9:30a-10:45a TR (70) 3 cr.
TOPIC: ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL LITERATURE
The course will center on texts from the European tradition that have
mattered. Some of
these texts mattered because they set literary standards that later
writers tried to emulate
or escape. Others mattered because they recorded events that were
deeply embedded in a
culture's psyche. Why, for example, was the Trojan war so important
to the Greeks? And
later to the Romans? And still later to medieval peoples? All these
texts have also
mattered because they helped shape what we are today. Although much
of the course will
consist of the reading and interpretation of individual texts, we will
also talk about how
an old text influences a later text and how the later text rereads the
earlier one.
Texts we will read include selections from Plato's dialogues, Homer's
Odyssey, plays
of the Greek dramatists, selections from Ovid's Metamorphoses
and Vergil's
Aeneid, a variety of love lyrics, some lais of Marie de France,
Dante's
Inferno, medieval romance, and some tales of Chaucer and
Boccaccio.
There will be frequent short, written responses to our texts, quizzes
or exams, and two
longer written analyses. Students will be expected to participate in
oral analyses in
class.