World Literature I

Laurence Chan, Class Summary

2009-12-18T21:47:00.000-08:00

Our World Literature Class taught me a fairly large amount on the texts we've read in class as well as random facts on literature in general. I thoroughly enjoyed many of the required readings especially the Greek tragedies. I think other classmates would agree with me when I say the choices were fantastic except for the Sufi poetry. Perhaps it was just a lack of my own patience that I did not enjoy such work. Overall the class went well and I was happy to be a part of it. Diviani, if you remember what you told me in the library that night we both stayed up to do work (haha), then I still disagree with you.

The class was a very nice experience for me, and I'm glad for being exposed to, and understanding the books we needed to read. Thanks.

Laurence Chan, Class Presentations Pt. 2

2009-12-18T20:48:00.000-08:00

For my own presentation, I had decided to go a different route to the rest of the class, but similiar to the original course. I followed our own class themes of reading world texts, epics, stories of origins, and comparative literature. For my own idea I wanted to suggest a text that would easily mix and match with our other texts. In picking Virgil's The Aeneid, the class would have more material to compare and contrast with the other stories and texts of our class. I suggested some of my ideas in class for possible comparisons and contractions. Examples were comparing the tragic stories of women in Greek and Roman tragedies, such as Medea vs. Dido. A comparison of the heroes and their different glorified characteristics would also be a topic; Achilles was famous for his bloodlust and strength, but Aeneas while also a fighter was known as a respectful and dutiful leader.

Besides, the book was just fun to read.

Laurence Chan, Class Presentations

2009-12-18T20:22:00.001-08:00

I was very interested in seeing the choices and methods in which my classmates tackled the class presentations. Actual student made variations of the syllabus, powerpoint presentations, and handouts helped make each presentation unique and engaging. Common ideas were taking famous texts from many different locations in the world. Books and stories like Things Fall Apart and the Chinese Legend of the Monkey King were stories I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend. A book that was recommended several times wasDon Quixote. I have never read it but now I am very curious about it and will definitely be checking it out.

Overall I felt the presentations were a great idea as it offered the rare chance of a student's perspective and suggestion. If I ever had to make my own real syllabus for class I would definitely add student presentations in it.

William Chiu

2009-12-17T18:03:00.000-08:00

This semester has been a great for me to discover teh text fro around the world which emcompass every theme imaginable. Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this class had to have been the beginning material concerning the creation myths. The myths grabbed my attention because of the different ways the world's creation was represented within time periods and cultures. it was also very striking in the way the flood myths possessed similarities which hint at the actuality of such events looking at the assumption that the stories may be too extreme to have occurred. The stories that had the least positive effect on my enjoyment would have to be the tragedies. the content is of course gloomy and telling of acts which exemplify violence and trickery. although i didnt not take much pleasure in reading the genre of tragedy, it was very informative of the culture of Shakespearean and Greek times. By reading those tragedies i was able to not only interpret the ways in which peopled lived according to customs and religion but the way they thought and acted towards one another as well.

Felicia Ooi; Class Summary

2009-12-17T10:04:00.000-08:00

I enrolled in World Literature I because I really do enjoy reading books and literature in general. I realize that my own reading experience is not as vast as many others' and I would love to be able to expand my horizons by reading literature from around the world. This class introduced me to texts that I had mostly never read before, as I am an international student and I do not learn world literature in high school back home.

Though I must admit I did not enjoy reading each and every one of the books assigned to us, I especially enjoyed reading the Greek Tragedies because I found them very interesting, albeit slightly morbid, what with all the killing and revenge stories. I also really liked reading the excerpt from Aristophanes' Frogs that we read, as it was really funny.

Overall, I think the syllabus was very well-rounded and really fit the subject of World Literature. I learnt many new things about writing and it also gave me chances to improve on my "compare/contrast" essays.

Felicia Ooi; Class Presentations

2009-12-17T09:56:00.000-08:00

I watched several presentations by my classmates, and I found their choices of books to be very diverse and very interesting. There were some books that I would have loved to learn about, some books which I had already read, and some I had never heard of before.

My own syllabus consisted of 3 different areas of comparison. The first area 2 novels were ones that dealt with the darker side of human nature/animal nature that were brought to the surface by a total liberation of rules and authority - William Golding's Lord of the Flies versus George Orwell's Animal Farm. The next area was a lighter one, satirical comedies that involved the respective authors making fun of society in their respective eras - Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest versus Aristophanes' Frogs. Finally, I also chose 3 poems that dealt with family and the importance of appreciating family - William Wordsworth's We Are Seven versus D.H Lawrence's Piano versus E.E Cummings' Parents.

Felicia Ooi; Sufi Poetry

2009-12-17T09:37:00.000-08:00

Sufi Poetry was a rather different style of poetry than the others that we have been exposed to in the class. The poems were mostly about love, and God, and each different poet has a different style of writing. Symbols like birds and flowers and water were used to represent several different aspects of love and religion.

I enjoyed reading Sufi Poetry because the poems were very soothing and easy to read, and they were also very meaningful.

Sufi,Santigui Tounkara

2009-12-16T15:57:00.000-08:00

The past week, we have been looking at Sufi poems from Attar, Hafiz and Rumi. The poems were all really religious. They also talked a lot about love. They used many symbols such as birds, flowers and god to discuss their ideas. The main focus of the poems was about devotion to god and love to god. I really enjoyed reading the Sufi poems because it expressed spirituality through literature, which I think its really nice to read.

Catullus,Santigui Tounkara

2009-12-16T15:45:00.000-08:00

Catullus was very different from Sappho. Catullus's ideas were straight to the point without using a bunch of different ways to pass his message across.I think that I prefer that style because you exactly know what the author is talking about. Catullus was definitely using liberal writing and wasn't using any kind of censorship in the poems.Overall, I preferred Catullus over Sappho because of the fact that his ideas were clearer.

Presentations

2009-12-15T09:51:00.000-08:00

This past week we observed everyone's different adaptations of a world literature syllabus. It was interesting to see how pieces of literature from all over were brought together to be taught in a single world literature course.

Overall, I did enjoy this class. As much as I complain that I hate writing papers, or dislike reading at times, it really was not as bad as i thought it would be. I took this course because I needed a year of english to fulfill med school requirements, but I have to say that I liked this class a lot more than some of my other science classes that I was taking.

Willie Ho

2009-12-15T00:03:00.000-08:00

Our last presentations to conclude the class showed everyone's different outlook on what books constitute as world literature. I think that we can safely say that there are too many books in the world to label any as world literature. To be able to decide that, one must read all those books, and that would be impossible.

I enjoyed the presentations in the fact that people had different themes and I also liked to see if the few books I have read on their syllabus actually match their theme. The presentations have informed me of some books that I should read because they are books that everyone should read.

The class as a class was quite enjoyable. To say that it was interesting is an understatement. I think the most enlightening class experience was probably the introduction to Sufi poetry. Sufism was something I never heard of and learning about it was quite the experience. It made me understand poetry as a whole better, which I had absolutely no interest for prior to the class.

William Chiu

2009-12-14T09:10:00.000-08:00

The in class presentations were very interesting considering the vast differences in classmates opinions on the subject matter for a world literature class. I especially liked how some classmates decided to have a course structure that included books from such popular book titles as Dracula, Lord or the Rings, and Twilight. I was excited how some included a film viewing of the movie adaptations of the books at the end of the class. Perhaps the widely used book among classmates was Chinua Achebe's "things fall apart" which i also used as well. this book would be an excellent source of knowledge of the customs and lives of the Obo people in Nigeria Africa. Giving not only accounts of their traditions but traditions adapted from the white settlers we can see the change in history as well. The presentations was a very good way for us classmates to see how each others thinks and and insight into books we may not have read or heard of before this class.

