Eng 3229  Comparative Literature : Fantastic Journeys

Taught by Brother Anthony / 안선재   Spring Semester 2010.  Wed / Fri  15:00 – 16:15

This course will read and compare a variety of very famous works of European and Asian Literature that describe fantastic journeys. In order to do this, we will read short extracts from a series of works. MSWord files of these extracts are linked to the title of each week's work and a PDF file follows for easier printing. Students should print out the PDF file and read the extracts in advance. I shall ask students to spend much of the time in group discussions. The main questions are what kinds of fantasy are found and how fantasy appeals to the reader.

The course will be taught in English.

I have given the Wikipedia links for each work for students wanting to read more about it and its background. Also I provide access to a complete text of the full work.


1. (March 3 / 5)  Introduction to the course   The Little Prince  Parts 7,8, 9 (the flower) Part 21, Part 24-5

2.  (March 10 / 12) Homer's Odyssey  PDF file [Greece]  Wikipedia  Full text

3. (March 17 / 19) Virgil's Aeneid PDF file [Rome] Wikipedia   Full text

4. (March 24 / 26) Dante's Commedia  PDF file [Italy] Wikipedia   Full texts etc

5. (March 31 / No class April 2 Good Friday) Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress  PDF file [England] Wikipedia    Full text

6. (April 7 / 9)  Coleridge's The Ancient Mariner  PDF file [England] Wikipedia 

7. (April 14 / 16) Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland  PDF file [England] Wikipedia   Full text

8.  Midterm exams

9. (April 28 / 30)  The Ramayana  PDF file [India]  Wikipedia   Full (abbreviated) text

10.  (May 5 No class / May 7) Romance of the Three Kingdoms  PDF file [China] Wikipedia  Full text

11. (May 12 / 14) Journey to the West  PDF file  [China] Wikipedia   Full text  [TV drama  Part 1    Part 2 ]  Full text

12. (May 19 / No class May 21) Journey to the West

13. (May 26 / 28) Two  Noh plays : Kagekiyo  PDF file and Matsukaze   PDF file [Japan] Wikipedia

14. (June 2 / 4)  Sim Chong  [Korea] part 2 of a translation of a dramatized version (changguk).  Part 1.

Pansori Part 1   Part 2 (until the evening before her departure)  Part3 (Indangsu and after)   Part 4   Part 5 

15 (June 9 / 11)  Gandavyuha / Hwaom-gyong / Ko Un: Little Pilgrim  PDF file [Korea] Wikipedia   

16 Final exams


The course will be taught as lectures, reading + discussions.

The mid-term report will be “Fantastic Journeys of Europe : processes and goals compared." It must be submitted by May 3. 

The final report will be “Fantastic Journeys of Asia and Europe : processes and goals compared.”  It must be submitted by June 21.

There will be a mid-term and a final exam. Each exam will be graded in such a way as to make it and the grades for the 2 reports roughly equal, with some credit also being given for class preparation


Works that might have been included but were not

Plato: Republic especially the Myth or Er

Lucian: A True Story

Xuanzang: The Great Tang Records on the Western Regions 大唐西域記

Beowulf

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Sir John Mandeville: Travels

Marco Polo: Travels

Thomas Moore: Utopia

Cervantes: Don Quixote

William Shakespeare: The Tempest

Aphra Behn: Oroonoko, or The History of the Royal Slave

Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels

Samuel Johnson: The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia

Voltaire: Candide

Lewis Carrol: Through the Looking-Glass

John Ruskin: The King of the Golden River

James Barrie: Peter Pan