5

The introductions are clear and written in a language accesible to students.

Consistency rating: 4

The fact that some texts are linked on outside platforms might be confusing to some students, but with guidance from the instructor, this can be easily seen as a learning opportunity, highlighting the different online sources for teaching materials.

Modularity rating: 4

It is easy to navigate from text to text. Inside the individual texts, especially longer ones like Swann's Way for example, less so. If the text has sections, it would be useful to be able to navigate between sections.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The volume is organized chronologically. Readers can navigate using the drop down menus.

Interface rating: 5

The text is generally easy to navigate, except when the literature is on outside platforms and the systems change. Every line in the drop down menu is a link.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I have not noticed any errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

Most of the general introductory material to each unit focuses almost exclusively on cultural and intellectual developments in the Western World. The author specific introductions are trying to offer additional information.

Comments

This is a useful resource, especially if used in combination with other online platforms like the ones I mentioned earlier. At first sight, it serves best classes that are structured chronologically. Thematic suggestions are included with the instructor resources. Considering the cost of the existing world literature anthologies on the market, it would make a good substitution, especially for classes aiming to cover the Western World. Additional resources and introductory materials can be found on the same OER platforms in the volume Compact Anthology of World Literature by Laura Getty and Kyounghye Kwon. I requested the Instructor Resources and they were sent to me within a couple of hours. Among other things, they include syllabi suggestions and brief topics for writing assignments. Instructors would have to further flesh out those assignments.

Reviewed by Alexa Alice Joubin, Professor of English, The George Washington University on 11/14/22

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

This is volume 2 of the Compact Anthology of World Literature. This is typically a very expensive book (popular version by Norton for instance). Kudos to the team for editing this edition, writing the accessible introductions, and assembling translations from the public domain. It's fairly comprehensive considering it is free. It would be great to include more non-Western contents. Currently only the 17th century portion contains material from "The Near East and Asia"; all other sections merely contain the usual suspects and are focused only on the West.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

Generally accurate and readable.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

On the assumption that the eBook is easily updatable, I assume longevity isn't an issue if the team exercise an ethics of care and continue to update the contents (such as the introductions) to keep the readings relevant.

Clarity rating: 5

Generally well written and translations well selected.

Consistency rating: 5

Each unit and chapter has consistent font, structure, navigation set-up and everything is well thought out.

Modularity rating: 3

The overall design could incorporate more modularity to enable and encourage cross references and modularized lesson plans. In its present form this book mimics a codex-book. One experiences the anthology in a linear fashion.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

Standard chronological (and sometimes geographical) organization, fulfilling general expectations of such an anthology.

Interface rating: 4

It seems to be a missed opportunity to not build in multimodal modes to experience the content through multiple pathways.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

Excellent in this area.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

In the next iteration it would be wonderful to make this anthology more global in the sense of transcending its European focus. Currently only the 17th century portion contains material from "The Near East and Asia"; all other sections merely contain the usual suspects and are focused only on the West.

Reviewed by Sheena Hernandez, Professor, Garden City Community College on 11/10/22

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

The text is very heavy on England/ Western Europe, much more so than the first anthology. Even the African work is English by way of Nigeria. However, I've used many of the works included in this text, and would probably still use it thematically, if differently.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

The content is accurate and error-free; the only biases may be found in the works chosen.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The content fits within the timeframes of the anthology. As a literature textbook, it should not become obsolete any time soon. More variety of the works is recommended.

Clarity rating: 5

The works are clear and understandable.

Consistency rating: 5

The book is pretty consistent in its intent.

Modularity rating: 5

It is easy enough to navigate the sections.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The topics are introduced in the unit, and then by author, and then the works themselves. There are a few thought-provoking questions to start.

Interface rating: 3

It is difficult to download some works; some zip files cannot be downloaded for safety reasons (this could be a firewall at my own organization, but this could be problematic if faculty and students cannot get to the works).

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

No grammatical errors were spotted.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

The works serve the purposes they are supposed to. If anything, I would recommend more (and earlier) works from other countries. There was some effort made for post-colonial, but before that everything seems to be British or European (French, a bit of German). There were hardly any representations from Africa or Central/South America...or America for that matter.

Comments

While I would like to see more variety in this text, I still would use this text--I teach many of the stories within it, though not always in the categories/units in which they are aligned here.