Backgrounds of Western Literature is a survey of the major traditions in Western literature before the modern period, covering the Classical period (both Greek and Latin), the Bible and Medieval literature. This course will help you in all your other literature courses, since it will give you an opportunity to experience the texts that later writers refer to, borrow from, and sometimes struggle against.
A course of this kind must be selective, but we will cover both the epic (Homer, Virgil, Ariosto) and lyric poetry, as well as one play, Antigone, and selections from both the Old and the New Testament. We will read something from each of the three major story cycles of medieval literature, the ‘matter’ of Troy, of Charlemagne and of King Arthur. A particular focus will be writing by women, including Sappho, Christine de Pisan, and a number of women writers of the Italian Renaissance who wrestle with and subvert the conventions of love poetry written by the male writers before them.
That sounds like a lot to cover, but only Antigone, the Aeneid, and Sir Gawain and the Green Night will be read in full. The class will be run as a seminar discussion: my role is to ask questions, not provide answers, to stimulate discussion, not to lecture, and to create an environment in which we discover together. The written work for the course will consist of three essays, two shorter essays across the semester and one longer, final paper. I will provide prompts or possible topics for the papers, but not require essays on set topics.
The course will be taught on-line in a synchronous format.