Description of Course
While storytelling appears essential to human life, its various strategies, contexts and forms have changed and developed over the years. This course will focus on the appearance of two prominent, important and long-lived forms of narrative, epic and novel. We will look at a variety of ancient stories asking what goals the authors reveal in their works, what reception they may have received from audiences and what role the forms of epic and novel play in our modern reception. However much our literary tradition from antiquity on has tended to view a development from epic to novel, and within that development a decline in literary quality, our open inquiry will test all possibilities. We will start from some examples of the earliest epic and romantic expressions, create our individual theoretical categories to explain how generic differences help understand narrative, and tell our own stories about the novel's origins in antiquity. We will not ignore important historical developments from urbanization to Christianization, but our focus will remain on narrative techniques and their possible social functions. Throughout this investigation we will consciously compare modern storytelling to ancient by studying contemporary films with our ancient texts. It is hoped that this method will allow us to gain insight into the intentions of ancient authors and their audiences while also prompting us to understand better our assumptions about good storytelling in the 21st century. Perhaps most important, all this reading, thinking and discussing narrative technique should help us to improve our own oral expression and writing.
Requirements
Each student will be expected to read
all assigned texts carefully and participate frequently and effectively in
class discussion. Students will
compose six papers of increasing challenge and length. Finally,
students will demonstrate their mastery of the course material and methods by
passing a midterm and final exam.
Grading
Class Participation: 20 percent
Papers: 40 percent (each page worth roughly 2 percent of final grade)
Midterm: 20 percent
Final: 20 percent
Assignments and Daily
Schedule
January 14: Introductions.
January 16: Read Apollonius King of Tyre (Reardon) and prepare for a general discussion of the novel.
January 18: Review Apollonius King of Tyre and prepare to discuss the form of the novel: character development, plot complications, unifying threads, climax, etc.
January 21: First Paper Due. Write a terse, 1page/250-word essay on the meaning of the novel's opening scene.
January 23: Read Xenophon of Ephesus' Ephesian Tale (Reardon) and prepare for a preliminary discussion.
January 25: Review Ephesian Tale and prepare to discuss a comparison of these first two novels.
January 28: View the film Princess Bride and prepare to discuss its form and compare it to our early novels (screening in MRC at 6:30 PM Jan. 27).
January 30: Second Paper Due: in 2 pages/500 words create a terse, clear and compelling argument for one aspect of the early novel's audience/context.
February 1: Read the Book of Ruth and prepare to discuss how its form fits in with our previous analysis.
February 4: Read Gilgamesh and prepare to consider the context of this form of storytelling.
February 6: History. Read Hesiod's Theogony and prepare to discuss the gods in ancient narrative.
February 8: Third Paper Due: 3 pages researching the performance context of Homeric epic.
February 11: Read the Odyssey books 1-4 and prepare to discuss the epic introduction versus the novel as well as the role of gods, setting, sense of time, etc.
February 13: Read the Odyssey books 5-8.
February 15: Read the Odyssey books 9-12.
February 18: Read Segal's article (electronic reserve) and prepare to discuss its validity.
February 20: Read the Odyssey books 13-16.
February 22: Read the Odyssey books 17-20.
February 25: Read the Odyssey books 21-24.
February 27: View the film "O Brother Where Art Thou" and prepare to analyze its debt to the Odyssey and its formal relation to the novel (screening at MRC 6:30 PM Feb. 26).
March 1: Fourth Paper Due: 4 pages on audience expectations for the Odyssey.
March 4: Lecture/Discussion: early epic and the novel.
March 6: Study/Review for Midterm
March 8: Midterm Exam
March 18: Seminar on Library Research Techniques (meet at Boatwright Basement Computer Lab)
March 20: Read Chariton's Chaereas and Callirhoe pp. 21-75.
March 22: Read Chariton's Chaereas and Callirhoe pp. 75-124 and ponder a comparison to Apollonius King of Tyre and An Ephesian Tale.
March 25: View the film Pirates of the Caribbean: Black Pearl and prepare to discuss audiences' reactions to crime and criminals (screening in MRC at 6:30 PM Mar. 24)
March 27: Read Elsom's article on female perspective in ancient Greek novels (electronic reserve).
March 29: Fifth Paper Due: 4 pages on social views of crime, piracy, banditry, prostitution, etc.
April 1: Read Longus' Daphnis and Chloe Prologue-book 2.
April 3: Read Longus' Daphnis and Chloe books 3-4.
April 5: Read Newland's article (electronic reserve)/Research Topic Due.
April 8: Read Apuleius' Golden Ass books 1-3 and prepare to discuss unreliable narrators, Roman justice, romantic sex, magic, etc.
April 10: Read Apuleius' Golden Ass books 4-6 and prepare to discuss the narrative purpose of the story of Cupid and Psyche, etc.
April 12: Read Apuleius' Golden Ass books 7-8 and prepare to discuss romantic slavery, exotic religion (Cybele), role of donkey death threats, etc.
April 15: Read Apuleius' Golden Ass books 9-11 and prepare to discuss exotic religion (Christ, Isis), donkey tricks as performance, resolution, etc.
April 17: Final Paper Due. Research and write up a maximum 7 page/1800 word report on a a well defined topic within the field of ancient narrative.
April 19: Read the Life of Saint Pelagia the Harlot and Life of Saint Mary the Harlot and prepare to compare gender roles in novels and saints lives.
April 22: Read "Southeast Fly the Peacocks" (electronic reserve).
April 24: Read Turner's article on the big history of the novel (electronic reserve).
April 26: Study/Review for final exam.
April 30 (9 AM): Final Exam
Texts
B.P. Reardon, Collected Ancient Greek Novels.
Robert Fagles, Homer: The Odyssey.
Stephen Mitchell, Gilgamesh: A New English Version.
Joel Relihan, Apuleius: The Golden Ass.
Course Policies
Last edited: January 8, 2013