John Torres "Class Summary"

2009-12-14T03:49:00.000-08:00

Throughout the class I learned a lot about different cultures and different periods through the text that we covered. The course also taught me to look at literature in a more analytical way. It was also interesting to read texts and compare them to very similar and different texts. The course concluded with student presentations. It was interesting to see how people took their own spin on the class and incorporated different things in their syllabus. It was also interesting to see how many students chose similar books to discuss in class. Many books often came up in different syllabuses. All-in-all I was satisfied with the structure of the class and was happy with what I got out of it.

Presentations,Santigui Tounkara

2009-12-13T23:19:00.001-08:00

I think that most of the presentations were interesting. Everyone had a different syllabus and different ideas on how the class should be.It was unfortunate that we ran out of time for the last couple presentations and therefore, had to rush them.I also think that the presentations were a good way for the teacher to see how the class could be improved with new ideas from the students.Overall, I really enjoyed being in the class.I feel like I learned a lot of different style of literature. I will certainly try to have a World Literature class next semester!

Sappho,Santigui Tounkara

2009-12-13T23:09:00.001-08:00

I found Sappho interesting to read because It was way different from other poetry I read.You can tell in the poems that Sappho wrote them with a lot of passion and emotion.However, something I didn't like so much is the fact that it was hard to understand the translation.It happened with many stories we read and it's kind of annoying but at the same time it makes you try to learn more about it. I also liked the uses of the metaphors.

Othello 2,Santigui Tounkara

2009-12-13T20:55:00.000-08:00

The ending of Othello was pretty sad.Othello found out about Ilago's lies right after he killed Desdemona.Emilia, Ilago's wife told the thruth to Othello and told him that she gave Ilago his Handkerchief.After Othello knew the whole story, he then stabbed Ilago and ended up killing himself by the bed where Desdemona was laying on.

I found Othello very similar to the Greek tragedies because they both involves killing a husband or a wife.I beleive that Shakespear was inspired by the Greek tragedies to write Othello.Overall, the story was very interesting.

Class summery

2009-12-13T15:51:00.000-08:00

I found this this class to be very interesting and useful to my knowledge of literature. I also really enjoyed the section we did on epics. The reason i liked this section the most was that the epics were full of action and were exciting to read. The section that was my least favorite as the section on tragedy's. I did not enjoy this section because i did not find the tragedy's that interesting and it took up a huge part of the class. All in all i really enjoyed the class and would recommend it to people who are thinking about taking it.

presontation

2009-12-13T15:32:00.000-08:00

The final week consisted of everyone giving a presentation about how they would make a syllabus for this class. I found this week very interesting because it gave you different perspectives of how the class could be taught. It also gave many summaries of different novels that could have been used for the class and i found this very cool because i found many of these books intreasting. I also liked makeing or changeing the sylabus becouse it gave you a perspective of what being a teacher could be like.

presentation

2009-12-13T11:31:00.001-08:00

The final week is a presentation week. I inspired a lot from my classmates' works. The texts they chose were very interesting to read. I also enjoy the course through the whole semester. Even though the ancient epics are a little bit boring and hard to understand, the others like Greek tragedies are really valuable to read. When I prepared for my presentation, I did a lot of researches and recognized that the Greek literature had played an important role not only on the development of Western literature but also on their political attitudes and many other areas. Basically, world literature is not a easy course to teach because of the translation problem. If you are able to read the original text, you may find the perspectives in original texts may vary from the English translation version. But, all in all, this course is fine.

Presentations

2009-12-13T11:24:00.000-08:00

I thought that the student presentations in class this week were pretty interesting. I liked this project because it allowed us to be a little bit creative in what we thought would make a good world literature syllabus and it gave us a break from writing papers. It took me awhile to decide which pieces of literature I wanted to include in the course. This was the first English/Comparative Lit. class I have taken and I thought it was an enjoyable class. A lot of the literature we read was interesting and I liked that most of the major themes connecting the stories were easily understood. I had read some of the tragedies and creation stories in high school but I didn’t remember them too well and it was interesting to look at them again.

A Semester in Review

2009-12-12T23:07:00.000-08:00

This was a very great class for me this semester. With my other classes like organic chemistry and ecology, i could always come to this class with my mind at ease. I learnt a lot from all the books we read. Before coming to this class, i didn't know anything about Greek tragedy so it was fun to read the plays like Clytemnestra, Agamemnon, Medea. Those were the highlights of this class for me. I also learnt a few things about Indian literature from Ramayana and the last texts we read, the suffi poetry.
Posting on the blog is fun too and it helps to think about the texts read in class more deeply.
I took a different COLI class last semester "Literature and Psychology" and i had the best time just like i did in this class. I think i like comparative literature and i am thinking seriously about making it my minor.
All in all this class was awesome!

Presentation

2009-12-12T22:52:00.000-08:00

In preparing for my presentation this week, i thought not only about books/stories that i read and liked but literary texts that would impact my class in a great way and something they would enjoy reading. While i have read some of the texts in my syllabus, some of the others i have not read but hope to read very soon.
My syllabus also follows a flow in time from like history texts to modern ones. I started with Aristophanes, Lysistrata then "Twelfth Night" by Shakespeare, Beowulf, Dante Inferno, Some verses of the New Testamest, Chinau Achebe "Things Fall Apart", Wole Soyinka "Death and the Kings Horseman", and last but not the least Haruki Murakami "Norwegian Wood."
My best part of this syllabus is the modern part- the last three books-because they are not only fun to read but teach a lot of things. Norwegian wood is my favorite which i read my first semester freshman year and fell in love with. I feel like its a book one will always remember after reading.

Othello,Santigui Tounkara

2009-12-12T16:30:00.000-08:00

Othello is quite interesting.There is a lot of stuff going on in the first 2 acts.Iago first convice his friend Roderigo that he will help him get with Desdemona even though she is married to Othello. Iago first tries to convince Desmona's father that Othello got married to his daughter by spells.Finally, when Desdemona affirms that it wasn't true, the accusations were dissmissed.Later on, Iago plotted another plan but this time including Cassio.His plan was to convince Othello that Cassion and Desdemona are having an affair!

Final Thoughts.

2009-12-12T11:25:00.001-08:00

Overall, I really enjoyed this class. It gave me a new perspective on world literature that I had not possessed prior to taking this course. While I was somewhat familiar with a number of the tragedies presented in class, the depth we went into them was refreshing and offered a new perspective I had not noticed before, especially with the Greek plays. While the Iliad was familiar to me, the Ramayana was new and interesting, and helped me appreciate the Indian culture in a way I had not experienced before. The creation stories also provided an interesting look. Gilgamesh and Metamorphoses are two stories I had absolutely no idea about, and helped me understand how various cultures around the world interact to form different identities and cultures. The simularities between the various stories supported the idea of an interlaced world, each with it's own personal tastes and flavors but sharing many main identifying features. I am happy I took part in this course.

Agamemnon II

2009-12-12T11:17:00.001-08:00

Agamemnon had numerous themes running throughout it. One of the primary themes is the idea of feminism, and how this relates to Clymnestra. She is portrayed as strong willed and goal oriented, but at the same time blinded by her desire for revenge (as she cannot think what she will do past killing Agamemnon). Another aspect can be seen via the submission of the chorus, which shows how they were willing to relinquish control to a woman. Another facet of this feminism is how Agamemnon killed their daughter, and why Aeschylus chose this instead of a son.

Another theme running through the play is the worship of the gods. Zeus is mentioned when Agamemnon is killed, and his daughter is sacrificed to the gods in order to procure a good wind. The religious themes winding their way through this work suggest that religion played a large part in these people's lives, as well as in this play. However, no dieties actually show up in the work, which was actually unique for this time period.

