Ancient Literature

This course is designed to give students a sense of world literature dating from the Ice Age to the beginning of the European Middle Age. We will focus particularly on the Odyssey, the Indian epic of the Mahabharata, Gilgamesh, and the Welsh collection known as the Mabinogion. We will also study Irish, Norse, Greek and North American mythology. Much of this literature is oral in nature, so the class will be a blend of written texts and oral storytelling. Students will be required to explore these works creatively through their own writing, to learn to tell at least one traditional tale, and to write brief essays about what they have read.