Courtney Lum

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.

Courtney Lum

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.

Courtney Lum

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.

Courtney Lum

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.

Courtney Lum

In the play Othello, I was surprised at how rash and irrational Othello was as a character. He was so trusting in Iago, yet wouldn’t even give Desdemona the time to explain herself, let alone listen to her. I feel as if Othello’s downfall was his trusting nature towards to Iago and quick to judge tendency towards his own wife. Perhaps the idea of sexism played a part of such actions, for during Shakespeare’s time there was a great deal of discrimination of women and perhaps that translated into his play Othello. And only in the end does Othello realize his misfortunes and decides to commit suicide making him the tragic hero of his own demise.

Courtney Lum

In many ways I feel as though Shakespeare had created his characters to be very one dimensional. Othello is characterized a good natured man, who’s naivety and trust will ultimately be his demise, meanwhile Iago is pure evil who’s only characteristics support that by him being manipulative, untrustworthy, and deceitful. Since the characters are given such simple personalities it is extremely easy to distinguish the protagonist/ tragic hero (which in this play would be Othello) and the antagonist who will most likely cause his demise (which would be Iago). Yet given such simple characteristics, the plot is seemingly complex, for it an intricate love conflict in which Othello has married the woman Roderigo lusts for, so Iago, who has been helping Roderigo in his pursuit of the lady and also hates Othello for his own reasons, plots against him.

Courtney Lum

What is interesting about the tragic play of Medea is how the audience is compelled to sympathize with Medea instead of feeling emotions of hate and disgust. Even though she murders her own children, along with the king and the princess, the audience is still not compelled true disgust and dislike towards her character; instead we are lead to commiserate in her sadness, justifying her actions due to the neglect and betrayal of her husband, Jason. And even though we know that murdering her own children is distasteful and truly a terrible sin, we understand that her intentions were only to seek revenge on the husband that scorned her. Jason’s lack of remorse and complete betrayal and Medea’s complete and utter devastation from his actions shows the reader what compels Medea do perform such terrible deeds. Even so, Medea is also aware that her actions are terrible and blameworthy, yet deems it necessary to punish her unfaithful husband in every way that she can.

Oedipus Rex

In the tragedy of Oedipus Rex I found most compelling how throughout the entire play, the main plot line was for Oedipus to be killed. He supposed to be killed at birth, yet was saved by the shepherd, and then later in life when found out his true identity and relations to Jocasta and Laius he was also meant to be murdered in order to turn around the poor conditions of the land he rules . Yet he managed to live, blinded, but still alive. This is partly due to the fact that once the public learns that he is in fact his wife’s child and has killed his father; no one wants to go near him in fear of the curse that is posed upon him. He is already casted as an outcast in society and is believed to only have survived in order to continue to suffer the miserable conditions fate has given to him.

Courtney Lum

Immediately following the war, Agamemnon is a Greek tragedy that tells the story of the war hero, Agamemnon and his murder that occurs when he return home. One of the more intriguing aspects to this story is the complete lack of compassion and remorse from Clytemnestra after she murders her own husband who she hasn’t seen in 10 years. I understand that his murder was due to Agamemnon’s family curse, as well as his sacrificing his daughter for favorable conditions in the war, but what I find troubling is Clytemnestra’s defense for murdering her husband was due to infidelity, when she was cheating on him as well. I also don’t understand why Clytemnestra felt it necessary to kill Cassandra as well, I suppose it’s due to the fact that she was in a sense, the other woman. Overall, Agamemnon was a great Greek play in which the characters explored the ideas of revenge and tragedy.

Courtney Lum

What was most confusing about the play Agamemnon was remembering the names of each character and their relationships to each other, but besides that I found Aeschylus’s play to be an enjoyable and interesting read. One of my favorite things about all Greek (more so Athenian) literature is that each text connects to one another to tell a collective tale about one significant event. For example, the Iliad focuses on Agamemnon and Achilles’ quarrel during the Trojan War, Aeschylus’s play Agamemnon actually deals with the king coming home from the Trojan War and his murder, while the Odyssey begins after Agamemnon’s death and his son, Orestes has avenged his death. These are three different texts from two different authors that all cover the same range of a time period, which therefore creates a complete, detailed collection of that time period that is extremely thorough.