Agamemnon

2009-12-12T11:09:00.000-08:00

One of the more interesting stories told in the course was the play Agamemnon. In it, Agamemnon's wife schemes to kill her husband over the death of their daughter. The wife, Clytemnestra, plans her revenge very carefully, and when she executes it she does it with brutal efficiency. The chorus, played by all older males, reviles her for this act, and yet come to terms with her actions by the end of the play. She kills Agamemnon in a very ceremonial manner, via 3 dagger strikes, the third while praying to Zeus. Undoubtedly, she tried to emulate the same manner that her daughter was struck down. He quest for vengeance has blinded her to all other thoughts and concerns, only worrying about how she will kill Agamemnon. After the deed is done, she shows no remorse or hesitation to announce the grim results of her actions. Clytemnestra is a character who planned and schemed, until she achieved what she wanted to all along: she is portrayed as a cunning and brilliant, if somewhat deviant, woman who can be seen as a role model as to how women can be equal to men.

In-Class Presentations

2009-12-11T08:23:00.000-08:00

I thought the in-class presentations were interesting in the choices of texts used. A lot of the texts were what I was expecting, though I was surprised how often Don Quixote came up considering how long the book is. I especially liked the more unconventional pieces of literature chosen, such as Ender's Game, A History of Violence, and Wicked. These books have a lot of value that gets overlooked just because they aren't considered canon. Many of them are, in my opinion, just as good as the revered classical texts taught in literature courses, and have the advantage of being more readable and more interesting in many cases. I did enjoy reading the tragedies and the epics, but they simply didn't fascinate me and hold my attention in the same manner as, say, the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin did. You could teach an entire semester-long course on amazing pieces of literature like this and get just as much out of it. Granted, it may not be as much of a window into the author's culture and society as much as the Iliad came to be for the ancient Greeks, but there is still a lot that can be analyzed and learned from the different characters and their incredibly complex interactions.

Sufi Poetry

2009-12-10T22:34:00.000-08:00

The interesting aspect of Sufi poetry is the interconnecting tangents they all seemed to contain. Major themes running through all the pieces included entrapment and flying, as well as the definition of love, namely the love of God. The idea of self intoxication as a means to achieve a state of Nirvana via intoxication and interpretation of the feelings in this state seems different to most teachings, but in fact is a novel and unique approach to achieving oneness with God.

The ideas of entrapment and flight as a means of escape suggest that Sufi poets consider the mortal body nothing more than say, a coffin, to which our soul is trapped. When a person forces themselves into an intoxicated state, then they can achieve the flight, or freedom, from this mortal ball and chain. As such, Sufi poets must interpret euphoric feelings of being intoxicated as God's direct love, and associate it with being freed from mortal chains.

Sufi Poetry, Yeonsoo Kim

2009-12-10T19:49:00.000-08:00

Compare to the other Sufi Poetry, Rumi’s expression on his poem was much stronger. I could see what he was trying to say in his poem and his voice was very conspicuous throughout the poem. And he used a lot of self questioning – answering style to progress his idea. I felt like his poem is really philosophical and deep. But frankly, I liked the two other Sufi Poetries. In their poems, they were speaking of love and god – religion, and no identity issue.
I enjoyed reading all the famous ancient epics and literary from various culture. I did not realize how broad the world of literature before I took this class. It was definitely good time to explore the variety of literacy in the world.

Courtney Lum

2009-12-10T16:13:00.000-08:00

Overall, I thought we read some very interesting literature in this World Literature class. I would’ve enjoyed reading more modern classics and poetry, but given the course requirements and description I think the pieces we read during the semester were quite intriguing as well as just classic literature that is necessary as a foundation for global writings. However, I found the final presentation to be more difficult than it appeared, for there is so much literature out in the world that it is extremely difficult to pick and choose ones deemed important or classic. Though in doing that assignment I give the teacher a lot of credit for choosing such interesting reads.

Margaret Yoon: Syllabus Presentations

2009-12-10T15:39:00.001-08:00

I enjoyed the presentations; they were very unique and intriguing in their various themes and goals. However, I do not think the task of presenting a “World Literature” syllabus is practical. There is too much literature that constitutes such, and the term itself changes with every individual. Thus, I focused my presentation on a specific psychological approach to world literature, specifically with the German texts from the Enlightenment to post Modernism. In this way, I think the class would be more effective as a learning experience and would have more of a focus. The students would come away with thorough knowledge about a specific period, which they would be able to apply to future literature classes and their own worldview.

Laurence Chan, Medea II

2009-12-08T21:46:00.000-08:00

After finishing the play, I am surprised at how much I enjoyed the rest of the play. I was waiting to see Medea's rationale on killing her own children and totally destroying Jason's happiness, and I must say I liked it. Medea is a victim of an unwanted spell of love. She had given Jason everything she could, done everything possible under the sun to help him achieve his dreams and the only thing she had asked for was to be his only wife. I felt no pity towards Jason and though I don't approve of all her actions I fully understand. Medea won my sympathy.

Overall I thought the play was a fun read. It pleased me to see the gods and chorus had been on Medea's side as well. Good example of Greek tragedy.

Sufi, Emily Clarke

2009-12-08T21:06:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed reading the Sufi poetry because I had never heard of this religion/dance. I think the moral behind Sufi are very compelling and inspirational. Though I follow a different religion, I was very moved by and agree with the settings of sufi. But to say that I agree with Sufi and to associate myself with Sufi is almost going against the entire point.

Sufi Poetry, Ralph Monfort

2009-12-07T23:24:00.000-08:00

Normally I am not a fan of poetry however, I seem to tolerate Sufi Poetry more than other poetry. One thing I was not found of was the fact that it was very big religion. Sufi Poetry uses a large amount of imagery with the birds and the flowers. I didn't like that use of the metaphors. However, overall Sufi Poetry is interesting and not as complicated as other poetry.

Laurence Chan, Medea I

2009-12-07T17:19:00.000-08:00

I have heard of the play Medea before reading it. I knew it was going to be a bloody tragedy involving many murders and betrayal. "A mother who kills her own children." I wasn't sure what I would think as I began reading the play but to my surprise I am enjoying it. Medea had fallen in love with Jason unwillingly, and when the play begans she already had forsaken her own homeland and betrayed her people. The spell love casts over people is strong, and perhaps though the play is fiction, people can be brainwashed and step over lines they never knew they could for it. Many people have often gave up their own families for love.. and unfortunately it usually does not end well.

Laurence Chan, Sufi Poetry

2009-12-07T16:45:00.000-08:00

The last week we have been studying Sufi poetry. We've read and analyzed many poems by several poets. As we were attempting to write our own Sufi-style poetry, I was reminded of the frustration I felt through the usage of metaphors and nature. Most sufi poems have the same characteristics of nature, birds and flying, and flowers. The poems could provide good lessons or insight, but most are too vague considering they are religious poems that are supposed to guide you.

Sufi Poetry

2009-12-07T14:32:00.000-08:00

We have read several differnt types of peotry in the class. However, Sufi poetry by all three authors; Attar, Hafiz, and Rumi were very religious and symbols such as birds to represent after life. As an atheist, I found their poems are very nonsense. It contains lots of meaning in that short lines, and sometimes it was really confusing to understand underlying meaning of specific symbols. The poems give meaning of life in definitions of religions but i figure it is very hypocritical and idealistic to follow certain ideas. But the wordings and descriptions were beautifully written, and makes the reader to imagine the whole scene. I really dont prefer to read religous literatures but some poems are remarkably attractive regardless of its meaning in religion.

Sufi Poetry

2009-12-07T05:20:00.000-08:00

I do not often like to read poetry but with the Sufi poetry it was not difficult or painful to read. I liked the sufi poetry because i found it to be enlightening and inspiring. I liked that the dominant themes were life and love. I did not find the fact that poetry was also very religion related to be much of a problem, in fact most of the time it didn't register with me that they were religious because the poems often applied to many subjects. They were also easy to read because they were not very long. I also enjoyed the use of symbolism and metaphors because it allows the reader to put more thought into the poetry and possibly come up with more then one meaning.

