Particular offerings of this course seek to introduce the student to the aims, assumptions and methodologies of reading and the study of literature. This course is designed as an introductory course to the Comparative Literature major and other literature and humanities majors. It is recommended that students complete English/Writing 5 before enrolling in Comparative Literature 10
Winter 2012: Kacandes (10)
The Odyssey and Odyssean Spin-Offs
This course is organized around the subject of traveling and homecoming. We will read the epic attributed to "Homer" in its entirety; a series of poems by Tennyson, Cavafy, Pound, and Seferis; James Joyce's Ulysses; excerpts from Kazantzakis's Odyssey: A Modern Sequel; Christa Wolf's Cassandra; Derek Walcott's Omeros; and Botho Strauss's Drama Ithaka. Is there such a thing as a universal theme? How might genre, author's gender, culture, or historical period inflect a similar theme: What criteria have been used in specific periods to label a literary work a "classic"? What criteria are used by our culture and by us individually to evaluate the worth of a piece of literature? (LIT/INT/W)
