Interdisciplinary Team-Teaching in the Humanities Course (Spring 2015)
IDH 3931/CLT 3930/LIT 3383 Women Writers & Classical Myth (T4, R 4-5)
Professors: Marsha Bryant (English) & Mary Ann Eaverly (Classics)
Our interdisciplinary course challenges students to examine women and Classical myth through ancient
and modern materials: including poetry, literary criticism, art, and film. Our course gives equal weight
to the two disciplines and their connectivity, focusing on legendary characters such as Athena, Pandora,
Helen, and Penelope. By linking Hesiod and Homer with former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove and
contemporary novelist Margaret Atwood, we learn how the Classical tradition challenges and sustains
women writers. Because this rich source material is visual as well as literary, we will include artifacts
from UF’s Harn Museum of Art (ancient coins, vase painting, sculpture) as well as contemporary media
(photography, film). Texts will include Homer’s epic poems, Atwood’s The Penelopiad, Dove’s Mother
Love, Powell’s Classical Myth, and the NBC miniseries The Odyssey. Assignments include a short paper
tied to the Harn, a term paper, reading quizzes & participation, and a Pinterest board.
In this course, students will:
 Familiarize themselves with major Greek myth cycles
 Encounter key modern writers who reinvent the Classical tradition
 Interpret literature and visual culture
 Learn to synthesize diverse materials
 Learn to write more clearly and convincingly
EVALUATION METHODS:
20% - Weekly reading quizzes (Identification or short answer)
15% - Class Participation
20% - Short Paper (5 pages) – Harn Assignment
35% - Term Paper (15 pages) 10-12?
10 % - Pinterest assignment
TEXTS:
Critical essays on women and myth from current journals (full-text via UF Library ERES, incl our CT essay)
Course Packet of modern poems (Poe, Yeats, Lawrence, Graves, Eliot, Millay, H.D., Auden, A. Lowell,
Rich, Levertov, Grahn, Broumas, Greger, Atwood, Duffy, Mlinko, etc.)
Barry Powell, Classical Myth, any edition (Pearson)
Course Image Bank on e-learning (sakai or canvas)
Robert Fagles, trans. The Odyssey (Penguin, 1997)
*recommended, The Iliad (any edition) ASSIGN these chapters: ***
Rita Dove, Mother Love (sonnet cycle about Demeter-Persephone by recent U.S. Poet Laureate)
Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad (multi-format text retelling The Odyssey from the perspectives of
Penelope and the 12 hanged maids).
Ange Mlinko, Marvelous Things Overheard (FSG, paperback or e-book)
SYLLABUS SKETCH (final version available first day of class; we are coordinating with the Harn’s and Ange
Mlinko’s spring 2015 schedules)
Wk Day
Reading/ViewingMaterial
Due
1
T1/6,
MAE+MB: Intro to course
R 1/8
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
T 1/13
R1/15
T 1/20
R 1/22
T 1/27
R 1/29
T 2/3
R 2/5
T 2/10
R 2/12
T 2/17
R 2/19
T 2/24
R 2/26
T, R
T 3/10
R 3/12
T 3/17
R 3/19
T 3/24
R 3/26
T 3/31
R 4/2
T 4/7
R 4/9
T 4/14
R 4/16
T 4/21
MAE: Ancient Greek Society & the Pantheon; MB: modernism, women writers & the
Classical Tradition <slides, lecture, introduce key questions>
MAE/MB: Homer, Sappho & their legacy
MAE: Creation of the Gods & Universe / Hesiod / MB poems
MAE: Creation of Man and Woman (Prometheus, Pandora) ;
HARN DAY
MAE: The Underworld?
Myths of Creativity?
Major Goddesses (minus Demeter) here?
MAE: Myths of Fertility?
Goddess Poems
Mother Love unit
Paper 1
Orpheus & Eurydice unit
No Class: Spring Break (Feb 28 – March 7)
The Iliad & Epic Women 1 Unit: Helen, Clytemnestra, Cassandra
<MAE away> Hollywood Helens
MB: Hollywood Helens <get started on The Odyssey, MAE study Qs for O>
The Odyssey
The Odyssey
The Odyssey <film scenes>
Epic Women 2 Unit: Penelope, Circe, Calypso
Harn Day 2 –or- Writing Workshop
Ange Mlinko or MB does Penelope poems (Duffy, etc.)
Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad
Ange Mlinko or MB does Penelope poems (Duffy, etc.)
Discuss the NBC miniseries The Odyssey, dir. Andrei Konchalovsky (1997)
DUE pinterest board
Paper 2
pinterest
DESCRIPTIONS of WRITING ASSIGNMENTS:
Short Paper: Will be tied to our “Classical Convrgences” exhibit at the Harn, referring to 1 Classical
myth and 1 modern reworking of it.
Long Paper: Use an ancient artifact (sculpture, vase painting, etc.) from the class image group to write
a comparative paper on Classical and modern interpretations of the depicted mythic figure or scene. Use
2 ancient literary sources, and either 3 short modern poems -or- 1 of the book-length texts (Dove,
Atwood, or Corman).
Pinterest board: Assemble a group of images related to your long paper topic.