Toward the end of this semester, a national election will go far toward determining whether President Obama will serve two terms or only one. To some extent, the election’s outcome will be determined by an accumulation of local issues, congressional district by congressional district. But over the whole United States, the questions being answered will be the two that poets and playwrights have been asking since the days of ancient Greece: “How must I live in relation to my fellow human beings, to my country, and to the gods?” and “How can I learn the right words to ask that question?”
We’ll read some answers to those questions in these texts:
- R. S. Gwynn, POETRY: A POCKET ANTHOLOGY
- Sophocles, THE OEDIPUS CYCLE
- A. R. Gurney, ANOTHER ANTIGONE
- Shakespeare, RICHARD II
- Oscar Wilde, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST.
Four five-page papers, midterm, and final.