Perspectives on World Literature to 1800

TEXTBOOKS.

• Homer, The Odyssey, trans. Robert Fitzgerald (Noonday Press, 1998), ISBN 0374525749
• Aeschylus, The Oresteia, trans. Robert Fagles (Penguin, 1984), ISBN 0140443339
• Virgil, The Aeneid, trans. Robert Fitzgerald (Vintage, 1983), ISBN 0679729526
• Livy, The War With Hannibal, trans. Aubrey De Selincourt (Penguin, 1965), ISBN 014044145X
• Ovid, Metamorphoses, trans. Rolfe Humphries (Indiana UP, 1955), ISBN 0253200016
• Dante, The Divine Comedy Vol. I: Inferno, trans. Mark Musa (Penguin, 1984), ISBN 0140444416
• John Milton, Paradise Lost (Norton, 1993), ISBN 0393962938
• a Bible (any edition and translation as long as it has both the Old and New Testaments)
• various materials provided in SOCS under “Resources” or on electronic reserve.

COURSE DESCRIPTION.  In this course, we will focus on a pivotal literary text of European literature before 1800 -- Virgil’s Aeneid.  Around this pivotal text, the course will explore literary and historical relations -- the textual “ancestors” and “progeny” that influenced or rewrote the Aeneid, as well as the philological, social, and political contexts that surrounded Virgil’s text.

GOALS.  By the end of the course, I want you

1. to engage in the analysis and interpretation of texts in their concrete historicity -- that is, in their diverse philological, historical, aesthetic, cultural, and theoretical contexts,
2. to develop an understanding and appreciation of the development of some of the literary traditions, cultural values, modes of thought, and uses of language in European literature before 1800,
3. to practice comparative literary and historical analysis, and
4. to enlarge the body of literature that you have read by becoming familiar with texts from other times and cultures, written in languages other than your own.

REQUIREMENTS.  For this course, you must complete the following graded assignments:

1. a mid-term exam (260 points),
2. 12 two-page response papers (15 points each),
3. a short paper (100 points),
4. a longer paper (200 points), and
5. a final exam (260 points).

Your final grade will be based on a 1000-point scale:  A = 930-1000, A- = 900-929, B+ = 870-899, B = 830-869, B- = 800-829, C+ = 770-799, C = 730-769, C- = 700-729, D+ = 670-699, D = 600-669, and F = below 600.

ATTENDANCE.  Regular attendance is a virtual necessity for successful completion of the exams and papers in this class.  Class exercises and discussion constitute important, useful preparation for the course’s graded assignments.  If you miss a class, you will essentially lose out on that day’s contribution to your preparation, since it is never really possible to reproduce or recapture the dynamics and flow of information for a missed class meeting (even if you get notes from someone).  If, however, you positively must miss a class, I expect you to find out what you missed and to come fully prepared -- without excuses -- to the next class meeting.

OFFICE HOURS.  My office is Bliss 216.  My office hours this semester will be from 9:30 to 10:50 a.m. on Wednesdays and Fridays.  If you cannot see me at this time, however, feel free as needed to call my office (771-2106) or talk to me before or after class to arrange an appointment at another time.  You may also contact me by e-mail (gsteinbe@tcnj.edu), or you may leave a message for me in my box at the English department offices in Bliss 124.  E-mail is generally the fastest way to contact me in an emergency.

EMAIL.  I may, on occasion, want to e-mail everyone in class.  I generally only have access to your TCNJ e-mail addresses, however.  As a result, if you regularly use an e-mail address other than your TCNJ address, I recommend that you have mail from your TCNJ address forwarded to the address you use more regularly.  That way, if I e-mail your TCNJ address, my message will be forwarded to your other address automatically.  To forward mail from your TCNJ address, just go to http://managemail.tcnj.edu/  and click “Mail Forwarding Manager.”  Follow the directions there to set up the mail forwarding.

