| Syllabus [Classics 44><CompLit 18.5><English 50.91] Makings of Pastoral Myth |
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{click
here for images & description (http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/classics/jvsickle/03s-past.htm)} E-mail Professor Van Sickle
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| [Tu & Th, 1:40-2:55, with support in Blackboard on-line at http://blackboard.brooklyn.cuny.edu/index.html]
Course requirements, assignments to read & discuss; two essays [one & two] on topics arising from reading & discussion; also a final essay. Books required. |
| Wk 1: J 28 & 30 |
Read before coming to class so that we can discuss the following:
[c(irc)a='around' marks dates as approximate] |
Look for sets of motifs that recur in different contexts & how they resemble yet differ (similarity yet difference) | In particular, seek out motifs of time, place, kinds of work (special roles in country & in city, e.g. weaving, herding, ruling the unruly), the arts (song which joins poetry & music). |
| J 28 |
Sumerian tradition [ca 3000-2000 BCE] | Inanna & Dumuzi [compare to Psalm 23, "prepareth a table"), also Inanna (goddess of LOVE/WAR, cf. AMOR/ROMA) & her lover, the SHEPHERD-KING Dumuzi. | Cf. King Solomon
& the Queen of Sheba [Sumerian chronology, click here] |
| J 28 | Hebrew tradition: Moses [ca 1300 BCE: from an unpretentious chronology] | Moses [many versions, but here is one basic text]: his birth & marriage also another version | Moses as
shepherd & what he sees & hears [not mishnah but mishmash: as many chronologies as sects that incorporate Moses into their teachings & beliefs (click for samples & smile or weep!!)] |
| J 28 Tu | ca 1000 BCE [chronology conflicted] |
David, shepherd, psalmist & king: Psalm 23 |
background, not required but nice: Roman Catholic encyclopedia & an unorthodox view with fuller scholarly background. |
| J 30 Th |
Greek tradition [War at Troy: ca 1200 BCE] |
Homer [ca 800], "Shield of Achilles" Iliad 18(th book=scroll or volume).(lines) 478-607 [translated by Richmond Lattimore] | another
text of the shield [also outline
of motifs by JVS & many discussions on the web; thematic chart:
cosmos < [city*/country*{agriculture/pastoral}] dance, music, song*>ocean (* motifs of music occur & recur in structure) |
| J 30 Th |
. | Homer [ca 800], "Shepherd Monster: Polyphemus (Cyclops)," Odyssey 9(th book=scroll or volume) | lecture by jvs on Odyssey & images of "Monstrous Other" as clues to a culture's norms |
| J 30 Th |
. | Hesiod [ca 750 BCE], Theogony, Invocation to the Muses [lines 1-29 lines 30-51 lines 52-62 lines 63-102] | Hesiod shepherding on sacred mountain (Helicon) endowed by Muses (daughters of Zeus & Memory) with power to speak truth & discourse like truth that brings forgetfulness of ills |
| Weeks 2 & 3 | Theocritus [Greek: c3 BCE, Syracuse, Alexandria] Idylls 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 11 |
Contexts: referential to present? recursive to past? [Remaking Homer for a new world (cosmopolitan city, Greek kingdom, library): new brand of hero & epic song, new poetic authority] |
| Feb. 4 Tu | Idyll 1 [Sicily, Arethusa] | roles of goatherd, shepherd, cowherd? music inherited from Pan (Arcadia)? memory? art? struggle against love |
| Feb. 6 Th | Idyll 2, 3, 4 [Alexandria, Italy] | city vs country, powers of song?? |
| Feb. 11 Tu | Idylls 6, 11 [Sicily] | Cyclops in love, cf. Odyssey, love & song? |
| Feb. 13 Th | Idyll 7 | memory of Homer, Hesiod, Daphnis, city vs country, love channeled, distanced, contained? new authority for art? |
| Weeks 4, 5, & 6 | Virgil [Rome: 70-19 BCE] Bucolics 1- 10 [chart of motifs across Theocritus, Virgil & Spenser] | Contexts: referential to present? recursive to past? [Remaking Theocritus for Rome: Homer to be reclaimed (Roman history): new brand of hero & epic song, new poetic authority (ROMA/AMOR)] |
| Feb. 18 Tu | Bucolic (aka eclogue) 1 | Contexts: role of Rome? revision of Theocritus (Idd. 7 & 3 & 1); also Hesiod, Theogony 1-102 |
| Feb. 20 Th | Bucolics (eclogues) 2 & 3 | revision of Theocritus (Idd. 11, 2, 6; Homer, Odyssey 9] |
| Feb. 25 Tu | Bucolics (eclogues) 4 & 5 | Contexts: references to Roman history? revsions of tradition? |
| Feb. 27 Th | Bucolics (eclogues) 6 & 7 | Contexts: Roman history? Theocritus? previous eclogues? |
| Mar. 4 Tu | Bucolics (eclogues) 8 & 9 | Contexts: Roman history? previous eclogues? Theocritus? |
| Mar. 6 Th | Bucolics (eclogues) 10 | Contexts: Roman life? previous eclogues? Theocritus? |
| Mar. 6 Th | first working essay due [7 to 10 paragraphs] | on a topic arising from reading & discussion on a topic arising from reading & discussion |
| Weeks 7, 8, & 9 | Edmund Spenser [1552?-1599] Shepheardes Calendar & Fairie Queene 1, 4, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12 & Sixth Book 1-7,Cantos IX-XII | Remaking Virgil for the England of Queen Elizabeth I: pastoral & epic |
| Mar. 11 Tu | SC 1 | Making song suit season |
| 13 Th | SC 4 & 6 | . |
| Mar. 18 Tu | SC 9-10 | . |
| 20 Th | SC 11-12 | . |
| Mar. 25 Tu | FQ VI.1-3 | . |
| 27 Th | FQ VI.4-7 | . |
| Week 10 | John Milton [1608-1674] Lycidas | Chart of mythemes [click here] |
| Apr. 1 Tu | Read whole poem | Inner coherence? Contexts: referential to present? recursive to past? |
| Apr. 3 Th | Continue discusson | . |
| . | Second working essay due [8 to 14 paragraphs | on a topic arising from further reading & discussion |
| Week 11 Apr. 8 Tu |
William Wordsworth [1770-1850] Preludes, Book 1 | Look for pattern of journey |
| Apr. 10 Th | . | . |
| Week 12 Apr. 29 |
Charles Dickens [1812-1870] Bleak House [Selections from indicated] |
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| May 1 | . | . |
| Weeks 13 & 14 | Robert Frost [1875-1963] North of Boston | . |
| May 6 Tu | . | . |
| May 8 Th | . | . |
| May 13 Tu | . | . |
| May 15 | . | . |
| Week 15 | Final examination: a final, comparative report will be handed in. | . |
| Required Texts: | Theocritus, Idylls; Virgil, Bucolics (eclogues); Spenser, Shepheardes Calendar, Faerie Queene; | Milton, Lycidas; Wordsworth, Preludes; Dickens, Bleak House; Frost, North of Boston. |
| [back to top] | For images & course plan, click here. | . |