English 2800 SMWB: Great Works of Literature I
Baruch College – Fall 2012
Mondays and Wednesdays 5:40PM-7:20PM
Room #1208 (17 Lexington Avenue, The Lawrence and Eris Field Building)
Instructor: Linda Neiberg
Required texts (available at the College Bookstore):
* The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Third Edition, Package 1 (Volumes A, B, and C), eds. Akbari, Denecke, et al.
* William Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale (Bedford Texts & Contexts edition, ed. Mario DiGangi)
* Contexts and Comparisons: A Student Guide to the Great Works Courses (located on the Newman Library website, under “Digital Collections”) — referred to as C & C on our syllabus
* A notebook in which you will take copious notes during class and sketch ideas you are working through
Recommended texts:
* Fowler, H. Ramsey and Jane E. Aaron. The Little, Brown Handbook, 10th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007
Course Description:
This survey course (the first of two parts) will introduce you to some of the major works of world literature from ancient Mesopotamia to early modern (Renaissance) Europe. Thus, in approximately three months, we will work our way through over three thousand years of epic narrative, classical, medieval, and early modern world drama, lyric poetry, and key religious texts. Since the course traverses such vast temporal, geographical, and generic terrain, the pace will leave you breathless—and hopefully, exhilarated. We will begin our journey by analyzing the creation myths of several cultures and explore them uniquely as well as comparatively. As we wend our way from circa 1900 B.C.E. to the early seventeenth-century C.E., we shall consider some of the following questions: How does a work of literature reflect the culture in which it was produced? How does literature enable us to increase our understanding of human relationships (erotic and romantic bonds, familial ties, political allegiances and behavior, power dynamics, humankind’s connection with the natural world and the cosmos, and one’s sense of connection to the divine)? How do historical, religious, socio-economic, and political contexts help shape a given text? What makes a particular work of literature “great?” How does one read texts comparatively and what are the effects of doing so? Your preparedness for each class meeting is essential to the success of this course. Please come to class having read all the material for that day. Be prepared to initiate and contribute to engaged discussion and respectful debate, write frequently in class, at home, and on our blog, share your writing with your peers and offer constructive feedback to them.