Sufi Poetry

2009-12-07T04:44:00.000-08:00

Sufi poetry is by far the most existential poetry we've come across in class to date. It's interesting that this poetry is considered to be related to religion in that it references and discussed God, yet it outwardly derides traditional religious practices as being too showy. It discusses transcendence and achieving a higher state of being, of experiencing ecstasy upon the reunion of the personal soul with the great Soul. A lot of natural imagery is used in Sufi poetry, such as birds, clouds, and flowers (the rose especially), to signify the longing and desire to achieve the highest state of consciousness in which the self dies to the whole. Traditionally, Sufis have had many methods of altering one's state of consciousness, including singing, dancing, and partaking of mind-altering substances such as bhang, a cannabis plant derivative. I'm sure the bhang helped contribute to the strong theme of love being the underlying force of the universe. Love is more than just the theme of most of the poems; it seems to be the purpose of life to a Sufi. Feeling love and sharing love are very important to the dedicated Sufi.

William Chiu

2009-12-07T01:29:00.000-08:00

The Sufi poems differ from the poems we read last week in both content and language. These poems are very relaxing to read because they deal with very mellow topics such as love, flying, and death. However they are not my style of poetry because they feel very cheesy portaying hippie themes almost. The poem that was the most interesting for me to analyze would be the poem by Attar dealing with the meaning of life. I found it very interesting how the auhtor says that people should find themselves while they are alive. These poems which deal with life make one wonder how one should go about living life to fully grasp what their life's meaning is. After reading this short yet inspiring poem, I was thinking about myself for a good few minutes. The other poems seem very much alike because of the repetitious subject matter so I did not find as much appeal in those poems.

John Torres "Sufi Poetry"

2009-12-06T21:57:00.000-08:00

Sufi poetry can be characterized by the extensive use of love with symbolism and metaphors. Many of the poems also have interesting comparisons. The poems were easier to read and grasp than some of the poems we read in previous weeks. Also these poems were not as vulgar as other poetry styles dealing with more physical aspects of love. Sufi poetry was similar to the other poetry discussed in class and it was interesting to see how different cultures deal with similar topics such as love in this specific case.

Sufi Poetry

2009-12-06T19:49:00.000-08:00

As most students in the class, I was a bit nervous to try and write a Sufi poem because I felt only the poets who’d master this style could produce such a work. I tried to capture the imagery that is so common in many of the poems, using key themes like flight, love, god and death. I actually liked how my poem turned out. I find Sufi poetry to be interesting when it is actually broken down into simple terms in class; the underlying messages can give one a lot to think about when it comes to life, morals and things of that kind.

Sufism

2009-12-06T19:44:00.000-08:00

After being introduced to Sufi poetry, it seems to me their main focus is their devotion to god and love. For instance, there are poems that deal with flight and death as a way to get closer to god. Also is a sense of searching for who they are and where there place in life is. Sufi poems are often in first person narrative which makes the words and context more personal and reflective. The video, along with the background information, of how Sufi poetry can be performed was really interesting. I found the whole idea of “tripping” in order to fully experience the style quite attention-grabbing.

Courtney Lum

2009-12-06T18:47:00.000-08:00

I actually found Sufi poetry to be quite beautiful and interesting to read. I found the language and the imagery created in the poetry to be simple, yet truly beautiful. I liked how the poems were in reference to religious views of love, life, and death, and yet the religious views were not imposed and thrown upon the reader as a means of spreading their religion and converting new followers. The simple imagery, especially of that of death, is a huge theme in many of these poems, but death is not something that is feared, but almost revered in the poems. The poems make death sound natural and beautiful.

Sufi Poetry: Attar and Hafiz, Yeonsoo Kim

2009-12-06T17:20:00.000-08:00

Sufi Poetry was definitely something I enjoyed reading. Although the poetry itself was mainly dealing with the Islamic view of life and love, it did not quite seem like they were enforcing their religion to the readers regarding with topic. Rather it would seem like more of a philosophical type of poem. What I liked about Attar was the way he identifies the meaning of love. That love is not about oneself but it has to do with the individual soul and god. And Hafiz’s poem gave me such an impression. I liked the part where he described himself as if he overcame the hardest part of life. Being happy about speaking frankly and be free about love.

Willie Ho

2009-12-06T16:59:00.000-08:00

Sufi poetry expanded my understanding of poetry as a whole. I always thought that the language of poets was difficult to understand but after reading Sufi poetry I think that most of the language used was probably just representative ideas and nouns. In Sufi Poetry, flowers represent love; flight represents reunification with the great soul; birds represent the fallen sub-souls of the great soul. The fallen sub-souls love the great soul and long only to reunite with it. Though they can only achieve this through death. Death is viewed as something not to be feared but something good because with death, souls can become a part of their whole form again.

On another note, for the presentations next week, I really have no idea how we should explain why some book deserves to be on the syllabus moreso than another book. I really can't think of a good reason.

Sufi poetry

2009-12-06T16:30:00.000-08:00

After reading several samples of Sufi Poetry it is clear that those who practice Sufism see themselves to be on a mental and spiritual journey towards God. Many of the poems attempt to guide those who seek God and describe the path leading to this level of spiritual attainment. We also discussed how Sufism is an offshoot of mainstream Islam. The two differ in several ways. While muslims believe that they are on a pathway to God once they die, Sufi's also believe that is possible to reach a connection or degree of closeness with God while still alive. Sufi poetry embraces love and God while exploring some of the deepest aspects of our consciousness. This is clear with the language employed by Sufi poets. I found the poems to be quite vivid and a good read for a change. I think this is because I can be a little more relaxed knowing that I wont have to write a paper on it or make sure that I have to fully understand or analyze it.

Sufi Poetry

2009-12-06T16:26:00.001-08:00

This week in class we read Sufi poetry, which was an interesting topic. In Suffism, two types of love exist, profane and sacred. Sacred love is the love for God, while profane love is the love shown for everything else. The poems were full of symbolism, especially involving love, flowers, birds, and God. I found that it wasn’t too hard to understand the broad meanings of the poems, but it was difficult to catch on to a lot of the deep symbolism. One poem we read was about the transferring of an STD between lovers. After reading that poem, not in a million years would I have thought it meant that. Another poem was about God, and the conditions needed to truly love Him, and for him to love you in return. One belief that is displayed in much of Sufi poetry is that God and creation are one in the same, since God exists inside of everything.

Sufi poetry

2009-12-06T15:15:00.000-08:00

Love is an universal subject in Sufi poetry. The poets believes that there is nothing but love exists at the beginning of the universe. According to Alcoran, Allah loves his people and vice versa. Allah is the first person who falls in love with his people. Sufism also believes that the one who behaves like the slavery of love is a very wise person. Therefore, the only valuable topic in Sufism is love. In Persian literature, the person who dies for love is always regarded as a hero. "Dies for love" is the only way makes a person immortal. Attar uses polo ball and cue to reflect the will of assimilation of two lovers. In "Montīq- at- tayr", Attar tells a love story between a ordinary person and king. The ordinary person is executed at the end because he is not willing to die for love.

Lauretta Oseni

2009-12-05T22:03:00.000-08:00

I am trying to make up my posts so i am going to talk about my presentation and how i am preparing for it.
I like that we were given the freedom to pick any texts we liked in the beginning but as i kept doing my research and finding the texts i wanted to use, it then became a problem because there are so many texts i like and i want to put all of them in my presentation which is not possible. So i have to figure out which ones i like better than the other or which would have a greater impact on the reader.
I am a little confused/overwhelmed now but i am hoping to get it together and make a great world literature syllabus!

Sufi Poetry

2009-12-05T21:44:00.000-08:00

The suffism poetry we read in class this past week was not only interesting but very inspiring. It was very touching and made me think about something outside of everyday life. How these people (Attar, Hafiz,Rumi) try to find God is very inspiring and shows a lot of dedication.
According to what was said in class, there are two types of love in suffism, sacred and profane. The sacred is love for God while the profane is earthly love (for a person). According to suffism, God is not a perfect being that is unreachable. To them it is possible to draw closer to God more fully in present life than in death. In suffism, you are not required to buy redemption but rather to achieve and find your path to God.
There are also certain symbols that have to be in a suffism poetry such as "flight", "wine", "birds", and these symbols were used to portray the main content of the poem.