If you would like to send an e-mail message to one or more of your classmates, you can do so through SOCS.  To access SOCS, go to http://socs.tcnj.edu and, after you have logged in with your TCNJ e-mail username and password, choose this class from the list of your courses this semester.  Then, when our course page comes up, click the “Email” button.  From there, you can select individual e-mail addresses or the entire class and send a message to the addresses you’ve selected.

RESPONSE PAPERS.  In the course of the term, you are required to write 12 short, informal papers (about 2 pages each) on the readings for class.  You may choose which days and which readings you want to respond to.  I will post questions about each day’s reading assignment for you to consider as the basis of your response.

Response papers will be graded Pass/Fail.  I ask you to type them (so that they are easier for me to read), but they need not be a perfect, polished product.  Rather, response papers should be just what their name says -- a response.  Think about the question(s) that I ask you to consider for a particular day’s reading assignment; then, write a response.  Don’t worry about typos or comma splices or organization.  Don’t worry about answering every question I ask in the assignment.  In fact, focus on the one question that seems most interesting to you, and be as specific as you can, getting down as much as you can, as quickly as you can.  Treat response papers more like a journal entry than like a formal paper.  I don’t want a five-paragraph theme.  Rather, I want an exploration -- as detailed and specific as possible -- of the reading assignment for the day.

Normally, as long as you submit a response paper of suitable length, detail, and thoughtfulness (and as long as you turn it in on time in class on the assigned day), you will receive all the points that the response paper is worth.

You may submit more than 12 response papers in the course of the semester (to make up for any response papers that do not receive a grade of Pass), but no matter how many extra response papers you turn in, you will not receive more than 180 points total for all the response papers you write.  You may not submit more than one response paper on a single day, nor may you submit a response paper for a day that you are absent from class -- absolutely no exceptions.  (NOTE:  Even if you do not submit a response paper on a particular day, you should still come to class prepared to discuss the assigned questions for that day, since we will focus on those questions in the in-class discussion of the reading assignment.)

PAPER 1.  Odysseus/Ulysses was definitely a popular figure in ancient literature.  He appears as a major or minor character in Homer, Virgil, and Ovid, all three.  How has Ovid altered or maintained the tradition of Odysseus/Ulysses?  What characteristics from one other incarnation of Odysseus/Ulysses does Ovid use and admire?  What characteristics does he revise or criticize?  In a paper of 5-7 pages, argue a clear and specific thesis about Ovid’s use of the tradition of Odysseus/Ulysses by comparing Ovid’s Ulysses to one other incarnation of the Odysseus/Ulysses character.  Note: You need not use outside sources for this paper (that is, sources in addition to the texts of Homer, Virgil, and Ovid); in fact, I would encourage you not to use outside sources.  You will submit this paper to me electronically in the “dropbox” in SOCS (not in hard copy or in class), but you must submit it in the “dropbox” before coming to class on March 15.  Keep in mind the goals of this course; show me in your paper that you are making suitable progress toward those goals.

PAPER 2.  Revise your PAPER 1 to include Dante’s characterization of Ulysses.  Re-think and reorganize the entire paper in order to focus it on Dante.  In 10-12 pages, argue a clear and specific thesis about Dante’s use of the tradition of Odysseus/Ulysses by comparing Dante’s Ulysses to Ovid’s Ulysses and to one other incarnation of the Odysseus/Ulysses character.  How has Dante altered or maintained the tradition of Odysseus/Ulysses?  What characteristics from other incarnations of the character does Dante use and admire?  What characteristics does he revise or criticize?  Note: You need not use outside sources for this paper (that is, sources in addition to the texts of Homer, Virgil, Ovid, and Dante); in fact, I would encourage you not to use outside sources.  You will submit this paper to me electronically in the “dropbox” in SOCS (not in hard copy or in class), but you must submit it in the “dropbox” before coming to class on April 15.  Keep in mind the goals of this course; show me in your paper that you are making suitable progress toward those goals.

