Introduction: Social meanings in literature
1. The Spanish writers: Lope de Vega
2. Cervantes: Mobility: Sancho Panza
3. Shakespeare's The tempest: The concept of human nature
Five themes on the island
4. The classical French drama: Corneille
5. From Werther to Wilhelm Meister: Individualism and the middle class
Werther: the dislocated individual
Wilhelm Meister: the integrated individual
World literature and popular culture
6. Henrik Ibsen: Private life and social forces
The dilemma of freedom and necessity
Appendix: Shakespeare's The tempest, Act I, Scene I.
