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Model III: Trimesters Interweaving Western and Non-Western
Readings
FIRST TRIMESTER: THE ANCIENT WORLD
Ancient
Egyptian Poetry (Vol A): ½ Week
- Love
Songs. The universality of passion, the eye for
detail. Reading
for the dramatic situation: lyrics
as miniature narratives; brevity and passion; tone: defining
irony.
Ancient
Greece and the Formation of the Western Mind
Homer, selections
from The Iliad (Vol A): 1½ Weeks
- Book
I. Invocation. The transition from lyric scale to
epic. Role of the muses and Nature
of the Olympian gods. Orality and epic. Stating the theme—wrath
as passion. Government, self-government; human behavior
set against that of the gods.
- Excerpts
from Books VI, VIII, IX. Troy defined against the
Achaeans—a
city and a culture. Andromache
and Helen: men with women, men at war. Men arguing:
claims made and rejected.
- Books
XVII, XVIII, XXII and XXIV: Dehumanizing rage. Heroic
styles collide
- Reintegration
into the human community: parents and children.
Poetry and
Thought in Early China
Classic
of Poetry. (Vol A) CCXLV: ½ Week
- Another
view of the divine. Cf. the Olympian gods and the
values of an agrarian society.
Lyric and ritual.
Chuan Chou. Chuang
Tzu: 1 Week
- Chapter
2, short selections. Literature and philosophy. Questioning
the nature of language
and reality.
- The role
of prose in ancient letters.
- Questions
of tone: attitudes toward ritual and authority.
Ancient
Greece and the Formation of the Western Mind
Aeschylus. The
Oresteia (Vol A): 2 Weeks
- Agamemnon: Athenian
tragedy. Drama and philosophy. The appropriation
of Homeric materials:
wrath and passion. Lyric and ritual: the choral odes. Dramatic
imagery—the tapestries and the net. Men at war and women
at home, claims made and rejected, the role of prophecy.
- Summary
of The Libation Bearers and The Eumenides,
through the third choral ode.
Parents
and children, family history, passion and fate, civic repercussions.
- Conclusion
of The Eumenides. The chorus of Furies. The
role of the gods, government and self-government. Reintegration
into human community: the Athenian scene.
India’s
Heroic Age
The Jataka
Tales (Vol A): ½ Week
- The role
of prose in ancient letters. Animal fables as moral
tales.
- Appropriation
of pre-Buddhist lyrics into scripture. Relationship
of Buddhism to Hinduism.
From The
Bhagavad-Gītā (Vol A): 1 Week
- Attitudes
toward family ties, ideas of individual conscience and
guilt, dharma.
- View
of time, doctrine of reincarnation, karma. Relationship
of Hinduism to Buddhism.
- A vision
of the divine.
The Tamil
Anthologies (Vol A): ½ Week
- Lyric
voices. Brevity and passion, questions of tone. Cf.
Egyptian love poems.
The Roman
Empire
Ovid. Metamorphoses (Vol
A): 1 Week
- View
of time and transformation; contrast reincarnation and
metamorphosis.
- A vision
of the divine: Olympian gods revisited; relationship
of Rome to Greece.
- The effects
of passion: questions of tone. Cf. The Tamil
Anthologies and
the Egyptian Love poems.
Petronius. Satyricon (Vol
A): 1 Week
- Intertextual
recycling of characters: names of Homeric heroes. Relationship
of Rome to Greece.
- Questions
of tone: satire and irony; poetry and prose.
- The exhaustion
of the ancient world.
SECOND TRIMESTER:
MIDDLE AGES
India’s
Classical Age
Visnusarman.
from Pancatantra (Vol B): ½ Week
- Animal fables as moral tales; secular trends.
- Frame narrative in Indian culture; the
literary and social roles of prose and poetry.
Somadeva. The
Red Lotus of Chastity (Vol B): ½ Week
- Frame narrative in Indian culture.
- The resourceful heroine; sexual adventurers
and adulterous passions.
The Rise
of Islam and Islamic Literature
Ibn Ishaq. The
Biography of the Prophet (Vol B): ½ Week
- A model
life: a personal view of Muhammad and the rise
of Islam.
- The literary
and social realms of prose and poetry.
Attar. The
Conference of the Birds (Vol B): 1 Week
- An allegory
of love: birds as symbols of the soul. Self-abasement
and the glory of God; the power
of the Islamic idea; Islam vs. Christianity in the
medieval world
- Pilgrimage,
poetry, and longing.
The Formation
of a Western Culture
The Song
of Roland (Vol B): 1 Week
- Epic
issues in the medieval world: loyalty and faith;
treachery and family tensions. Cf primacy
of honor and guilt in Homer.
- Charles
as hero: the king in battle; cf. Agamemnon in Homer’s Iliad.
- Allegorical
possibilities: Islam vs. Christianity in the medieval
world—cf. Attar. Who is the infidel?
Medieval
Lyrics: A Selection (Vol B): 1 Week
- "The
Singing Lute," "In Battle," "In Praise of War": battle
as a lyric theme; influence of Islamic
poets in Western Europe.
- Anonymous, "Song
of Summer"; Judah Halevi, "Summer"; Hildegard of
Bingen, "A Hymn
to St. Maximinus": lush imagery; allegories of love;
birds as symbols of the soul.
