Transformation stories . . .

Our culture is rife with stories of transformation and metamorphosis, like but also unlike Kafka's story. Why are we fascinated with these kinds of stories? How does Kafka's Metamorphosis both repeat these stories and revise them?

For our next class - - Thurs., April 26 - - read Ovid's account of the transformation of Arachne. How does the transformation in this story resemble and differ from Gregor's transformation?

Kafka, Metamorphosis

For Thursday, April 19, you'll want to read at least halfway into Kafka's novella, The Metamorphosis. (For those of you who started Sundiata, no worry. I'll give you a short assignment today so that you can earn some credit for reading this great Malian epic.)

The Tempest Performed . . .

It took me a while (technical obstacles) - - but here at last are your renditions of The Tempest, Act III, Scene i and Scene ii. They're very impressive. With a little more practice, I think we'd be ready to put the whole thing on stage! (Click on the links below and the file will load in a player window.)


Act III, Scene ii

Cashme, Atira, and Kiron

Carmine, Sherifa, Danyel

Act III, Scene i

Enkela, Lester, and X

Anne, Christine, Frederick and Peng

Jacqueline, Eleanor, and Maria

(Some of you may be represented by ann "X" now - - only because I lost track of the group members. I'll correct this after class on Thursday.)

The Tempest

For Tuesday, March 27, you'll want to finish at least up to Act III of Shakespeare's "The Tempest."

Simile Assignment

Recall how on Thursday we discussed the ways in which similes use "like" or "as" to transfer qualities or traits between different kinds of things. We also speculated on why writers, especially Homer, use similes (to make something vivid, to create an image, to underscore something important about the person, place, thing, or action being described).

Your goal in this assignment is to locate all of the similes used in Book 22 of the Odyssey, and to explain how each of these similes works - - especially to explain what qualities the similes transfer from one thing to another. You should list all of the similes that you find in Book 22. Then you should add a paragraph or two explaining how the simile works. Type up your analysis.

Important: Some of you may be using editions of Homer where the translator has eliminated similes from the text. If you can't find any similes in your translation, I have posted a simile-laden translation here. (Note: if you are using a printed book version of the Odyssey, you may still want to check out this online version - - because you can perform a simple "find" search of the page to locate all instances of "like" or "as," and hence all possible similes.

Starting "The Tempest" . . .

An online version of "The Tempest" is available.

However, before you begin reading Shakespeare's play, for Tuesday, March 20, I want you to read Christopher Columbus's famous letter about the New World. After you've read Columbus's letter, read ACT I of "The Tempest."

Homecoming . . .

For this Thursday, you should read books 17, 18, and 19 of The Odyssey.

Mapping the Odyssey

To understand the geography of the Odyssey, you can use an excellent, annotated map from Google Earth (see the image above). To take the tour of Odysseus's journey: 1) download the Google Earth file here; 2) if you don't have Google Earth (it's free), you can download it here; 3) use Google Earth to open the Odysseus file that you downloaded.

Once you've opened up the file in Google Earth you can point and click around the map to read the annotations or you can click on "play tour" to have Google Earth take you on a tour of Odysseus's journey.

Enjoy!

For Thursday . .

You'll want to read books X and XII of the Odyssey for Thursday, March 1.

For Thursday, Feb. 22

Around line 370, the Chorus in Antigone declaims one of the most famous stasimons known in Classical Greek Drama:



Chor. Many the forms of life, 368
Fearful and strange to see,
But man supreme stands out,
For strangeness and for fear.
He, with the wintry gales, 372
O’er the foam-crested sea,
’Mid billows surging round,
Tracketh his way across:
Earth, of all Gods, from ancient days, the first, 376
Mightiest and undecayed,
He, with his circling plough,
Wears ever year by year.

ANTISTROPH. I


The thoughtless tribe of birds, 380
The beasts that roam the fields,
The finny brood of ocean’s depths,
He takes them all in nets of knotted mesh,
Man, wonderful in skill. 384
And by his arts he holds in sway
The wild beasts on the mountain’s height;
And brings the neck-encircling yoke
On horse with shaggy mane, 388
Or bull that walks untamed upon the hills.

STROPH. II


And speech, and thought as swift as wind,
And tempered mood for higher life of states,
These he has learnt, and how to flee 392
The stormy sleet of frost unkind,
The tempest thunderbolts of Zeus.
So all-preparing, unprepared
He meeteth naught the coming days may bring; 396
Only from Hades, still
He fails to find a refuge at the last,
Though skill of art may teach him to escape
From depths of fell disease incurable. 400

ANTISTROPH. II


So, gifted with a wondrous might,
Above all fancy’s dreams, with skill to plan,
Now unto evil, now to good,
He wends his way. Now holding fast the laws, 404
His country’s sacred rights,
That rest upon the oath of Gods on high,
High in the state he stands.
An outlaw and an exile he who loves 408
The thing that is not good,
In wilful pride of soul:
Ne’er may he sit beside my hearth,
Ne’er may my thoughts be like to his, 412
Who worketh deeds like this.

The questions I want you to answer for Thursday are:

- - according to the Chorus, what makes Man (or humans) so great?

- - does the chorus recognize any limits to Man's (or humans') greatness?

You shouldn't take more than one or two typed pages to answer these questions. Think about the Chorus's exclamations here in relation to the whole of Antigone.

Enjoy!

Prof. H.

Beginning Homer . . .

For Thursday, Feb. 22, you should read the first four books of the Odyssey. One of the big questions to think about is why Homer doesn't start the Odyssey with Odysseus.

Starting Antigone . . .

For Tuesday, Feb 13, you want to start Antigone by reading the first 1000 or so lines . . .enjoy!

New links to Oedipus

NEWS NEWS NEWS


Links to online texts can now be found in the Course Information list, under the link to the syllabus. I've tested and re-tested these links - - and all will deliver the online texts.

(Ignore the links in the syllabus - - for some reason Google Docs won't let me save changes to the syllabus.)

On Thursday, we decided that the oldest Greek statue of these three was the one with the big head and tiny arms, and that the most recent statue was the one with figure walking forward with his hand raised. Logically, the third statue - - the figure with the long hair and arms at his sides - - must be dated to some point in between these two statues.

The question you need to answer is: why does this statue appear to be intermediary - - created sometime between the pre-historic statue and the Classical era statue? Think about our discussion on Thursday and the kind of criteria we discussed - - details, particularity, proportionality, pose, symmetry, movement, symbolic, mimetic. Use the terms we used on Thursday to describe the differences between statues to explain why you think this statue is midway between the other two.

Starting Oedipus Rex . .

Don't forget, for Thursday, Feb. 1, I want you to read the first 500 lines or so of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex. Enjoy1