Western Literature Week 1

The Course Include:

a. History of literature

(1) Greek literature

(2) Latin literature

(3) Medieval literature

(4) European Renaissance Literature

b. Epic poetry (genre): Homer, Virgil, Dante Alighieri

c. Tragedy(genre):

(1) Aeschylus, Agamemnon

(2) Sophocles, Oedipus the King

(3) Euripides, Medea

d. Comedy (genre): Aristophanes, Lysistrata

e. Bible: Old Testament, New Testament

f. Aristotle, Poetics

g. Augustine of Hippo, The Confessions

3W we should embrace when learning

I.         what is this?

II.     what is this for?

III. why should we care?

What is literature?

l   14th century: polite learning through reading

l   18th century: practice and profession of writing

l   19th century: the high skill of writing in a special context of high imagination

l   Robert Frost: performance in words

l   Morden: imaginative, artistic, expressive, intellectual, emotional

Why we study literature?

ü  improve language proficiency

ü  enrich knowledge about the English culture

ü  give humanity, spiritual, psychological relief

Allusions in Western Literature:
I.         Biblical

II.     Classical

III. Literary

Movie

Helen of Troy, 2003

Roman symbol

1--->I

5--->V

10--->X

50--->L

100--->C

500--->D

1000--->M

meet 4,9(-)

Eg. 4--->IV