Description of Course
While storytelling appears essential to humanity, its various forms, strategies and techniques have changed and developed over the years. This course will investigate the relationship between ancient epic and romantic narrative. 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, we will open our inquiry up to all possibilities. We will start from some examples of the earliest epic and romantic expressions, create our individual theoretical categories to explain how the genres differ, 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 receptions. Throughout this investigation we will consciously compare modern storytelling to ancient by studying contemporary films with our ancient texts and by reading a recent novel to end the course. 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 10: Introductions.
January 12: Read Apollonius King of Tyre (Reardon) and prepare for a general discussion of the novel.
January 14: Review Apollonius King of Tyre and prepare to discuss the form of the novel: character development, plot complications, unifying threads, climax, etc.
January 17: One Page Paper Due. Write a terse, 250-word essay on the meaning of the rape scene at the beginning of the novel.
January 19: Read Xenophon of Ephesus' Ephesian Tale (Reardon) and prepare for a preliminary discussion.
January 21: Review Ephesian Tale and prepare to discuss a comparison of these first two novels.
January 24: View the film Princess Bride and prepare to discuss its form and compare it to our early novels.
January 26: Two Page Paper Due. Create a terse, clear and compelling argument for one element of the early novel's form.
January 28: Epic. Read Gilgamesh and prepare to consider the context of this form of storytelling.
January 31: Epic Form. Review Gilgamesh and prepare to discuss the epic's elements of form.
February 2: Read Iliad books 1-2 and prepare to discuss the comparison with Gilgamesh and our early novels.
February 4: Drama. Read Euripides Hippolytus (electronic reserve) and prepare to discuss its elements of form against epic and novel.
February 7: History. Read the selections from Herodotus' Histories and prepare to discuss history's relation to other genres.
February 9: Read the Book of Ruth and prepare to discuss how its form fits in with our previous analysis.
February 11: Read the Odyssey books 1-6 and prepare to discuss the epic introduction versus the novel as well as the role of gods, setting, sense of time, etc.
February 14: Read the Odyssey books 7-12 and prepare to discuss the role of virgins in epics and novels, the development of exotic locations, the rhetoric of storytelling, etc.
February 16: Read the Odyssey books 13-18 and prepare to discuss unreliable narration, divine intervention, etc.
February 18: Read the Odyssey books 19-24 and prepare to discuss treatments of family and marriage, homecomings, generic ethics, etc.
February 21: View the film "O Brother Where Art Thou" and prepare to analyze its debt to the Odyssey and its formal relation to the novel.
February 23: Five Page Paper Due on Generic Hybridity. Compose a 1300 word essay that defines generic differences between epic and novel.
February 25: Read Plutarch's Pyrrhus (electronic reserve) and prepare to discuss life as a quest/romance in the genre of biography.
February 28: Read Vergil's Aeneid book 4 (electronic reserve) and prepare to discuss the entrance of "romance" into the epic tradition.
March 2: Study for Midterm
March 4: Midterm Exam
March 14: Read Chariton's Chaereas and Callirhoe pp. 21-75 and prepare to discuss characterization and plot development
March 16: Read Chariton's Chaereas and Callirhoe pp. 75-124 and ponder a comparison to Apollonius King of Tyre and An Ephesian Tale. Information Literacy Session: MEET IN BOATWRIGHT LIBRARY BASEMENT COMPUTER ROOM.
March 18: View the film Pirates of the Caribbean: Black Pearl and prepare to discuss audiences' reactions to crime and criminals.
March 21: Five Page Paper Due. Compose a maximum 1400 word essay explaining the role of crime, pirates, bandits and various illegal acts in the early novel.
March 23: Read Fergus Millar's "World of Apuleius' Golden Ass" (electronic reserve) and prepare to discuss the Roman Empire as context for novels.
March 25: Read Achilles Tatius' Leucippe and Clitophon pp. 175-233 and prepare to discuss characterization and plot complication.
March 28: Read Achilles Tatius' Leucippe and Clitophon pp. 233-284 and prepare to discuss romantic incest, views of death, plot resolution, etc.
March 30: Read Apuleius' Golden Ass books 1-3 and prepare to discuss unreliable narrators, Roman justice, romantic sex, magic, etc.
April 1: Read Apuleius' Golden Ass books 4-6 and prepare to discuss the narrative purpose of the story of Cupid and Psyche, etc.
April 3: Read Apuleius' Golden Ass books 7-8 and prepare to discuss romantic slavery, exotic religion (Cybele), role of donkey death threats, etc.
April 6: Read Apuleius' Golden Ass books 9-11 and prepare to discuss exotic religion (Christ, Isis), donkey tricks as performance, resolution, etc.
April 8: Review and Conclusions on Roman Novels
April 11: Seven Page Research Paper Due. Research and write up a maximum 1800 word report on a a well defined topic within the field of ancient narrative.
April 13: Read the Life of Saint Pelagia the Harlot and prepare to discuss the narrative form of this saint's life.
April 15: Read Life of Saint Mary the Harlot and prepare to compare gender roles in novels and saints lives.
April 18: Read the first half of Sister Pelagia and the Black Monk and prepare to discuss the techniques of characterization and plot complication.
April 20: Read the second half of Sister Pelagia and the Black Monk and prepare to discuss the development of novelists' techniques beyond antiquity.
April 22: Concluding Discussion and prepare for final exam.
April 25 (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.
Boris Akunin, Sister Pelagia and the Black Monk.
Course Policies
Last edited: January 6, 2011