English 43C, World Literature I, Ancient through Middle Ages
3 units, transferable as General Education to UC and CSU
Dr. June Gillam, Instructor
Fall 2008, Code: 14702
Mini-Syllabus
Catalog Description: This course is designed as a survey course of World literature in translation beginning with the earliest extant texts in Mesopotamia and extending through the seventeenth century.
My personal goal is that we relate to literature of the past in order to create richer present and future lives. Overall class theme is “relationships” of various kinds.
Texts: Bedford Anthology of World Lit., Books 1 and 2 in a bundle, costs about $50.00 in the Delta bookstore.
Class activities include
Reading an average of 50 pages a week,
Posting reflections on readings in online discussions,
Writing an essay at the end of the first, second, and third month, plus taking a final exam.
Readings such as:
--Descent of Inanna
--Epic of Gilgamesh
--selections from Hebrew Scriptures: Genesis, Proverbs, Exodus
--Dead Sea Scrolls: War of Sons of Light and Sons of Darkness
--Hesiod, Theogony & Works and Days
--Homer, The Iliad, selections
--Sappho selections
--Aeschylus, the Eumenides
--Aristotle, from Poetics
--Petronius, Satyricon: from Dinner with Trimalchio
--Bhagavad Gita
--Dao De Jing (Tao Te Ching)
--NEW TESTAMENT, selections from Matthew, Luke, First Corinthians
--THE QUR'AN, selections from Sura 1, 2, 4, 5 and 12
--THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS
--Courtly Love, selections
--DANTE, selections from “The Inferno”
--BOCCACCIO, the Decameron
--Book of Margery Kempe
--SHONAGON, from The Pillow Book
Website URL for The Bedford Anthology of World Literature:
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/worldlit/default.asp?uid=0&rau=0