Greek Tragedy & Mythology Syllabus

WAGS 12: Revisionings: Greek Tragedy and Mythology

MW 8:30-9:50 / Chapin 205

Alicia E. Ellis

E-mail: aellis@amherst.edu

Tel: 542 - 2968

Office: 310 Fayerweather Hall

Office Hours: Tu 2 – 4 & by appointment

 

• Required Texts:

 

The Course Packet is available in 14 Grosvenor House, 55 College Street. The WAGS Academic Coordinator is Amy Ford.

 

Books are available at Amherst Books on Main St.

- Atwood, Margaret. The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus

- Dove, Rita. Mother Love

- Heaney, Seamus. The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes

- Ransmayr, Christoph. The Last World: A Novel with an Ovidian Repertory

- Soyinka, Wole. The Bacchae of Euripides: A Communion Rite

- Wolf, Christa. Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays

 

Download – Available at AC Frost Library

- The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy.P.E. Easterling, ed. (abbreviated CCGT) - To access these essays electronically while on the Amherst network or, if off campus, connected to the network via VPN:

Copy and paste the URL listed on the syllabus into the address bar. Under the heading “Chapter Content,” click on the “View Full Chapter Content” in order to download the article as a PDF document. Please print and bring to class all articles.

 

E-reserve

- Rita Dove- The Darker Face of the Earth

- Sophocles - Oedipus the King

- Sophocles – Philoctetes

- Euripides - The Bacchae

- Euripides - The Medea

- Additional Readings will be supplied as needed.

 

• Grading:

- Grading is based on several factors a.) five essays (45%) b.) two oral presentations (30%) c.) class participation, attendance & preparation (25%)

 

• Requirements

- Readings - Assigned readings are to be prepared for the date listed on the syllabus. Students are expected to share their responses to the literature and present one or two questions or comments about the assigned reading

 

- There are five (5) writing assignments for this course; typed in Times New Roman, double spaced, 11 point and e-mailed to me as an attachment (RTF) by the due date and time. Only extraordinary circumstances will allow for late work.

- Oral Presentations – Two students will be responsible for presenting/teaching two (2) reading assignments, or portion thereof, to the class. These presentations should display a familiarity with the text (form, content), pose questions and raise thematic concern. In addition, they must be coherent, developed and 10-15 minutes.

 

- Attendance - Students may miss one (1) class without penalty. Thereafter, any unexcused absence will have an effect on the final semester grade. Only extraordinary circumstances will allow for absences. Class begins at 8:30 and concludes at 9:50. Repeated tardiness and/or repeated early departures will also have an effect on the final semester grade.

 

- Please contact me by email should you have any questions.

 

 

 

 

 

Week 1

 

9/5 Introduction; Marie Luise Kaschnitz – “Long Shadows” (handout)

 

Week 2

 

9/10 Poems on Icarus and Daedulus (handout)

 

9/12 Paul Cartledge – “Deep plays” in CCGT

URL: http://cco.cambridge.org/extract?id=ccol0521412455_CCOL0521412455A003

 

Week 3

9/17 Sophocles - Oedipus the King (reserve)

 

FILM 9/19 (WEDNESDAY) PASOLINI-EDIPO RE
FAYERWEATHER 113 4:00PM AND 7:30PM

 

 

9/19 Rita Dove - The Darker Face of the Earth (reserve)

 

Week 4

 

9/24 Sophocles- Philoctetes (reserve)

 

9/26 Seamus Heaney - The Cure at Troy; Hugh Denard - “Seamus Heaney, Colonialism, and the Cure” (course packet)

 

First Paper Due Friday, September 28 (5pm)

 

Week 5

 

10/1 Euripides - The Bacchae (reserve)

 

10/3 Wole Soyinka - The Bacchae: A Communion Rite

 

 

Mid-Semester Break

 

Week 6

 

10/10 Simon Goldhill - "The audience of Athenian tragedy” in CCGT

URL: http://cco.cambridge.org/extract?id=ccol0521412455_CCOL0521412455A005

 

Simon Goldhill. "Modern critical approaches to Greek tragedy" in CCGT

URL: http://cco.cambridge.org/uid=1885/extract?id=ccol0521412455_CCOL0521412455A016

Second Paper Due Friday, October 12 (5pm)

 

Week 7

 

10/15 Christoph Ransmayr - The Last World p. 3 - 105

 

10/17 The Last World p. 107 - 246

 

Week 8

 

10/22 The Last World; Selections from Ovid - Metamorphoses
(course packet)

 

FILM 10/24 (WEDNESDAY) VISCONTI- DEATH IN VENICE
FAYERWEATHER 113 4:00PM AND 7:30PM

 

10/24 Thomas Mann - “Death in Venice” (course packet)

 

Third Paper Due Friday, October 26 (5pm)

 

Week 9

 

10/29 Jeanette Winterson - “Orion” (course packet)

 

Edith Hall. "The sociology of Athenian tragedy" in CCGT

URL: http://cco.cambridge.org/extract?id=ccol0521412455_CCOL0521412455A008

 

10/31 Margaret Atwood - The Penelopiad. Introduction & p. 1-69

 

Week 10

 

11/5 Continue The Penelopiad p. 71 - 198

 

11/7 Rita Dove – Mother Love

 

Week 11

 

11/12 Peter Burian. "Myth into muthos" in CCGT

URL: http://cco.cambridge.org/uid=1885/extract?id=ccol0521412455_CCOL0521412455A011

 

11/14 Poetry I (course packet)

 

Fourth Paper Due Thursday, November 15 (8pm)

Thanksgiving Vacation

Week 12

 

11/26 Christa Wolf – Cassandra p. 3 - 138

 

11/28 Christa Wolf - “Conditions of a Narrative” in Cassandra p. 141 - 181

Week 13

 

12/3 Poetry II (course packet)

 

12/5 Euripides - The Medea (reserve)

 

FILM 12/5 (WEDNESDAY) PASOLINI- MEDEA
FAYERWEATHER 113 4:00PM AND 7:30PM

 

Week 14

 

12/12 Film Screening – Medea (Lars von Trier) 76 minutes

 

 

Final Paper Due Tuesday, December 17 (3pm)