All
over the world, the documentary proof survives in drawings on rock: as we
evolved from animals to human beings, we human beings began singing and dancing
as a way of understanding nature’s cycle. Our ancestors acted themselves out
through words in rhythm, and the rhythm told them first thatthey were and then whothey
were.
We
with the cellphones are far distant from our ancestors, but in this course
you’ll discover that the old songs haven’t lost any of the magic power they
have to make us human. Lots of retellings this semester, therefore; lots of
ancient questions (How should I live in relation to God and man? What should a boy
do if the girl he loves can only love boys named Ernest?)
asked again. But they’ll be answered in different words every time, and you’ll
see: poetry will help you hear the words more interestingly than you’ve ever
heard them before.
Course Requirements
•
Attendance and participation
•
Four five-page papers
•
Midterm and final
Required Texts (at the
University bookstore)
•
The Norton Anthology of
Poetry,
shorter edition
•
Sophocles, The Oedipus Cycle
•
Jean Anouilh, Antigone
•
A. R. Gurney, Another Antigone
•
Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s
Dream
•
Oscar Wilde, The Importance of
Being Earnest