The course explores the literary masterworks of three of the most celebrated …
The course explores the literary masterworks of three of the most celebrated authors of the Middle Ages in their original literary and historical contexts. The various themes they take up - the importance of writing in the vernacular; the discourse of love as a form of discipline practised upon the self; the personal and political aspirations of the self in society; the constitution of ideal forms of social organization; the role of religion in the life and works of lay authors - transformed the course of much of Western literature for the next five centuries. Readings will include the entire Divine Comedy, generous selections from the Decameron, and all of Troilus and Criseyde in the original Middle English, together with samplings from the Troubadour tradition and the dolce stil nuovo.
No longer considered ‘side’ issues within eighteenth and nineteenth-century studies, slavery, ‘race’, …
No longer considered ‘side’ issues within eighteenth and nineteenth-century studies, slavery, ‘race’, abolition and emancipation are now understood to occupy a central place, not only within the period’s history, but within its literature, philosophy and the concerns of canonical and less well-known writers. The course moves forward to the present day to consider how slavery persists as a central concern within world literature.
“Tragedy” is a name originally applied to a particular kind of dramatic …
“Tragedy” is a name originally applied to a particular kind of dramatic art and subsequently to other literary forms; it has also been applied to particular events, often implying thereby a particular view of life. Throughout the history of Western literature it has sustained this double reference. Uniquely and insistently, the realm of the tragic encompasses both literature and life. Through careful, critical reading of literary texts, this subject will examine three aspects of the tragic experience:
the scapegoat the tragic hero the ethical crisis
These aspects of the tragic will be pursued in readings that range in the reference of their materials from the warfare of the ancient world to the experience of the modern extermination camps.
Taught by William Flesch at Brandeis University, this course offers a survey …
Taught by William Flesch at Brandeis University, this course offers a survey of some of the greatest and most influential works on Western literature, philosophy and culture, from Homer through Milton. Part of the through line is that every writer covered in the course wrote in a context inherited from the earlier ones, so we look at affiliations between them all. The course used the Lattimore translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and the Hollander translations of Dante. For the other works, any translation or edition is fine.
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