<p>Readings in World Literature gets a lot of bad press. I think in part it has to do with the fact that a lot of people who sign up for it are econ / science majors looking for an “easy” humanities core. There is a perception that the more modern sequences, which are taught by generally younger professors, are more liberal on grading and lax on reading compared to the tenure heavy classics oriented fields like Greek Though and Literature and Human Being and Citizen. Students in turn seem to get upset when they find out that the standards are pretty solid across the board, and that instructors are not afraid to give out poor grades to those who don’t put in the requisite effort. You will see this in other areas too. More dedicated students tend to sort towards “Classics of Social and Political Thought,” whereas “Self, Culture and Society” is considered somewhat looser. For civ, the sequences that are tied to area studies majors are more aggressive than those that are for core credit only, since the former have comprehensive examinations in addition to papers, which requires a lot of factual memorization oftentimes in an area that is entirely new to the student.</p>