LITERATURE HUMANITIES FALL 2001   HAM 407, TR 4:10-6:00 Instr. Göran Blix e-mail:gmb21

Course Description and Requirements

Course

This course is designed to familiarize you with some of the outstanding literary texts in the Western tradition, from Homer to Virginia Woolf. The focus will be on a critical engagement with these texts which will address both their enduring relevance and their potential alterity from the modern world. How do these works reflect the audiences for which they were initially created, and what new and different meanings have emerged in the process of their canonization by later readers? What particular values are embedded in individual texts, and how are these in turn transformed into (and possibly transcended as) Literature? To what extent do these texts create and uphold traditional value systems, and to what degree, inversely, can they be said to question and subvert just these values? 

These and other questions will be addressed through a practice of close reading, minute attention to the text, and in-depth interpretation. We will pay particular attention to the rhetorical devices and narrative strategies by which texts attain their ends. How is language used to produce certain effects, impressions, convictions? to model thoughts, construct values, convey ideas, persuade readers? What, in particular, is the function of story-telling in any given text or social setting? Does narrative have social, juridical, moral, and intellectual functions over and beyond its capacity to retell events for the purpose of entertainment?

The critical engagement with the texts will take the form of class discussions and debate, in which everyone is expected to participate. Careful reading of the works prior to class is essential preparation. 

Required Texts

Almost all of the required texts can be purchased at the Columbia University Bookstore (on 115^th & BW). They are the following: The Iliad; Hymn to Demeter; The Odyssey; Herodotus’ Histories, Aeschylus’ Oresteia, Sophocles’ Oedipus, Euripides Bacchae, Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, Aristophanes’ Frogs, Plato’s Symposium, and The Bible.

In addition, three more required texts have been ordered at Labyrinths (112^th b/w BW & Amst.):

Assignments

Three papers will be assigned during the fall term: the first two should be 5 pages long each, and the third 8 pages. Guidelines and topics will be handed out in class and posted on the website.

An in-class mid-term will take place on Tuesday Oct. 23. A final exam common to all sections will be held at 2:30-3:30 on Friday Dec. 14.

In addition to graded written work, you will also be expected to post a reading reaction on our electronic bulletin board (our CUBBoard) once a week before class: i.e. before noon (so I and other class members have time to read it) either on Tuesday or Thursday. This comment should be short (one paragraph max), clear, and to the point, addressing one particular point or problem in the text that you would like to see discussed in class. This will factor into your participation grade.

Attendance

If for any reason you need to be absent from a class meeting, please warn me ahead of time, not afterwards; and in case of sickness (or other unforeseen circumstances), be sure to bring in a written excuse from the health services. No more than 4 absences per semester are tolerated; beyond that, your grade me be penalized. 

Grades

Your course grade will be broken up in the following way—notice that class participation factors into the final evaluation:

Office Hours

My offfice hours will be twice a week: Monday 2:00-3:00 and Thursday 3:00-4:00, in Philosophy Hall, Room 509. Feel free to just walk in. You can also arrange a meeting by appointment if you are unable to make it during regular office hours.