HONR 1140 - Literary Innovations 1

4 credit hours
This seminar focuses on innovations in literature from the ancient to the medieval and the Renaissance worlds, 1500 BCE to 1700 CE. It follows the movement of literary genres from oral epic to acted drama, and from written poetry and tales to printed scripts and manuscripts. We will meet innovative writers and their classic creations: for example, from Gilgamesh to the Gita, from Homer’s Iliad or Odyssey to Shakespeare’s Hamlet or The Tempest, from Sappho’s Odes to Julian’s Showings, from Chaucer’s Tales to More’s Utopia. Through the study and analysis of these works, they will learn the rise and fall of genres, the development of literary traditions and communities and their intertextual echoes, allusions, and counter-texts. All of these literary innovations will parallel, challenge, and deepen our understanding of the issues and debates in Greek, Roman, and Christian global history, philosophy, and theology.