Courtney Lum

I enjoy reading the Ramayana not for the conventional purposes, but because I find it so interesting how the text isn’t just an epic tale of capture, war, and a tragic hero, but that it actually is a text that provides spiritual guidance and moral values. The Ramayana is an extremely complex and terribly long text that doesn’t fit the structures of an epic (for it doesn’t start in medias res, but actually starts from the birth of Rama and the death of him), but since it’s one of a kind is placed into that category. The fact that this is a spiritual foundation for the religion of Hinduism, there is a lot of information regarding how to live your live (dharma) and how to achieve spiritual means in this life. Even though the Ramayana tells the story of a man making a journey, it also explains how to live your life in accordance to Hinduism.

Courtney Lum

Although in epic form, I felt as if the Iliad Books 1 and 22 were much more interesting and easier to read than our previous texts from class. What I found intriguing was the way that the gods of Greece played such an extensive role in the human world. I was surprised to see how vindictive and vain the goddess Athena was in the epic, and how she ignored Troy and Paris when they needed her most during the war just because she was jealous Paris chose Aphrodite over herself. Unlike the other epics and texts we have read in class, the gods and goddesses in the Iliad play a much larger role in the world of humans, and possess the same characteristics as those they control, making them unpredictable at times, prone to mistakes, jealous, compassionate, and greedy individuals.
Also having seen the movie “Troy”, I was quite surprised to see many similarities between the Iliad and the movie; however I feel the movie didn’t mention the gods and goddesses who played a major role in the actual story making the movie less accurate and detailed.

Courtney Lum

In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the text was much different than the other texts we have read in class pertaining to the flood and creation myths largely due to the satirical tone found in much of the story. For instance the story was written in dactylic hexameter, similar to epics, however Ovid strayed from such form at times making it not quite epic form. Also we see in the beginning of the story a very real, natural creation theory explaining how the world came to be in a very factual tone, unlike Genesis and the Epic of Gilgamesh myths which claimed gods and mystical heavens were the reason the world came about. However, the main reason for the claim that Ovid was poking fun at the epics and other stories of creation and the flood was because of the way he described the second creation of humans. Instead of retelling the factual, elemental version of creation, Ovid describes an extremely different version of creation, stating humans were created through the throwing of rocks behind gods’ backs. The sudden change from realistic to fantasy can be perceived to be Ovid poking fun at texts such as Genesis and the Epic of Gilgamesh, and their telling of mystical, fantastical creations of the human world.

Courtney Lum

Even though Genesis and the epic of Gilgamesh dealt with the theme of flood, each had their own variances pertaining to why the flood was put into effect and how the matter of the flood was dealt with. In Genesis, God believed the human race had been living in a manner of sin and corruption, and therefore needed to be washed away from the earth. But God didn’t want to completely erase all life on the earth, just the evil and corrupt; which is why He chose righteous Noah to pave the path for new life. By creating a peaceful, righteous world void of corruption, God was renewing life; the world was being reborn.

In Gilgamesh, the Flood was also an act of cleansing, but for no such reason other than the gods (particularly Enlil) were annoyed by the noisy, overpopulated humans. Unlike the Genesis God who is omniscient and omni-benevolent, the gods in Gilgamesh possess more human-like qualities and therefore are capable of being irrational, which is why the decision to completely erase all humanity was quick and poorly planned. While the Genesis God has complete control over the flood, the gods from Gilgamesh didn’t which is what led to such frightening, catastrophic storms like tsunamis and tectonic plate movements.

Courtney Lum

What is most striking about Genesis sections 6 through 9 is the notion that the earth and human populations had become so corrupt that God himself deemed it necessary to cleanse the earth. This divine intervention in terms of a flood creates a fearful atmosphere, in which readers along with the characters in the story are struck with a sense of helplessness and inferiority compared to this great, all-powerful being. However, I feel as if this story also creates the mood of hope and rebirth, with this idea that all evil and sin can be washed away leaving a brand new, clean slate. Disregarding the religious connotations of the story, Genesis can simply be understood as a second chance to go about life.