In this course we will read a range of ancient and medieval texts to get acquainted with some of the genres, myths, themes, and characters that influenced Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, and a host of other authors from the Middle Ages to the present day. The course will address the social, historical, religious, and technological issues that are crucial for understanding the various roles writing, reading, and (mis)interpretation have played in the development of literature and the scholarly discipline of literary studies. The reading assignments will include The Epic of Gilgamesh (one of the earliest works of imaginative literature on record), selections from the Hebrew Bible and the Gospels; Homer’s Odyssey; Euripides’ Medea; Sophocles’s Oedipus the King, selections from Virgil’s Aeneid; selections from Ovid’s Metamorphoses; poetry by Archilochus, Sappho, Pindar, Catullus, and Horace; and a selection from Augustine’s Confessions. We will wrap up with an exploration of the sources of the Medieval romance and the King Arthur legend, reading Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Throughout the semester we will examine the many ways these early stories have been adapted in visual art, films, comix, computer games, and other forms of cultural production. The course will also give you a basic introduction to some central problems in literary research: establishing the text, relating the text to its historical context, dealing with translations, and discerning the strengths and limitations of our interpretive methodologies.
This class carries the Oral Communication (O) Focus Designation.
Half of your grade will be based on your performance as a speaker and respondent in oral presentations in various formats. Prior to all of your oral communication assignments, I will provide training in effective public speaking in academic contexts, which will include advice on preparing and rehearsing for these assignments as well as pointers for creating successful visual supplements to your presentation
Assignments
Your grade will be based on your performance in the following assignments:
- One Individual 5-Minute Roundtable Presentation (50 points)
- One Individual 7-Minute Conference Presentation (50 points)
- One Collaborative 7-Minute Lightning-Round Presentation (50 points)
- 2 Examinations and a Final Examination (50 points each, 150 points total)
I will provide detailed guidelines and evaluation rubrics for each of the oral presentations.
Required Texts
- Euripides, Medea, trans. Rex Warner (Dover, 1993)
- Gilgamesh: A New English Version, trans. Stephen Mitchell (Atria Books, 2006)
- Homer, Odyssey, trans. Robert Fitzgerald (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998)
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, trans. Maria Boroff (Norton, 2010)
- Sophocles, Oedipus the King, trans. Bernard Knox (Simon & Schuster, 2005)
- Virgil, Aeneid, trans. Robert Fagles (Penguin, 2008)