World Literature: Ancient-Classical-Medieval  VOICES OF THE ELDERS                               UG

                                                                                                   Tuesdays 5:00-7:45  Fretwell 410  Spr 09

Boyd Davis                                                                                                                          boydhdavis@yahoo.com

255-A Fretwell/ Ph 74209                                                                       Office: T 3:30-5.00 & by appointment

Texts:             Norton Anthology of World Literature, 2nd Edn, Package 1 A, B: Beginnings to 1650

Ovid’s Metamorphoses, trans. Rolfe Humphries

                        Our online discussion will be on NiceNet http://www.nicenet.org

                        CENTRA: we will use this online interactive package several times: you will need speakers and microphone if coming online from home,  or a headset, which can be borrowed from                       the library.

Policies:           Attendance (crucial: lose 3 points for each unexcused absence above 1); Plagiarism (unacceptable); Multiculturalism (assumed).

Grade key:     40%     NiceNet exchange: prompted reflections keyed to a selection from the readings list or from transcripts of narratives by elders. 2 a week: 1 reflection and 1 answer to                        another student’s reflection. Each should be roughly 300 words.  www.nicenet.org

                20%     2 in-class quizzes [45 minutes, IDs]

                        10%     ‘take-home’ midterm essay: comparison of some aspect of one of the classical Greek/Roman heroes of epic or drama with your choice of another aspect: 5 pp.UG, 7 pp G

                        10%     Collaborative presentation: Pairs of students develop ways to lead class discussion

                        as dialogue-without-lecture.  UG students will partner with G.

                        20%     Major paper due: Annotated bibliography of articles on an unassigned text, including Son-Jara (on reserve), and an introductory overview using your chosen literary critical perspective, or approaches from comparative folklore or myth. Undergraduates: 6 sources; Graduate students: 12

Goals:              Familiarity with major works of ancient, classical & early medieval worlds; their intersections with comparative mythology, folklore and religion; their themes, various emphases, and modern interpretations, using more than one way of reading from texts which both record their own worlds and shape the next. Includes an emphasis on voices of the elders and the notion of the transmission of wisdom and discussions of ways to work with readers in the schools and

 

                                                                                    Calendar

Speakers        Jan 13   Overview; Popular Heros; Voices of Elders as theme; online components; Genesis

________      Jan 20   Nicenet STARTS;  Gilgamesh COLLABORATIVE PRESENTATIONS BEGIN

                        Jan 27   CENTRA  Ovid, Bks I-3; compare http://sacred-texts.com/cla/hesiod/theogony.html

________      Feb 3*    Ovid, Bks 4-6, 12 Quiz

________      Feb 10   The Odyssey;  Iliad and Aeneid excerpts

________      Feb 17   The Odyssey; Agamemnon

                        Feb 24              CENTRA  Eumenides

________      Mar 3*   Take-home Quiz Due  Classic Chinese poetry; Confucius; Bk 2 Han Shan, Li Po

                        Mar 17    CENTRA Bk 1 Ramayana, Jataka, Bhagavad-Gita

________      Mar 24              Bk 2The Koran: Jonah, Joseph; Ibn Ishaq; The Arabian Nights (1)

________      Mar 31   Beowulf

________      Apr 7*    Quiz From Song of Roland; Thorstein the staff-struck; Arabian Nights (2)                    

                        Apr 14*  CENTRA Medieval lyrics, Marie de France

________      Apr21     Sir Gawain     NICENET ENDS

________      Apr 28   Selections from Dante; Boccacio     FINAL PAPER DUE

                                    Exam   TBA 

 

Readings List

These are on electronic reserve; the journals are held by Atkins library so you can also access them via the journal itself. Here’s how: log in to the library using your Novell log in and password. Under Find Information, click Books, Catalog, Videos.  Pull down the category window to Journals and type the journal name. Click Enter, click on the link for the journal, and locate the volume number you need.

 

Anlezark, D. 2005. Grendel and the Book of Wisdom. Notes and Queries 53: 262-69.

 

Damrosch. David. 2003. Comparative literature? PMLA 118: 326-30.

 

Desai, Santosh. 1970. Ramayana: An instrument of historical contact and cultural transmission between India and Asia. The Journal of Asian Studies 30: 5-20.

 

Foley, John Miles. 2007.  “Reading” Homer through oral tradition. College Literature 34: 1-28

 

Hildebrand, Ann.  1983. Jean de Brunhoff’s advice to youth: The Babar books as books of courtesy. Children’s Literature 11: 76-95.

 

John, Judith. I have been dying to tell you: Early advice books for children. The Lion & the Unicorn 29: 52-64.

 

Lucia, Cynthia.  2008. Status and morality in Cassandra’s Dream: An interview with Woody Allen. Cineaste, Spring 2008: 40-43.

 

McDowell, David, Ross Parke & Shirley Wang. Differences between mothers’ and fathers’advice-giving style and content. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 49:55-76.

 

Morgan, Gerald. 2002. Medieval misogyny and Gawain’s outburst against women. Modern Language Review 97: 265-78.

 

New South Voices (narratives from older speakers) http://newsouthvoices.uncc.edu

 

Siegel, Janice. 2007. The Coens’ O Brother where art thou? and Homer’s Odyssey. Mouseion Series III. 7: 213-45.

 

Weiner, Albert. 1980. The function of the tragic Greek chorus. Theatre Journal 32: 205-12.

 

Ziolkowski, Eric. 2007.  An ancient newcomer to modern culture (Gilgamesh). World Literature Today September-October: 55-57.