Treasures of the Internet : Our World Today

The collective literature of a country embodies a more personal distillation of human thoughts and dreams of a people. When read from a chronological and historical perspective, literature provides a glimpse to the soul and aspirations of a nation and her people, at any given time.

This insight, about a nation and her people -- as glimpsed from the collective literature of a nation -- complements those inferred by historians from the evolution of events in a given country. When fully developed, the emphasis of the World Literature section will be the works of poets and writers from other non-English speaking countries, as well as women and ethnic minorities, who are not as well well-represented* in introductory literature courses.

More extensive listings of American and English poetry are presented American Verse and English Poetry sections, as well as a more comprehensive English literature section to be created in the future.

To understand better what we hope to achieve in and why we are developing the World Literature page, please read the following sections:

• * The need to know and understand other cultures
• * Major Sections of the World Literature Webpage We shall include a "What's New" section in the future, to alert you of new sections added.
• * Potential value of online literature resources
• * Online literature and less-developed countries (LDCs)
• * Immediate goals of the World Literature webpage
• * Contents, Copyright Issues and Navigating the Page

We hope that our efforts and the dreams that we wish to accomplish in the World Literature page will inspire others to help us develop new sections for specific countries.