Eng 3229  Comparative Literature 

Taught by Brother Anthony / 안선재   ansonjae@sogang.ac.kr

Fall Semester 2013.  Wed / Fri  15:00 – 16:15

During this course we will read and compare some of the most essential works of world literature. The texts for study in class should be printed out from this PDF file.  The fundamental questions we will try to ask about each text are: "What vision of human life, its joys and pains, does this text embody? What basic human values does it seem to encourage? What relationship does it depict between humanity and God or the gods or the supernatural world?

In class sharing (usually during the Friday class) students will try to compare their responses.to the persons named after each week's topic

The course will be taught in English. It is ESSENTIAL to prepare the class by reading the week's text before class, then thinking about your feelings toward the main figures.

1. (Sept 4 / 6)  Introduction to the course  Homer's Illiad

2.  (Sept 11 / No class Sept 13) Homer  Odyssey (extracts)  Wikipedia  Full text   Odysseus: warrior, son, father, husband, known to be 'crafty' yet he comes back alone.

3. (no classes, Chuseok) 

4. (Sept 25 / 27) End of Odyssey. Sophocles Oedipus and Antigone  Full Antigone  text    (Antigone YouTube)  Oedipus and Jocasta, Antigone and Creon. Introduction to Hamlet

5. (Oct. 2 / 4)  Shakespeare Hamlet summary  3-hour movie   audio   Hamlet as the embodiment of modern humanity, sure of nothing. 

6. (No class Oct. 9 / Oct. 11) More about Hamlet. Discuss and compare the role of (1) the individual (2) the family (3) human society (4) the gods and destiny, in the works so far studied.

7. (Oct 16 / 18)  Journey to the West (chapters 4-5)  Wikipedia   Full text  [TV drama  Part 1    Part 2 ]  Is Sun Wukong (the Monkey King) a hero or a villain?  Synopsis
                         Romance of the Three Kingdoms  (chapter 45 etc) Wikipedia  Full text    Zhuge Liang or Cao Cao ?

8.  Midterm exams

9. (Oct 30 / No class Nov 1)  Dante Commedia  (extracts) 

10.  (Nov 6 / No class Nov. 8)  The Ramayana  (Wikipedia)    Full (abbreviated) text Rama and Sita: a wonderful love story or a tragic lack of trust?

11. (Nov 13 / 15) Racine Phèdre   Synopsis    Phèdre as the embodiment of illicit female desire  Euripides  'Hippolytus'   Summary  Medea  The humiliated wife Medea summary.

12. (Nov 20 / 22) Bible: Genesis       Adam, Noah, Abraham, Joseph

13. (Nov 27 / 29) Milton Paradise Lost    God, Satan, Adam, Eve

14. (Dec 4 / 6) Two Japanese Noh plays : Kagekiyo  (photos)  and Matsukaze  (photos)  Wikipedia      Different kinds of love  Dance from a Noh play   Dance from Matsukaze

15 (Dec 11 / 13) Korea: Simchong. Article including a simple English version of the story    Sim Chong part 2 (English translation of Changgeuk version)  Pansori text partial translation (last breakfast)  Complete pansori sung by Kim So-hui;  Banga Taryeong;  the Eye-Opening   Text of the Eye-Opening: Various YouTube extracts. 

16 Final exams

The course will mainly be taught as lectures with time for small-group discussions.

The mid-term report will be a sensitive expression of your personal responses to the representations of the individual, the family, society and the gods or destiny, found in the texts studied in the first half-semester up to and including Hamlet. To be placed in my mailbox in the 8th floor 영미어문 office by 5:00pm on Monday October 28

The final report will be a sensitive expression of your personal thoughts about the representations of human life, of the importance of love, and the role of the gods, found in four of the works studied after Hamlet.
To be placed in my mailbox in the 8th floor 영미어문 office by 5:00pm on Monday December 23

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.