COURSE SCHEDULE.  This schedule is subject to revision at the discretion of the professor.  Changes in the schedule will be shown in red.

Date	Assignment
M Jan 19	Introductions
R Jan 22	Homer, Odyssey, Books I-IV Click here for the day's response paper assignment.
M Jan 26	Homer, Odyssey, Books V-VI and IX-X Click here for the day's response paper assignment.
R Jan 29	Homer, Odyssey, Books XI-XIV Click here for the day's response paper assignment.
M Feb 2	Homer, Odyssey, Books XVIII and XXI-XXIII Click here for the day's response paper assignment.
R Feb 5	Aeschylus, Agamemnon (in The Oresteia, pp. 98-172) Click here for the day's response paper assignment.
M Feb 9	Aeschylus, the Eumenides (in The Oresteia, pp. 227-277) Click here for the day's response paper assignment.
R Feb 12	Virgil, Aeneid, Books I-II; Galinsky, Augustan Culture, pp. 80-90 (available on electronic reserve) Click here for the day's response paper assignment.
M Feb 16	Virgil, Aeneid, Books IV-V; Wood, Imperial Women, pp. 1-26 (availabe on electronic reserve) Click here for the day's response paper assignment.
R Feb 19	Virgil, Aeneid, Books VI and VIII Click here for the day's response paper assignment.
M Feb 23	Virgil, Aeneid, Books X and XII Click here for the day's response paper assignment.
R Feb 26	MID-TERM EXAM
M Mar 1	Ovid, Metamorphoses, Books 1-3 Click here for the day's response paper assignment.
R Mar 4	Ovid, Metamorphoses, Books 10-11 Click here for the day's response paper assignment.
M Mar 8	NO CLASS (Spring Break)
R Mar 11	NO CLASS (Spring Break)
M Mar 15	Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 13; PAPER 1 DUE (submit your paper in the “dropbox” in SOCS before coming to class)
R Mar 18	Ovid, Metamorphoses, Books 14-15; Gruen, Studies in Greek Culture and Roman Policy, pp. 158-192 (available on electronic reserve) Click here for the day's response paper assignment.
M Mar 22	Livy, The War with Hannibal, Book XXI; Raaflaub and Toher, Between Republic and Empire, pp. 139-154 (available on electronic reserve) Click here for the day's response paper assignment.
R Mar 25	Livy, The War with Hannibal, Book XXVIII Click here for the day's response paper assignment.
M Mar 29	Livy, The War with Hannibal, Book XXX Click here for the day's response paper assignment.
R Apr 1	Acts and 1 Corinthians (from the Bible); Introduction from The Cults of the Roman Empire (available on electronic reserve) Click here for the day's response paper assignment.
M Apr 5	1 John (the first Epistle of John from the Bible, not the Gospel of John); Marie de France, Lanval (available in SOCS under “resources”); Dante, Inferno, Cantos I-V Click here for the day's response paper assignment.
R Apr 8	Brunetto Latini, the opening to Il Tesoretto; Dante, Inferno, Cantos VIII-XI, XIII, XV Click here for the day's response paper assignment.
M Apr 12	Dante, Inferno, Cantos XVIII, XXI-XXV Click here for the day's response paper assignment.
R Apr 15	Dante, Inferno, Canto XXVI; PAPER 2 DUE (submit your paper in the “dropbox” in SOCS before coming to class)
M Apr 19	Bertran de Born, “In Praise of War” (available in SOCS under “resources”); Dante, Inferno, Cantos XXVIII, XXX-XXXIV Click here for the day's response paper assignment.
R Apr 22	Genesis, Chapters 1-3 (from the Bible); Milton, Paradise Lost, Books I-III Click here for the day's response paper assignment.
M Apr 26	Milton, Paradise Lost, Books V and IX-X Click here for the day's response paper assignment.
Finals Week	FINAL EXAM (in our regularly scheduled room) Section 01:  R May 6 at 8:00 a.m. Section 02:  M May 3 at 2:00 p.m.

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