| Classics 44/CompLit 18.5/English 50.91: Making Pastoral Myth | |||||||||
| Professor John Van Sickle [e-mail: jvsickle@brooklyn.cuny.edu]
718-051-5078; Office: 2404 Boylan, Office hours: Monday & Wednesday 1:15-2:00 or by appointment via e-mail. |
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| 3 hours; 3 credits [M,W 11:00-12:15PM 3150 B ] | |||||||||
| The
course will introduce the social & geographical matrix in which the
pastoral comes into being as a special
kind of work.distant from the city & so subject to imagination & available as a point of reference for the analogies & metaphors of mythic thought. |
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| Course requirements, in addition to regular reading &
contribution to class discussion, will include three essays on topics arising
from reading & discussion. Grades will be decided on the following
criteria: preparation & part in class conversation, 25 percent, essays,
75 percent. For each essay, you will prepare a preliminary draft to share with the class for feedback. Length: from 7 to 14 paragraphs, well-framed: craft not volume, quality not quantity, is the esthetic defined & exemplified in the tradition studied in this course. |
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| 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.You will thus acquire a powerful analytical & synthetic tool for the work of cultural criticism, enhanced by careful attention to your own writing. | |||||||||
| day | Readings: Read before coming to class so that you can share insights in conversation with fellow students. : | ||||||||
| A 27 W | Lecture & discussion: background--what do
we mean by 'pastoral' & 'bucolic'?
What did 'they' mean? read in class story of Inanna & Dumezi (Sumer, ca 6000 BCE) read too in class story of Moses at the well & herding sheep on the mountain. Bring your own copy of Psalm 23, 'The Lord is my shepherd' & Psalm 120 'I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills... |
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| S 3 W | Threads of bucolic culture in Greek frame:
1. reread Homer, Iliad 18.478-607: Achilles' shield shows three ranges in culture: [1] civic=city at peace & war; [2] georgic=farming; [3] bucolic=pasturiing cattle & sheep. [sc. 18th book=scroll. volume & verses; for outlines & discussion see my web site] [http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/classics/jvsickle/shldisc.htm] [http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/classics/jvsickle/shieldes.htm] 2. reread Homer, Odyssey 9: Cyclops bucolic monster skilled in pastoral arts 3. reread Hesiod, Theogony, Invocation to the Muses [lines 1-102]: poet-shepherd authorized |
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| S 8 M | Bucolic threads twisted to to make new weaves
[note similarity & difference]. Cyclops, satyr drama by Euripides (late c5 BCE) [book to buy]. Phaidros ('glittering boy') by Plato (mid c4 BCE) [excerpt on line] |
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| S 10 W | New
twist to old threads: Epos in bucolic range: Theocritus, Bucolics (c3 BCE,
Alexandria) idyll 1: goatherd’s emblematic cup pays for shepherd Thyrsis’ song about oxhed Daphnis dying of struggle against love. |
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| S 15 M | idyll 3: leaving Tityros in charge, feckless goatherd-singer fails to
charm with song Amarýllis to open her
grotto, so he dies idyll 11: a new twist to bucolic monster, cf. satyr drama & Odyssey: focus on similarity & difference. |
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| S 17 W | idyll 7: city poet on way to country feast meets smelly goatherd: they exchange compliments on their artistic principles & sing complementary songs, Plot: city><country [bucolic & georgic]. | ||||||||
| S 22 M | Roman twist to bucolic
threads: Virgil (Latin: 70-19 BCE, Rome) rewrites Theocritus for Rome. eclogue 1.1-45: citizen-farmer-singer-seer goatherd Melibśus, exiled, meets slave-shepherd-oxherd singerTítyrus,secured in place: threads woven from three ranges: mythic-civic/georgic/ bucolic [cattle/sheep/goats] |
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| S 24 W | eclogue 1.46-83: places & plots in contrast. | ||||||||
| O 6 M | eclogue 2: progressive towards? recursive to ecl. 1 & Theocritus (idd. 11, 2, 6) & Homer, Odyssey 9 | ||||||||
| O 14 Tues | eclogue 4: thamatic ranges reached? Distance from ecll 1-3 & Theocritus? Role of Rome. Recursive to ecll. 3, 2, 1 & Catullus (64.303-408); Theocritus (id. 7), Hesiod? Homer? | ||||||||
| O 15 W | eclogue 5: Daphnis bucolic hero takes in bucolic & georgic ranges; cf ecll 1-2-3-4 & idyll 1. | ||||||||
| O 20 M | Drafts in class for first paper: queries & critiques. Studies in similarity & difference, what makes tradition | ||||||||
| O 22 W | eclogue 6: Tityrus drawn down from highest range to middle range; cf, ecll. 1, 4 & Theocritus ??? | ||||||||
| O 27 M | eclogue 7: Meliboeus drawn down from middle (georgic) range to meet Italo-Arcadian bucolic range | ||||||||
| 0 29 W | eclogue 8: tragic plot (Arcadian verse) vs comic (?) plot (Theocritean spells) | ||||||||
| N 3 M | eclogue
10: Roman version of Daphnis dying, but in Arcadia: cf.
ecl. 5 & idyll 1. HAND IN FIRST PAPER |
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| N 5 W | Edmund
Spenser (English, 1552-1599). Shepheardes Calendar:
read aeglogues for Januarye, Aprill: plots (city ><country)? |
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| N 10 M | SC, October, December | ||||||||
| N 12 W | Fairie Queene, Sixth Book, Cantos IX-XII | ||||||||
| N 17 M | John Milton (English, 1608-1694), Lycidas | ||||||||
| N 19 W | Lycidas & eclogue tradition: threads woven & changed. | ||||||||
| N 24 M | Second essay, first drafts due: to present in class for feedback. | ||||||||
| N 26 W | William Wordsworth (English, 1770-1850), Preludes, Book 1: Plot: city><country. | ||||||||
| D 1 M | "Charles Dickens (English, 1812-1870), Bleak House (selections) | ||||||||
| D 3 W | Robert
Frost ( American, 1874-1963), A Boy's Will (1913) read poems from "Into My Own" to "Rose Pogonias" |
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| D 8 M | ibid., from "Waiting" to Reluctance" | ||||||||
| D 10 W | idem, from North of Boston, "Mending Wall" & "The Mountain" | ||||||||
| D 15 M | Third essay, first drafts due: to present in class for feedback. Rewritten version due no later than December 20, Tuesday, at 2408 Boylan, Classics Department Office, in mailbox of professor. | ||||||||
| Books on order at Shakespeare & Company, Hillel Place, except for Virgil, Bucolics, for which access to my new edition will be arranged | |||||||||
| Dickens, Charles, Bleak House Penguin. | |||||||||
| Euripides, Cyclops, translated by H. McHugh, with notes by David Konstan. Oxford ISBN 0-19-514303-5 | |||||||||
| Frost, Robert, Poems by Robert Frost Signet edition ISBN 0-451-52787-9.. | |||||||||
| Milton, John. Poetry. | |||||||||
| Spenser, Edmund. Poetical Works. | |||||||||
| Theocritus, Idylls.translated by Anthony Verity with notes by Richard Hunter. Oxford. | |||||||||
| Virgil, Book of Bucolics, translated by John Van Sickle (PDF in Blackboard) | |||||||||
| Wordsworth, William, Works. | |||||||||