"What
a joy for one who lives to tell the things he has been through
when the suffering is over!"
--The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor (c. 2000 BC)
Introduction: Who We Are and the Stories We Read and Tell
Discussion: Kafka, "Leopards in the Temple"
Film Excerpt: "Storytelling and Humanity," from The Electronic Storyteller
What is culture?
Reading: Ember and Ember, Cultural Anthropology, "The Concept of Culture" (x)
Introduction: The Ancient Near East
Reading: The Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablets 1-5, pp. 3-28
Reading: The Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablets 6-8, pp. 29-47
Reading:The Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablets 9-11, pp. 48-82
Introduction: The Egyptian Empire
Quiz 1: Gilgamesh
Reading:
"The Instruction for Little Pepi on His Way to School" (p. 32);
"Rebuke Addressed to a Dissipated Scribe" (p. 48);
"Menna's Lament" (p. 52); "The Resurrection of King Unis"
(p. 64);
"Hymn to Osiris"
(p. 102); "Akhenaten's
Hymn to the Sun" (p. 1);
"Hymn to the Nile" (p. 110); and "The Leyden Hymns" (pp.
159, 160. 163, 166)
Reading:
"From the Tomb of King Intef" (p. 179);
"The Harper's Song for Inherkhawy" (p. 181); and
"The Wisdom of Amenemopet" (p. 206)
Reading:
The Tale of Sinuhe (p. 124),
The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor (p. 8), and
"The Immortality of Writers" (p. 226)
Discussion: Ancient Egypt
Quiz 2: Ancient Egyptian Literature
Introduction: The Homeric World
Reading: Homer, The Odyssey, Book 1-4
Reading: Homer, The Odyssey, Book 5-8
Reading: Homer, The Odyssey, Book 9-12
Reading: Homer, The Odyssey, Book 13-19
Reading: Homer, The Odyssey, Book 20-24
Discussion: The Odyssey
Quiz 3: The Odyssey
Introduction: Anglo-Saxon England
Reading: Beowulf, pp. 2-81
Reading: Beowulf, pp. 82-131
Reading: Beowulf, pp. 131-213
Discussion: Beowulf
Quiz 4: Beowulf
Introduction: Arabic Culture in the Early Middle Ages
Reading:
The Arabian Nights, "Prologue," pp. 3-16,
"The Story of the Merchant and the Demon," pp. 17-29,
and "The Story of the Fisherman and the Demon," pp. 30-66
Reading: The Arabian Nights, "The First, Second and Third Dervish's Tales," pp. 86-132
Discussion: What Stories Can Teach
Film: The Arabian Nights
Reading:
The Arabian Nights, "The Story of the Three Apples," pp.
150-157,
and "The Story of the Two Viziers," pp. 157-206
Reading:
The Arabian Nights, "The Jewish Physician's Tale:
The Young Man from Mosul and the Murdered Girl," pp. 238-248
Quiz 5: The Arabian Nights
Film: Myerhoff and Littman, Number Our Days (in class)
Discussion: Number Our Days and Course Retrospective