Course Description
In this course we will read a variety of works (once) regarded as forming a unified Western literary canon. A great deal of literature and art of the West was produced by writers and artists devoted to and familiar with the classical tradition, who used it to inform their work in diverse ways and/or who aimed to subvert it. We will pay attention to aristocratic, reputable, and “official” voices as well as some that appear disreputable or subversive by today’s standards, but may or may not have been in their time and place. We will also study diverse ways classical texts have been appropriated by modern and contemporary film and literature.
Required Texts
- Apuleius, The Tale of Cupid and Psyche. Hackett Publishing. 978-0-87220-972-5
- Aristophanes, Lysistrata. Hackett Publishing. 978-0-87220-603-8
- The Bible. New Revised Standard Version.
- Euripides, Bacchae. Hackett Publishing. 978-0-87220-392-1
- Euripides. Medea. Hackett Publishing. 978-0-87220-923-7
- Homer, The Odyssey. Penguin Classics edition, Robert Fagles translation. 978-0143039952
- Plato, Symposium. Seth Benardete translation. 978-0226042756
- Sophocles, Antigone. Hackett Publishing. 978-0-87220-571-0
