This course approaches the premodern period by examining early British literatures alongside literary works of the period c.500-1650 from the continents of Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Texts may include Tang dynasty poetry, the Tale of Genji, the Persian epic Shahnameh, the Italian Decameron, 1001 Nights, Old Norse sagas, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and Harriot's Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia. Texts will be provided in translation where necessary.