HUM 101: CULTURAL ENCOUNTERS
FALL 2014
SYLLABUS
WEEK LECTURE DATES
TOPIC
1
22 September
Monday
Introduction
24 September
Wednesday
Civilization and Hierarchy
Gilgamesh, pages 61-84
29 September
Monday
Myth-Making
Gilgamesh, pages 85-107
1 October
Wednesday
Representation and Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh, pages 108-119
2
READING and FILMS
3 - 7 October
Holiday
3
4
Holiday
Monday-Tuesday
no lecture / no classes
8 October
Wednesday
Homeric World
Homer, Odyssey, Books 6 and 8
13 October
Monday
Homeric Epic
Odyssey, Book 9
Film screening: Jean-Luc Godard, Contempt NH 101 17:00
(required film)
15 October
Wednesday
Becoming Homer: Desire and
Nostalgia in Godard's Contempt
Odyssey
5
6
7
8
20 October
Monday
Homer in the American Aegean:
Omeros
Derek Walcott, Omeros
(selection: pages 11-15; 23-24; 39-41; 133-139; 144-145; 148150)
22 October
Wednesday
Genesis / Monotheism I
Genesis, 1-3
27 October
Monday
Genesis / Monotheism II
Genesis, 6-9
29 October
Wednesday
Republic Day Holiday
no lecture
3 November
Monday
Logos against Mythos
Plato, Republic, Book X (selection)
5 November
Wednesday
Symposium
Plato, Symposium
(selection)
10 November
Monday
Tragedy
Sophokles, Antigone
[Seamus Heaney version: Burial at Thebes]
12 November
Wednesday
Tragedy and the City
Antigone [Burial at Thebes]
17 November
Monday
Tragedy and Politics
Antigone [Burial at Thebes]
19 November
Wednesday
The Greek World of Substance
Aristotle, Physics, Book II
Midterm Exam: Tuesday 17:00-19:00
9
10
24 November
Monday
Art and Conflict
Ovid, Metamorphoses, Creation of the World; Echo and
Narcissus; Daedalus and Icarus
26 November
Wednesday
Art, Limits, and Trangression
Ovid, Metamorphoses, Creation of the World; Echo and
Narcissus; Daedalus and Icarus
Film screening: Alfred Hitchcock, Vertigo
NH 101 17:00 (required film)
11
12
13
14
1 December
Monday
The Pygmalion Myth on Screen:
Hitchcock's Vertigo
Ovid, Metamorphoses, Pygmalion
3 December
Wednesday
Ancient Rome
8 December
Monday
On the Nature of Things I:
Pleasure and Fear
Lucretius, On the Nature of Things [De Rerum Natura],
selections from Books One and Two
10 December
Wednesday
On the Nature of Things II:
Matter and Chance
Lucretius, On the Nature of Things [De Rerum Natura],
selections from Books One and Two
15 December
Monday
Narrative
1001 Nights, Prologue and the Young Woman and her Five
Lovers
17 December
Wednesday
Medieval City
1001 Nights, Prologue and the Young Woman and her Five
Lovers
22 December
Monday
Narrative and Escape
Boccaccio, Decameron, ‘First Day’ (Introduction)
24 December
Wednesday
Narrative and Redemption
Boccaccio, Decameron, ‘Fourth Day, Second Story’ (Fra
Alberto)