Launched in 2005, Great World Texts in Wisconsin connects high school teachers and students across the state with scholars at UW-Madison through the shared project of reading and discussing a classic piece of world literature.
What is Great World Texts in Wisconsin?
Drawing from world literature throughout the ages, the program’s selection of texts reflects a capacious understanding of the idea
of the “literary classic.” In previous years, we have collaborated with high schools on texts associated with mid–twentieth
century Colombia, ancient Greece, and contemporary India.
The program provides schools with complimentary copies of the text and includes a colloquium during which participating teachers work with UW-Madison faculty members on interpreting and understanding the text, extensive supporting curriculum materials, and a stipend to participate in the Great World Texts Annual Student Conference during which students from all participating schools come together to share their creative responses to the text and hear from distinguished speakers, often including the text’s author or contemporary representative. Now in its twentieth year, Great World Texts has reached tens of thousands of students and teachers in dozens of school districts throughout the state of Wisconsin.
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 in Wisconsin
During the 2024-2025 Great World Texts in Wisconsin program, high school teachers and students throughout the state will read Cho Nam-joo’s Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982. The novel follows one woman’s psychic deterioration in the face of rampant misogyny. In a tidy apartment on the outskirts of Seoul, millennial “everywoman” Kim Jiyoung spends her days caring for her infant daughter. But strange symptoms appear: Jiyoung begins to impersonate the voices of other women, dead and alive. As she plunges deeper into this psychosis, her concerned husband sends her to a psychiatrist. Jiyoung narrates her story to this doctor—from her birth to parents who expected a son to elementary school teachers who policed girls’ outfits to male coworkers who installed hidden cameras in women’s restrooms. But can her psychiatrist cure her, or even discover what truly ails her? “A social treatise as well as a work of art” (Alexandra Alter, New York Times), Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 heralds the arrival of international powerhouse Cho Nam-joo.
Participating in Great World Texts in Wisconsin
This program is free for all interested high schools in Wisconsin. Teachers participating in Great World Texts will receive a curricular guide for Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 and a classroom set of texts for their school’s permanent collection. The curricular guide contains contextual and lecture materials, suggested readings, close reading and discussion activities, handouts, and suggestions for student projects. This curricular guide is designed to make the text accessible for a range of learners and grade levels and is customizable to meet the needs of a wide range of classrooms and students.
Participating teachers from across the state of Wisconsin also attend a virtual educator colloquium, to be held on Monday, August 19, 2024, which will feature lectures by campus faculty, guidelines for the conference, and community building exercises between educators.
Educators will bring their students to UW-Madison for a full-day conference on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, where students will present projects created in response to the novel, engage with other students from across the state, and meet author Cho Nam-joo in person. All participating educators received a stipend to fund their school’s participation in Great World Texts. These funds are most often used to offset the costs of substitute teachers and travel to Madison for the student conference.
If you have questions, please contact Assistant Director, Public Humanities Programs, Danielle Weindling at greattexts@humanities.wisc.edu.
