This course will introduce students to contemporary examples of world literature. These novels describe different cultures as well as cases of encounters and conflicts between cultures. What happens when different cultures meet is likely to have profound political consequences for the societies involved. Narratives depicting culture encounters, written by those whose primary activity is artistic and intellectual, not political, provide a unique insight into the pre-political process. They constitute valuable textual material for political analysts. Textual analysis—letting the text speak for itself—can be an integral part of the study of the political.