The Golden
Age of Japanese Culture
The Tale
of the Heike (Vol B): 1 Week
- Epic
issues in the medieval world: loyalty and faith;
treachery and family tensions.
- Buddhist
allegory, illusion and reality, the insubstantiality
and beauty, the cruelty and power of
the natural world.
- Musicality
and spirituality: Atsumori and his flute.
Zeami Motokiyo, Atsumori, Haku
Rakuten (Vol B): 1 Week
- Intertextual
recycling of characters: the ghost of Atsumori
and his flute.
- Buddhist
themes: theatrical minimalism, psychological healing.
- Intertextual
indebtedness: Japan views China; cf. Rome’s view
of Greece.
The Renaissance
in Europe
Lope de
Vega. Fuente Ovejuna (Vol C): 1 Week
- Intertextual
self-consciousness: poetry and prose; references
to the printing press—the world
of letters.
- The resourceful
heroine; purity threatened.
- Musicality
and characterization: Mengo’s rebec, celebratory
songs.
- Treachery
and class; tyrants and the people; compliments
to the true rulers.
- European
anxieties: Islam and Christianity, the idea of
the infidel.
The Ottoman
Empire: Çelebi’s Book of Travels
The City
of Boudonitza (Vol D): ½ Week
- Islamic
perspectives: Islam and Christianity, the idea
of the infidel.
- Treachery
and class; tyrants and the people; compliments
to the true rulers.
· Travel
reports: individual vs. institution and authority.
THIRD TRIMESTER:
THE MODERN WORLD
The Enlightenment
in Europe
Swift. From Gulliver’s
Travels (Vol D): 1 Week
- Intertextual
self-consciousness: the world of letters; the expressive
capacities of language.
- Travel
reports: individual vs. institution and authority.
- Reason
and humanity: What is a yahoo? What is insanity?
What is civilized behavior?
Revolution
and Romanticism in Europe and America
Continental
Romantic Lyrics: A Selection (Vol E): 1 Week
- Novalis,
Leopardi: mental travel reports—disillusion with
the world.
- Heine,
Lamartine: love and musicality.
- Becquer: the
power of art.
Realism,
Naturalism, and Symbolism in Europe
Flaubert. Madame
Bovary (Vol E): 2 weeks
- Mental
travel reports: disillusion with the world—satirizing
the provincial. What is civilized behavior? Reason
and humanity: the professionals.
- Characterization
and intertexuality: the resourceful heroine; the impact
of reading and the power of art. The Romantic swoon:
sense and sensibility. Musicality—the waltz and
the opera.
- Self-delusion
and dissatisfaction: What is insanity? Isolation;
rejection of community; suicide; death.
The Modern
World: Self and Other in Global Context
Zuni Ritual
Poetry (Vol F): ½ Week
- Embrace
of community; consecrating one’s home; accepting one’s
role.
- Dealing
with death: cf. the medical professionals in Madame
Bovary. Ritual and sanity.
- Reconsidering
the Enlightenment: What is primitive? What is reason? What
is civilized behavior?
Dada-Surrealist
Poetry: A Selection (Vol F): ½ Week
Tristan
Tzara, Kurt Schwitters, Paul Éluard
- Reconsidering
the Enlightenment: What is primitive? What is reason? What
is civilized behavior?
- Intertextual
self-consciousness: the Romantic swoon; sense
and nonsense.
- Disjointed
sequences—fragments and puzzles.
Tanizaki
Jun’ichiro. In Praise of Shadows (Vol F): ½ Week
- Reconsidering
the Enlightenment: What is primitive? What is reason? What
is civilized behavior?
- Cross-cultural
aesthetics: Japan views the West.
- Questions
of tone: satire and irony—cf. the dadaists’ view
of western conventions.
Juan Rulfo. Pedro
Paramo (Vol F): 2 Weeks
- Treachery
and class; tyrants and the people; longing for a true
ruler.
- Embrace
of community; desecrating one’s home; accepting one’s
role.
- Characterization: the
resourceful heroine; purity threatened—the mystery
of Susana San Juan: cf. Laurencia, Emma Bovary.
- Disjointed
sequences—fragments and puzzles.
- Dealing
with death: mental travel reports: disillusion
with the world.
Wole Soyinka. Death
and the King’s Horseman (Vol F): 1 Week
- Embrace
of community; desecrating one’s home; accepting one’s
role.
- Dealing
with death: mental travel reports: disillusion
with the world.
- Characterization
and cross-cultural aesthetics: Africa views the west—ritual
and rationalism.
- Reconsidering
the Enlightenment: What is primitive? What is reason? What
is civilized behavior?
Lorna Goodison. Selected
Poems (Vol F): ½ Week
- "To Us,
All Flowers are Roses": cross-cultural aesthetics: Africa
meets the west—the fusion of names and races in the
Caribbean.
- "Guinea
Woman": the resourceful heroine; accepting one’s role;
travel reports—individual vs. institution and authority.
- "Heartease
New England 1987": embrace of community; valuing one’s
home; accepting one’s role. The power of art.
Organizing
a course in this way permits fuller discussion of historical
periods and period designations: What is ancient? What
is modern? Why do cultures seem to need some kind of "middle" period? Is
the past ever really past? The direct impact of the West
on other civilizations may also be readily apparent here,
as the continuing questioning of the Enlightenment, both
from within Western culture and from without, makes clear.
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