Catullus Poetry

2009-12-04T06:15:00.000-08:00

Catullus poetry is very different from the previous Sappho poetry we had read in class earlier. While Sappho poetry tended to be more reserved and proper, relying heavily on metaphors and similies to carry a message across, Catullus tended to be more direct and honest in his summations of various topics. He often used vulgar language and crude imagery to blast opponents in his writings. Another difference is that Catullus used poetry to attack a number of enemies and lambast friends who had appearently wronged him in some manner. I was not familiar with this sort of writing, especially one that had existed so long ago. The erotic poems obviously owe a debt to Sappho's writing, as they seem to have a fair amount in common with her while still retaining their own crude style and formation. Overall, Catullus poetry is an interesting look at a time when this sort of liberal writing was allowed, and clearly censorship had not developed in order to curtail the writer's ambitions.

Jenelle Fiori; Sufi Poetry

2009-12-03T18:30:00.000-08:00

The Sufi poems we read for class were very interesting and easy to understand. Their main focus surrounds love and devotion of God. Each author talks about transforming their entire lives so that they could live up to the standards of God and be deserving of Him. For example, Attar is so intoxicated by his love for Gos that he writes about how to be deserving of God's love in return. Theses include the characteristic of not being greedy, hard working- as we owe God a debt-, brave and ready for death, and finally humble- as God is watching. If all of these are completed, then you can grow wings and fly away to God. Hafiz also talks about becoming a bird to fly to god. He talks of being a slave of love and until God is content and allows Hafiz to enter the glory heaven. Lastly, Rumi poem is a letter of God. He tells God that he searched a long time for a gift worthy of God's glory but could not find one good enough so he gave God a mirror to remind God that his love is full of ecstasy and endless. These three poems reflect the Arab religions in their devotion to God and are very interesting to see how people display their love.

Margaret Yoon: Sufi Poetry

2009-12-02T14:12:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed reading Sufi poetry because all three poets, Attar, Hafiz of Shiraz, and Jelaluddin Rumi express the depths of spiritual life very lyrically. I felt like when they describe their relationship with God, or the path to achieving reunion with God, it could almost seem like a “profane” or wordly relationship with another human being if taken out of context. They employ passionate tones that express their desire for complete oneness with God. Sufi poetry has had great influence on world literature, such as Goethe. He published his West-ostlicher Divan, a collection of lyric poems inspired by a German translation of Hafiz. American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson admired Persian poetry as well and published many essays that discuss it: Letters and Social Aims, From the Persian of Hafiz. A question I have for the Sufi poets is: How do you realize your purpose in the beginning? What made you desire this reunion with God-what was the stimulation?

Cattullus

2009-12-01T10:36:00.000-08:00

I thought that the Cattullus poems were very interesting and well written. I rally liked how direct and explicit they were. I also found them really sad and depressing when Cattulles thought Lesbia was unfaithful. Compared to most poetry i thought this was very good and interesting escpeially becouse it was areal relationship.

Catullus, Ralph Monfort

2009-11-30T20:42:00.000-08:00

Catullus' poems are interesting reads. There is a similarity to Sappho's writing however Catullus is more direct and straightforward. Catullus' poems have a different theme than Sappho's. Catullus' written his poems to his friends, his love. His word use is more on the vulgar side opposed to the word choice of Sappho. I much rather read poems by Catullus than poems by Sappho.

Peotry of Catullus

2009-11-30T20:14:00.000-08:00

Unlike Sappho's poetry, Catullus' peoms were much easierly written and much simpler.
Some of his peoms are about his friend or to his friends, erotic poems indicating homosexual and lesbianism (probably inspired or influenced by Sappho's Lesbos), and about nature. And yet, some poems are way too simple to even understand the intension of Catullus's purpose of writing the peom unlike very descriptive peoms written by Sappho's. It's very interesting that back in the time, sexual things were very sensitive subjects and both Sappho and Catullus both mention in depth riskying themselves in public. I think poetry is really fascinating genre of literature since it have tell many things with short passages.

Catallus

2009-11-30T20:11:00.000-08:00

Catallus's poetry was definitely a contrast from Sappho's poetry. It was more direct and to the point. Modern poetry also has these contrasts and there is no specific style that is common in today's poetry, just like ancient poetry apparently. Catallus has a direct style where you know exactly what he means, something I appreciate in literature. Whats the point in taking the time to make a point if you can't get the point across to your readers? However its hard to compare the two poets because most of Sappo's poems were in fragments. I think that he is making fun of sappho when he takes her poems word for word, and criticizing her indirect confusing style.

Catullus' Poetry

2009-11-30T15:41:00.001-08:00

We recently covered Catullus' poetry in class and it was quite different from Sappho's. First off, it was easier to read because it is very straightforward but it does not have a lot of details like Sappho's poetry. Not only that, it’s a different theme from Sappho's poetry because it's usually directed at his own friends, his love, or Sappho herself. There is one poem imitating her with the massive details and the reference to the Gods and beyond. Not only that, I also noticed that both of them mentioned sparrows in each of their own works but described in different ways. In Sappho's poetry, the sparrows are mentioned as Sappho is describing Aphrodite’s chariot flying into the sky while the sparrows in Catullus' poetry are described as merely a pet.

- Lillian Lai

Sappho

2009-11-30T11:12:00.001-08:00

After reading several of Sappho's poems, it can be inferred that she uses a lot of imagery and details. An example is "stars around the beautiful moon... hiding their glittering forms". Not only does she stress on scenery, she also uses nature to conjure of how powerful love can move her heart. Another example is "Love shook my heart...like the wind on the mountain". It can be inferred that she tries to use things such as nature and the sky which are familiar to the readers to describe how she is feeling. When she is mentioning her Muses in the poems, it can be inferred that she is attracted to woman because of the way she describes them.

- Lillian Lai

William Chiu

2009-11-30T06:19:00.000-08:00

The poems of Catullus are very different from the content we have studied in the openness and informality of the content and language. He writes as he wishes which at the time in roman society was completely out of the normal. one poem which I found his openness particularly surprising would be poem number 21. In this crude poem he makes an attempt to dissuade Aurelius from trying to have sex with all of his friends and directs him to particularly avoid one male whom Catullus appears to favor. His blunt words are furthered by a threat towards Aurelius that he will sodomize him if he does not refrain from his lustful acts. i was quite taken aback from the language and content here. Despite the uncomfortable content of a few poems. i admire the audacity of this author. He writes about the subjects and topic which concern his life whether it be his lust, anger or friendships.

Catallus' Poetry

2009-11-30T04:46:00.000-08:00

Reading Catallus' poetry was a very unique experience. It wasn't what I was expecting after having just read Sappho's poetry, which tended to be more subtle and open to interpretation. It was definitely much easier to read, since Catallus had no problem with saying exactly what he meant in no uncertain terms. I was rather surprised when I read the first couple at the kind of language he used, but it fits his style. A lot of his insulting poems about his friends are quite funny, and I found that his poem which copies Sappho's almost word-for-word was more a tribute to Sappho than an insult. He takes her words and gives the poem an entirely different feel by adding the second part on where Lesbia berates him for lazing around and writing the first part. Catallus was also easier to read in general because the poems were available in their entirety as opposed to a fragment here and a fragment there like Sappho's poems, with the added difficulty of having to infer what she may have meant in the missing spots.

Catullus

2009-11-29T21:13:00.001-08:00

The poems by Catallus were interesting to read. It was easy to see similarities between Caullus and Sappho, especially since Catallus' poetry was embued with much passion. However, I did not find the basic nature of each poet to be the same, since I found the poetry of Catullus to be more shocking at times. It was easy to find humor in some of the poetry of Catullus and the goals of the poetry seemed to be clearer. I’m wondering, though, if there was some influence going on here, due to the very obvious similarities between the two poets.

