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21L.001

Foundations of Western Literature: Homer to Dante

3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-H · Undergraduate

Studies a broad range of texts essential to understanding the two great sources of Western conceptions of the world and humanity's place within it: the ancient world of Greece and Rome and the Judeo-Christian world that challenged and absorbed it. Readings vary but usually include works by Homer, Sophocles, Aristotle, Plato, Virgil, St. Augustine, and Dante. Enrollment limited.

Fall 2008 · Foundations of Western Culture: Homer to Dante

As we read broadly from throughout the vast chronological period that is "Homer to Dante," we will pepper our readings of individual ancient and medieval texts with broader questions like: what images, themes, and philosophical questions recur through the period; are there distinctly "classical" or "medieval" ways of depicting or addressing them; and what do terms like "Antiquity" or "the Middle Ages" even mean? (What are the Middle Ages in the "middle" of, for example?) Our texts will include adventure tales of travel and self-discovery (Homer's _Odyssey_ and Dante's _Inferno_); courtroom dramas of vengeance and reconciliation (Aeschylus's _Oresteia_ and the Icelandic _Njáls saga_); short poems of love and transformation (Ovid's _Metamorphoses_ and the _Lais_ of Marie de France); and epics of war, nation-construction, and empire (Homer's _Iliad_, Virgil's _Aeneid_, and the Anglo-Saxon _Beowulf_).

Readings

Prerequisites & course information

Prereq: None U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-H

Sources