The Syllabus

We discuss, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate literary texts from a variety of cultures and time periods. In addition, we analyze the historical and cultural background of each text and the recurrent themes, concerns, genres, and motifs that occur across time and culture, thus developing an appreciation for literature in order to enrich our lives and articulate the way by which literature provides an understanding of human nature.

The Lectures & Readings

1 - The Trouble with Translations: Reading (World) Literature

2 - Polytheism & the Mythologies of the Ancient Mediterranean

3 - Archetypes, Cosmogonies, and Epics

  • The Babylonian Creation Epic
  • The Epic of Gilgamesh
  • The Hebrew Bible: Genesis

4 - The Foundations of Western Literature: The Homeric Epic & Verse

  • The Iliad, Homer
  • The Odyssey, Homer

5 - Narrative & Intertextuality: Poetry & Politics, Part I

  • The Aeneid, Virgil

6 - All's Fair in Love & War: Poetry & Politics, Part II

  • Catullus, Selected Poems
  • Metamorphoses, Ovid
  • Ars Amatoria, Ovid

7 - All's Fair in Love... Well, Maybe Not: Lyric Poetry

  • Sappho, Selected Poems
  • Selected Poems of Ancient Egypt

8 - Eastern vs. Western Thought

  • Analects, Confucius

9 - Chinese & Japanese Literature

  • Li Bo & Du Fu, Selected Poems
  • Classic of Poetry
  • The Kokinshu

10 - India: Before & After Islam

  • The Bhagavad-Gita
  • India's Classical Age, Selected Poems
  • Indian Poetry after Islam, Selected Poems

11 - Monotheism: Europe & the Islamic World

12 - The Journey, the Soul & the Traveler

  • The Book of Travels, Evliya Çelebi
  • The Inferno, Dante Alighieri
  • The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer
  • The Tarot

13 - Europe & the New World

  • Niccolò Machiavelli, Il Principe
  • Michel de Montaigne, Selected Essays

14 - The Conquerors & the Conquered

  • Hernán Cortés

  • Popol Vuh