Catalog Description: ENG 321 Backgrounds of Western Literature (3) Sources of European and American literary themes and allusions; myth, legend, and folklore of Western cultures; e.g., Classical texts, Arthurian romances, King James Bible. Pre: one ENG DL course or consent. DL
What is “Western Literature”? What is “Western”? What, for that matter, is “Literature”?
While canonical Western Literature is popularly conceptualized as a coherent entity that grew from a foundation in ancient Hebrew and Greek texts, this course will begin with the assumption that literary “traditions” have always crossed borders and boundaries (including both space and time) and that canon formation often necessitates exclusions that are later are found to have been central to the concepts and concerns of that tradition. A case in point is the 11th century Arabic novel Hayy ibn Yaqzan (A Philosophical Tale) by Andalusian polymath and philosopher, Ibn Tafayl, which became wildly popular after its translation into Latin and then into various European languages in the 17th and 18th centuries. Essentially a thought experiment about a child raised by deer on a desert island who, solely through his observation of the world around him, develops a concept of philosophical truth, the novel had a profound influence and direct influence on the European Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution, inspiring such thinkers as John Locke, Isaac Newton, Immanuel Kant—and the author of Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe. In fact, a focus of this course will be the Islamic Golden Age and the importance of Islamic intellectual traditions and institutions in preserving and transmitting the ancient Greek Classical texts. Similarly, any concept of modern Western Literature must also consider the ancient literary traditions of Asia and oral traditions of Africa. For that reason, we will begin the course with two modern works: T. S. Eliot’s The Wasteland and Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman
METHODS AND PROCEDURES: This is not a writing-intensive course, but it will be a reading-intensive course. I will do some lecturing, but it will be important for you to keep up with the reading assignments and to participate in discussions.
REQUIRED TEXTS (To purchase)
Ibn Tafayl, Hayy ibn Yaqzan (A Philosophical Tale). Lenn E. Goodman, translator. U Chicago Press 2009.
The Longman Anthology of World Literature (Compact Edition). We will read full texts of:
• Homer, The Odyssey
• Sophocles, Oedipus Rex
• Euripides, Medea
• Shakespeare, The Tempest
Plus a lot of shorter readings, which will include the King James Bible, Plato, Aristotle, Sappho, The Ramayana, Virgil, Ovid, Augustine, Marie de France, Dante, Boccaccio, Chaucer, Milton (among others)
MAJOR ASSIGNMENTS
Short “Reading Quizzes” at the beginning of class
Reading Journals
Two exams or writing options (Students can opt to take an in-class essay exam or write a formal essay. Two will be due during the semester)
Final exam