John Torres "Catullus Poetry"

2009-11-29T20:46:00.000-08:00

The poems were very strong filled with emotion. This is very similar to that of the Sappho poetry. The language was much more vulgar and straight forward. Many of the poems talk use sex as a metaphor. It is often referred to in a negative connotation and not brought up in a pleasurable way. The poems are mostly straight forward. The intentions are clearly brought up and explained. It is still interesting to see how gods are still used in the different context and are still vital parts of this literature. #48 is very interesting because it deals with kissing as opposed to sex and refers to the passion involved in making love.

Catullus Poetry

2009-11-29T19:59:00.000-08:00

This week in class we read Catullus’ poetry. His poetry is full of both strong and outrageous emotions, but is full of humor as well. We read a lot of poems that were regarding Lesbia, Catullus’ love, but all of his poetry is not about her. His poetry lyrics are about both love and desire, which makes it similar to Sappho poetry, but I found more Catullus poetry to be obscene, and have some anger in it, whereas I found much of Sappho poetry somewhat perverted. Much of his poetry is critical, and its interesting that he likes to makes fun of people and embarrass them. The poetry of Catullus, (and Sappho) is different from most poetry I’ve read before. It was interesting to read a bunch of poems that were all somewhat related because the connections made it like a story.

Felicia Ooi; Catullus Poetry

2009-11-29T19:10:00.000-08:00

Catullus' poems seem quite similar to Sappho's poems in that they are both very passionate, and more often than not, are about love and/or sexual relationships. The poems that we read about were all those dedicated to Lesbia. Catullus appears very devoted to Lesbia, she is his girl whom he loves deeply and he would do anything to make her happy. In fact, a great majority of the poems are titled "..: to Lesbia", and to me that signifies that Lesbia is a very important person in Catullus' life. An interesting thing is that Catullus makes use of his poems to insult others and he is very blunt with his words, yet his words cut deep.

Courtney Lum

2009-11-29T17:25:00.001-08:00

I felt as though Catullus poetry is much different than other poetry of its time and even modern time. For one, I feel as though Catullus poetry is much more blatant and almost vulgar in approach than other poetry I have ever seen. Even though Catullus poetry is no different than other poetry in means of describing sexual feelings, intentions and desires, overall the approach of Catullus is much blunter and at times obscene. However, his rude remarks and obscene comments are what he is known for, there is no censorship in his poetry and therefore gives it a sense of being more real, more truthful, rather than just pretty words fixed up in pretty ways.

Catullus Poems

2009-11-29T15:59:00.000-08:00

This week we were instructed to read the poems of Catullus, specifically the ones dedicated to Lesbia. Catullus was inspired by the works of Sappho, so its only natural that his poems had strong emotional tendencies. After reading a couple of the poems I found them to be quite expressive of a range of emotions such as the love for lesbia, friendship, and sexual desires. His work is similar to Sapphos with respect to the incessant discussion about love and feelings. I really don't like poetry, and I feel bad saying that I don't enjoy reading any of this because it sounds like I hate reading even though i don't. It's just most of the time when I'm reading it I cant help but think to myself, " i don't care about any of this." When people think the poets were brilliant I really just don't see it. Overall, I thought the poems were okay, they were easy to read and they could be a little comical at times, which I enjoyed. But i wouldn't want to read them again.

Catullus, Yeonsoo Kim

2009-11-29T15:31:00.000-08:00

I felt somehow familiar with the poem, Catullus. As I keep thinking about it, I realized that the poem of Catullus is kind of similar to the previous poem that we read; Sappho. Maybe the reason I felt like that is the main topic and the mood of the poem was similar. They expressed their emotions very passionately, especially for romantic feeling. With emphasizing that mood too much, both poems contain sexual presentations throughout their literary work. But they also have some dark contents, like death and depression. I think as much as the poet is stressing out the extreme emotions, the poem seems more dynamic. It brings reader interest for poem, however if too much, it might cause adverse reaction for the readers.

William Chiu

2009-11-28T17:13:00.000-08:00

From reading the first few poems of Sappho, I could clearly see the difference between her writing style in comparison to that of the male writers we have studied in the past. Throughout the reading of the poems I felt as if I was in a dream state in which I felt at ease and time was at a slow pace with everything happening in the softest of ways. It was almost a breath of fresh air to read literature dealing with love and and emotions as opposed to war and trickery. Most apparent of this mood is when she writes about the marriage Hektor and Andromakhe and says, "the sound of the cymbals, and then the maidens sang in clear tones a sacred song and a divinely-sweet echo reached the sky..." Upon reading this, I imagined I was sitting in the back of a wedding ceremony where the setting is dimmed to a romantic lighting with music sung softly to the hearts most most sensual desires. The feeling of sensuality is further felt when she describes the rush of sensation her body experiences from the close proximity of being close woman she desires. She describes her lust as by having "instantly a delicate flame runs beneath my [her] skin." The language of the poetry also appear to have a direct meaning without much confusion as to the meaning of the connection of words.

Catullus Poetry

2009-11-28T14:03:00.000-08:00

In his poetry "Let’s Live and Love: to Lesbia" and many others, Catullus deliveries an idea that we need to seize the current lives. Catullus expresses his thronotope in the poetry "Let's Live and Love: to Lesbia", which including the inconstancy and shortage of the life, the limitation of the brightness and the endless of the darkness. Therefore, he states that we need to enjoy the current life and love even though they are limit. I do not think that the idea of Carpe diem is the passive way we treat to our lives, instead, it is the positive philosophy. The meaning of the life should not to be judged by the sucularism. I have no idea that if we have metempsychosis in the future in another space or not. So, just follow Catullus's idea, let's live, let's love and let's enjoy our current lives.

Catullus Poems

2009-11-28T09:03:00.000-08:00

The Catullus poems we read in class are basically about his love, desire, and passion for Lesbia. He thinks of Lesbia as the most beautiful woman alive and would do pretty much anything to get her. He is similar to Sappho in writing because they both write about love. They both openly talk about sexuality even though Catullus may tend to sound perverted sometimes. This might be due to the fact that he respected Sappho and admired her work. He also tended to sound homosexual in some of the poems.
Although he loves Lesbia, his feelings for her changes through out the poems from tender love poems to sadness, dissapiontment and bitter sarcasm.
I loved reading both Catullus and Sappho because they are both different from other literary pieces i have read.

Willie Ho

2009-11-26T23:00:00.000-08:00

After reading some of Catullus poetry, I feel that his poetry is very clever and somewhat satirical. He likes to poke fun and harass people for their misdoings, whether it be great or small. This is much like the work of talk show hosts, bloggers, and comedians today. It can definitely be comparable to these people because he names out well-known, or rather people who were well-known by his readers at the time he issued his work.

He criticizes, embarrasses, and makes fun of many things concerning these "celebrities" such as their habits or hobbies. Catullus must have had many enemies during his time and many readers/fans as well. If he is supplying people with this sort of amusement to read, then he is likely to have an equal amount of people who hate him as well.

Catullus Poetry

2009-11-26T10:23:00.000-08:00

I find Catullus amusing because just by devoting himself entirely to poetry, he was rebelling against what was expected of him in upper-class Roman society. He uses colloquial language in his work and was thus acknowledged as one of the Poetae Novi, or “Neoteric Poets.” He is truly revolutionary as a poet, for he ignores the public audience and writes passionately about his personal experience for an audience of fellow-poets only. Many of his poems examine his affection for his two great loves, Clodia and Juventius.

Because Catullus was an admirer of Sappho, and he is considered to have used a meter that Sappho developed, called the Sapphic strophe, which is an Aeolic verse form spanning four or three lines.

