Brilliant Minds

Three Resources

A useful outline of Dante's Inferno at: italianstudies.org

Great site on performance of tragic drama: Didaskalia

Excellent but at times technical information on the meters of ancient Greek poetry (PDF file will open): Aoidoi.org

Dante Essentials: First Session

For our first session on Dante's Inferno, be sure to read the following Cantos:

• Canto I: Dante as protagonist
• Canto II: Virgil as mentor
• Canto III: The vestibule
• Canto IV: Pity & fear
• Canto V: Paolo & Francesca
• Canto VIII: Sin & the city
• Canto XI: The structure of Hell
• Canto XXVI: Ulysses
• Canto XXX: Dante's disobedience

Five links for the Odyssey

1. Tennyson's "Ulysses": masterpiece of Victorian poetry from poets.org
2. Homer Multitext: tracing textual history, including the Laurentianus manuscript of the Odyssey
3. Venetus A: the oldest surviving Iliad manuscript described on Wikipedia
4. Imaging the Iliad: an Iliad iOS app based on Venetus A
5. The Odyssey: film version with Armand Assante, information on IMDB

Fall Syllabus

Click below for a PDF downloadable file of the Fall syllabus with Reading list and Schedule, see page 2 for dates of readings for both Section 1 & 2. 

Download BMinds_Fall2012syllabus

What Homer might have sounded like

Homeric performance was a solo song. Here is an excellent resource on what Homer might have sounded like when performing the Odyssey. The selection is from Book 8, where the bard, Demodokos, sings of Ares and Aphrodite: Homeric Singing.

Welcome to the Odyssey!

Whether you've read the Odyssey, are re-reading it, or reading it for the first time, here is an approach to key Books for our opening class.

Books 1 -4 are about Odysseus's son, Telemachus, setting out in search of information about his father. Be sure to read Book 1, and note Athena's appearance, and how Telemachus handles her arrival. Note also his trip to Sparta in Book 4 and visit with Helen and Menelaus. They've been back a long time and "remenisce" about the old days and troubles.

Books 5 - 8 launch Odysseus from his sojourn with Calypso to his landing in the kindgom of the Phaeceans. Be sure to note his interaction with the key women: Calypso (goddess) in Book 5, and Nausicaa (human) (Book 6). His washing up on the beach in Book 6 and "rescue" by Nausicaa is not to be missed and is quintessential Homer.

Books 9 - 12 are the adventures the Odyssey is most famous for. Here we have all the monsters and strange situations that Odysseus navigates, some more successfully than others. You may want to read all of them. Be sure to read the episode with the Cyclops, Polyphemus in Book 9. The Cyclops represent the antithesis to human civilization, and yet even here Homer allows for some compassion. This is where Odysseus also makes things worse for himself by angering Poseidon, which will increase the difficulties he faces on his journey home. Another key encounter is with Circe in Book 10. She presents feminine intelligence and without her, Odysseus would never have gotten directions home. Yes, he needed to stop for directions.  Book 11 is another not to be missed Book. It contains the nekyia, or journey to the underworld, a key element in the epic genre, which we will revisit with Dante this semester. Ezra Pound began his Cantos with an adaptation of Book 11. In Book 12 you will find the proximate cause of much destruction in the episode involving the Cattle of the Sun.

Books 13 - 24 are all about Odysseus's return and restablishment as husband, hed of household, and King of Ithaca. It's about disguise, deception, danger, recognition, reunion, and revenge. Be sure to read Book 19 where Penelope asks questions, the Nurse makes a key observation, and a trial is proposed. Book 21 presents the episode of the contest and use of Odysseus's great bow. Scholars are still trying to reconstruct just how this worked. Book 23 gives us the reunion of Odysseus and Penelope. See if you notice what he tells and what he leaves out of his account of his journey home. Book 24 finally resolves the aftermath of terrible revenge in what many consider to be a tacked on, add-on, possibly not written by Homer.

If you're absolutely, positvely strapped for time, read: Books 1, 5, 6, 9, 11, 19, 21, 23.

 

Double session

We're on for a double session Tuesday, July 24th. We'll be discussing Jacob de Zoet and In Red. Plan to stay to at least 12:30pm if you can & we'll pace ourselves accordingly!

Classes are on for this week!

My apologies for having to cancel last Tuesday morning's class. A family emergency came up just before I was to leave for class. It resolved later that afternoon and all is now well. We will have class as scheduled tomorrow, July 3rd, to discuss Transtromer's poetry in The Deleted World.

I will schedule a makeup class for our missed session -- date, time, and room to be announced. Once again, I'm sorry that you travelled all the way in last week before I could notify you. See you tomorrow, and I look forward to picking up where we left off.

For our Thursday evening class, we will discuss The Tiger's Wife.

Links for Transtromer & DeLillo

Links for Transtromer

• Transtromer criticism
• Nobel 2011 Lecture
• Transtromer on Poets.org
• NPR
• thestar.com
• TLS
• The Independent
• The Guardian
• New York Times
• The New Yorker

Links for DeLillo

• The New Yorker
• LA Times 
• New York Times 
• Washington Post
• The Independent
• The Guardian
• Financial Times

The Promised Links: Po-Mo & Barnes

Here are the links I've been mentioning:

• An overview of postmodernism: Approaches to Po-Mo
• The Ouroboros on Wikipedia: a symbol of self-reflexivity

Reviews for Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending:

• New York Times by Schillinger
• New York Times by Dyer
• NPR with transcript
• The Guardian
• Boston Review (good references to the text)
• The Conversation (on the readability debate)
• BBC News (on the readability debate)