3 hours; 3 credits [Tuesday & Thursday, 1:40-2:55, but in addition active in Blackboard on-line]
Description: Pastoral, a powerful mode of mythic imagination, studied in its roots & transformations, including ramifications all over the W{orld-}W{ide-}W{eb}: plots & themes (herdsmen as lovers, rulers, & poets; kings as herdsmen & poets [David]) originating in ancient Mediterranean cultures & still at work in imagination today. Return & change of basic mythemes to meet the challenges of new times & worlds.
Prerequisite: Core Studies 1 or permission from the instructor.
Discussion: The course will introduce the social & geographical
matrix in which the pastoral comes into being as a special form of work,
distinct from the city, hence available as a point of reference & comparison
for the analogies & metaphors of mythic thought.
Students will look at early occurrences of pastoral
motifs & learn characteristic motifs & patterns, so as to recognize
them in the new forms they assume in later cultural moments.
Students will thus acquire a powerful analytical
& synthetic tool for the work of cultural criticism, enhanced, too,
by careful attention to their writing.
Course requirements, in addition to assignments to read & discuss, will include two essays on topics arising from reading & discussion.
Syllabus
Week 1 [January 28 & 30].
Readings: Read before coming to class so that we can discuss
the following:
Jan. 28: Sumerian mythology [very present on the world-wide
web, also by some kooky kults, so beware]:
Inanna
& Dumuzi [compare to Psalm 23, "prepareth a table"), also Inanna
& her lover, the shepherd king Dumuz.
Jewish tradition: Moses [very present, but
a basic text]: his
birth & marriage also in
another version;
Moses as
shepherd & what he sees & hears;
David, shepherd, psalmist
& king: some background, not required but fascinating,
Roman
Catholic encyclopedia & also an
unorthodox view) together with fuller
scholarly background for it.
Psalm
23
Jan 30: Greek:
Homer, shield of Achilles
Iliad
18(th book=scroll or volume).(lines) 478-607 [as translated by Richmond
Lattimore]
another
text of the shield [also
outline of motifs by JVS & many
discussions on the web.
Homer, The Cyclops Polyphemus
Odyssey 9(th book=scroll or volume)
Hesiod, Theogony, Invocation
to the Muses [lines
1-29 lines
30-51 lines
52-62 lines
63-102]
3. Virgil. Readings: Bucolics 1,
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Feb. 18: 1 [recursive to Theocritus
(Idd. 7 & 3 & 1; also Hesiod, Theogony 1-102]
Feb. 20: 2 & 3 [recursive
to Theocritus (Idd. 11, 2, 6; Homer, Odyssey 9]
Feb. 25: 4 & 5 [recursive
to ???]
Feb. 27: 6 & 7 [recursive
to previous eclogues? to Theocritus? to Homer?]
Mar. 4: 8 & 9
[recursive to previous eclogues? to Theocritus? to Homer?]
Mar. 6: 10 [recursive
to previous eclogues? to Theocritus? to Homer?]
Working essay due: on a topic arising from reading
& discussion.
4. Spenser. Reading: Shepheardes Calendar,
1, 4, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12;
Fairie Queene, Sixth Book 1-7; Cantos IX-XII
Mar. 11: SC 1
Mar. 13: SC 4 & 6
Mar. 18: SC 9-10
Mar. 20: SC 11-12
Mar. 25: FQ
6. Milton
Reading: Lycidas
Working essay due: on a topic arising from further reading & discussion
Reading: Preludes, Book 1
Week 12
Selections from Dickens, Bleak House.
Weeks 13 & 14
8. Frost
Reading: North of Boston
Working essay due: on a topic arising from further reading & discussion
Week 15
Final examination: a final, comparative report will be handed in.
Required Texts:
Bible
Theocritus, Idylls
Virgil, Eclogues
Spenser, Shepheardes Calendar, Faerie Queene
Milton, Lycidas
Wordsworth, Preludes
Charles Dickens, Bleak House,
Frost, North of Boston.