Catallus

2009-11-24T13:52:00.000-08:00

Similar to Sappho, Catallus’ poems speak openly about sexuality. Some of his lyrics come across as very perverted and appalling almost when you figure out what he is trying to convey. He tends to include the names of individuals in his poems; whether they are enemies or good friends. The poems we’ve discussed in class seem to either praise his friends or highly humiliate his enemies.

Sappho

2009-11-24T13:39:00.000-08:00

Before this class I was not familiar with the work of Sappho. Her form of writing is completely different than the works we’ve discussed in the past. The language is more blunt and straight forward; displayed by her willingness to openly talk about sexuality as she does. Her poems are a little hard to interpret because they tend to send off mixed messages. Some unique characteristics of Sappho’s poems include the author’s name in her own work, and the ambiguity as to whether she is referring to a man or a woman. Sappho speaks of love between all genders. The word lesbian derived from Sappho.

Sappho

2009-11-24T07:58:00.000-08:00

The poet Sappho is very interesting person to study. Firstly, the word Lesbian derived from the island that she was born and the word, Sapphic came from herself. Not many people back then were freely talking about the sexuality. Moreover, Sappho was a woman herself. Her poetry talks about love and passion toward both genders to genders. I believe it is very shocking idea while the poem is written. I don’t personally enjoy reading poetry since it is usually harder to understand the hidden symbols or meaning. However, her poem was catchy and impressive to go and find out the meaning of each passages.

Sappho, Ralph Monfort

2009-11-23T20:32:00.000-08:00

Sappho is a poet who wrote detailed poems from the woman's perspective. She is a major impact lesbian interaction. Her poems has a erotic theme to it. For one instance, she describes the way her body feels when her love (a woman) is nearby.

Sappho

2009-11-23T12:58:00.000-08:00

Before coming to class I had learned the history behind the word "lesbian". Now, after reading the poems I have an even clear understanding. While I was reading there were a few times where I would stop and read over the same line a few times because I thought there were some quotes worthy of more attention. Some quotes I found to be very beautiful and others I found inspiring. For example, "If anything happens to one who desires it, and wishes and never expects it, it’s a special delight to the mind." I particularly like this quote because it think it describes all aspects of spontaneity in just a simple, short sentence.

Othello

2009-11-23T12:39:00.000-08:00

All of the characters are introduced that will appear throughout the play, each with their own story to tell. Throughout the whole play I easily became frustrate with Iago's behavior. His deceitfulness and lies could have been easily disproved by Othello. I wonder how the story would have played out if Othello wasn't so easily persuasive and gullible. Since Othello and Desdemona's marriage was so perfect in the beginning, it was obvious to me that it would be ruined by the end of the tragic play.

I also mentioned in class how I never understood who Emilia was faithful to, Iago or Desdemona. Shakespeare never makes it clear enough for the reader to understand. This also bothered me as I read the story.

Oedipus Rex

2009-11-23T12:31:00.000-08:00

The taboo that takes place in Oedipus Rex is that he is suppose to be killed as an infant but because he was passed on from person to person, he ends up not being killed at all. His pre-destined fate is unavoidable since in the end the G-ds are the deciders of what Oedipus' fate will be. His hatred towards the G-ds and his pride in himself both contribute to his fall. He is unwilling to admit that he will kill his true father and marry his mother. Because he is unable to accept his dome at first, it makes his fall from grace that much more tragic. As he soon realizes what is unavoidable, he begins to slip into paranoia killing people around his, proving his fate true.

Medea

2009-11-23T12:11:00.000-08:00

Despite the many aspects touched upon in the story of Medea, is hard to relate to. Since I do not have a husband or kids, it is hard for me to understand her deep hatred towards her Jason. I can only imagine how annoyed she was. I do find it interesting how she blames most of Jason's betrayal on him, not his mistress. Sometimes, girls tend to blame infidelity or cheating on the girl with whom their husband or boyfriend is cheating on them with. I think this falls into an overall message throughout the play of how Medea and the author empower women. Medea is portrayed as a very intelligent and clever women. She was able to trick Jason and others around her into letting her stay for longer in the town to say goodbye. Also, the chorus is made of all Corithian wome, who add their opinions to the story.

Sappho

2009-11-23T06:45:00.000-08:00

I think there is evidence that the poems of Sappho are written from her perspective because she puts her own name into the poem. This would suggest that she is the one feeling all of these emotions that she puts in her poems. However, it is possible that because men were dominating the arts world at the time that she wanted to make her poems fit in more and was writing from the perspective of a man. She might have been trying to find out how a man feels about a woman and that was the inspiration to her poetry. She is a really interesting poet because she is not afraid to say what she thinks even if it might make other people uncomfortable.

Sapho, John Torres

2009-11-23T06:42:00.000-08:00

These were very interesting poems. Mostly because it was interesting to see poetry from a woman's perspective. Most literature from this period and this area was completely different. This poetry opened up a different side of culture and shows that like today there were people who had different view points. The development of the theme in the poems was also interesting to see. From beginning to end it was interesting to see how the poems developed.

Sappho

2009-11-23T06:20:00.000-08:00

The more interesting qualities of Sappho's writing is her own personal involvement in the narrative. Until this point, the audience has been a passive observer, one which is meant to take objective lessons from the work itself. In Sappho's poetry, however, she speaks in the first person which allows for a much more involved audience -- in this instance allowing for the author's emotions to be transferred to the viewer.

Another interesting aspect is the lesbianism present in the play. To this day, Sappho has had a major impact on woman to woman relationships, with Sapphic and her native island, Lesbos, as the two strongest and most familiar terms relating to lesbianism. This adds an interesting element to the stories, especially considering how she was supposedly married and had a child by the time she was writing her works. It is a shame that so many of her poems are lost to time.

Sappho Poetry

2009-11-23T05:46:00.000-08:00

Sappho's poetry is intriguing. Most of the poems you would read and not know a woman was writing. There are very few lines that hint at a female author, especially in the third poem, where she describes the jealousy she feels for the man who gets to sit near her love and the physical effect the woman has on her. She describes the way her body reacts when her love is near as not being able to see, getting hot, shivering, etc. I can see how her writing is viewed as incredibly erotic in this case, since it sounds like she is pretty much having an orgasm in this poem just at the mere presence of the woman she loves. I found her other poems and poem fragments to be more subtle with the eroticism than this poem, but definitely still there, as in her poem where she compares a woman to a ripe red apple that no one else can reach. This could definitely be an analogy for the woman's virginity, or love/passion in general. This poem seems to convey that although everyone else has forgotten about it, the author herself remembers and desires it.

Sappho

2009-11-23T01:34:00.000-08:00

I really enjoyed these for many reasons. One reason is that at first glance the poems seemed to be harmless and G rated. This all changes though when you start to understand what is being written about and the suggestive language and metaphors that are being used. Many of these metaphors are pornographic in nature and kind of hard to understand but do a great job of portraying emotion.

Sappho, Yeonsoo Kim

2009-11-22T21:29:00.000-08:00

I really liked the poems of Sappho. Not only the soft tone of writing but somewhat dreaming and phantasmic mood throughout the poem. I wish I could read and understand Greek language so that I would be able to read the original version of her poem. Because language and translation might have had affected on the tones and the moods of the poem. When I searched more about the writer herself, I found the very interesting characteristics of her. First thing is that she was as pretty as Aphrodite, the goddess, and the Second one was that she was a lesbian. I think both points kind of made her poem to be more attractive rather than degrading her work. As I read her poem, it made me feel like I want to read more of a poem that contains love and humanity .

Santigui Tounkara,Medea

2009-11-22T21:06:00.000-08:00

Medea was a very interesting play.It clearly showed how love can make a person do horrible things.Actually, I've heard a lot of true stories similar to Medea but with the exception that the Husband would kill his wife and kids after his wife would decide to leave him. In this particular play, Jason decided to leave Medea to marry Glause, the daughter of Creon, king of Corinth.Furious by the news, Media kills her own children.At that point, I was really schocked by the action taken by Medea.After thinking about it, I realized how love can be a dangerous emotion if it makes you do nasty things such as killing someone.

Othello/Sappho

2009-11-22T19:56:00.001-08:00

The conclusion of Othello was quite intriguing. It's nice how everything is exposed in the end and everyone learns what has truly happened. The character of Emilia is especially intriguing, due to her ambiguous role in the events that are driven by Iago.

The poetry of Sappho was very very interesting to read and I enjoyed the emotional elements of it. The passion in the words was so obvious that it made the reading a different sort of experience. I like that we've gone back to this time period, since I enjoy reading things that discuss the Greek Gods.

Felicia Ooi; Poems of Sappho

2009-11-22T19:40:00.000-08:00

Sappho's poetry is very emotional, and very heart-felt. When I read the stanzas, I could feel the passion emanating from the words. The phrases used are also very graphic and descriptive, and if you just exercise your imagination a little, you can almost envision the scenes that you are reading about. Aphrodite is mentioned several times, and Sappho appears to be praying/talking to the goddess. One thing though, it was a bit difficult to grasp the overall meaning of the poem as the poem was rather disjointed, and there were missing parts.

Felicia Ooi; Othello

2009-11-22T19:17:00.000-08:00

Overall, Othello was a story that I felt played entirely on major human weaknesses, like jealousy, greed, and pride. The main character, Othello, was portrayed initially as a noble character, who despite being a Moor, was a man of relative power and position. However, he eventually fell for Iago's vindictive lies, deceptions and falsehoods, and because of his own pride, he ended up murdering Desdemona, and then committing suicide. Iago was indeed a character who is to be both despised, yet admired. In a perverse manner, Iago emerges victorious from the whole tragic fiasco, and he is the only one who accomplished his goal of making Othello suffer. He is to be admired in the fact that despite his conniving and vicious lies, he is never caught red-handed as being the one to blame for everything because he thinks carefully before taking action. Nevertheless, to me, when compared to Shakespearean Tragedy, Greek Tragedy is a lot more dramatic and "tragic" in the most literal sense of the word.

Sappho poetry

2009-11-22T18:51:00.000-08:00

This is my feeling about Sappho when I read her poetries: She just simply expresses her feelings without any further purpose. Gilbert once criticized Sappho poetry in the "History of Ancient Greek literature", which said that Sappho did not need to use gorgeous word to decorate her poetries because the poetries are simply about love. They expressed the feeling of love so strongly. Gilbert also disagreed on the comparison of Sappho and Homer. However, if we regard our inner world as vast as the outside environment, we can not deny that Sappho may become another Homer, which is also the reason why Horace praised her masculine. Sappho reveals the most subtle and mysterious inner world of human. She is the pioneer who influences many femal poets later.

othello

2009-11-22T18:49:00.000-08:00

"Othello" is a tragic flaw. A flaw in the character of the protagonist of a tragedy that brings the protagonist to ruin or sorrow. First of all, Othello feels himself inferior because he is a blackamoor. He thinks that there exits a gap between he and his white wife, Desdemona. He feels that he does not deserve Desdemona because of his color. So, when Iago provocates, the inferiority complex makes Othello believe Iago's story and thus drags out the tragedy. Othello also relies on others too much. His previous success and happy marriage blinds him. All he saw before was the bright part of the world. He never thought that the world also has half dark part and exits hellions such like Iago. Othello is also a represetation of androcentrism. He can not bear with the betrayal of his wife. Moreover, Othello's impulse ridden personality is good for him as a warrior in the war but not a thoughtless husband. Therefore, the tragedy is predetermined by Othello's flawed humanity.

Sappho

2009-11-22T16:54:00.000-08:00

Sappho was a woman who was said to have killed herself (gone over a cliff) because her husband did not return from war. From this it can be said that she is a very emotional person who would do a lot for love. In the first lines of this poem she calls on Aphrodite (who is the goddess of love) to help her with her broken heart. She believes in the power of Aphrodite and thinks she can solve all problems.
Sappho is unlike the other literary pieces we have read in this class. It is very emotional and passionate. She is in love with love and it is seen in every line of the poem. To Sappho, life without love is no life at all.

Othello, Sappho

2009-11-22T16:03:00.000-08:00

This week in class we read the end of Othello and began to read over Sappho poetry. The ending of Othello was very interesting. I enjoyed seeing the events unfold leading to Othello’s’ murder of Desdemona. To kill her, Othello at first decides to poison her, but Iago persuades him to strangle her instead. I think it is stupid how easily Othello was manipulated by Iago, but I understand that Othello deeply trusted Iago, making it hard to believe he was being lied to.
We also read some poetry by Sappho this week. I found the poetry to be a bit confusing to understand, but one thing I noticed was that a lot of passion was put into her poetry. It’s disappointing that much of her work is lost and only fragments remain from most of her work, as it’d be interesting to clarify a lot of ambiguous meanings to a lot of the poems.

Courtney Lum

2009-11-22T15:45:00.000-08:00

Reading Sappho poetry is quite unique from anything else we have read in class. What is so fascinating is the desire and emotion felt by herself for the other person. It is also most intriguing that it is so enigmatic as to what her sexual orientation is which would depict whether she is desiring or merely admiring the subject in question. Also the fact that there is such little known about her and her personal life makes her poetry all the more fascinating and personal. These poems are really the only pieces of information about her and seeing that they are so cryptic yet simple at the same time truly expresses her as a complex woman we may never understand.

Willie Ho

2009-11-22T13:57:00.000-08:00

This being the first time experiencing reading Sappho poetry, I had a mixed number of opinions towards it. It is written in a manner that can be viewed in many ways. It almost seems as if she tried to confuse the readers. Also it does not help that the translations vary in accuracy.

When I read the poems, I did not think of it to be anything perverted. It seems more like a state of admiration. However, upon being notified that the subject of matter was perverse, it seemed to be more convincing than the conclusions that I had previously made. After discovering this, I read each and every other poem with this mindset and made out the "truth" behind the texts. This matter is still subjective though, because we will never truly know if the texts were surely meant to be viewed in this aspect.

All in all, the agenda she took in writing these poems are unknown but I am convinced she is a lesbian and she did not take on any male persona. I think people just make up the ideas of "taking on another persona" dogmatically. They just want to prove others wrong for the sake of doing so.

Sappho

2009-11-22T08:12:00.000-08:00

I have never read or even heard of the poems by Sappho until now, which is why I thought they would be like every other poem I have been uninterested in reading. After reading many of her poems, it is clear that she is writing with a lot of emotion. I feel as though her poems are concerned mainly with love, whether it be the passion of love or the sorrow associated with the absence of love. I also feel that she chose her words carefully to effectively convey some emotions. For example, she uses the phrases, "...my frenzied heart", and "..Come to me now once again and release me from grueling anxiety." I found that analyzing the poems is quite difficult since there is little known about Sappho other than the assumptions made about her and the context in which she wrote the poems. Also I typically come to the wrong conclusions about poems, since I usually have no idea what it is talking about. Overall though, I didn't feel as bored reading these poems as I have felt when reading others. I found this interesting.

Sappho Poetry

2009-11-20T11:51:00.000-08:00

I’ve never read Sappho poetry before, so it is rather interesting to me. The poems are full of emotion, passion, and desire. I stress that it is not possible to draw certain conclusions as to whether Sappho’s poetry is a reflection of her own sexual orientation or situation, because we know so little about her as it is. I would like to think it is her own portrayal of her feelings, because her positive presentation of Helen is expressed with a tone that would render her words meaningless if they were not her personal sentiments.

Sappho’s poetry has such clarity and simplicity. Her images are very sharp, such as the sparrows that draw Aphrodite’s chariot and the solitary red apple at the tree-top. I think it is very effective that she quotes the direct words of conversations, real or imaginary, to have immediacy.