Presentations

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.

Sufi Poetry

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.

Catullus Poetry

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.

Othello, Sappho

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.

Othello A 3-4

This week in class we read Act 3 and Act 4 of Othello. After reading these acts, we find out that Othello is planning to kill his wife, Desdemona, because he believes that she has been unfaithful. This is because Desdemona is unable to show Othello his mother’s handkerchief, which he gave to her, and she has lost. This is symbolic to Othello in many ways because it was given to Desdemona by Othello as the first token of his affections to her. The idea that Desdemona has lost it symbolizes the lack of trust between Othello and Desdemona and is also the symbol of the sensuality of her affair. Iago, being his manipulative self, begins to convince Othello that his wife is being unfaithful once Othello tells him he is suspicious. This infuriates Othello, and he decides that it’s necessary to kill Desdemona for her betrayal.

Othello

This week in class we began reading the Shakespearean tragedy, Othello. I never really enjoyed reading Shakespeare in the past mainly because of the difficulty I have reading his strange use of the English language. His wording takes time to get accustom to and sometimes I’ll have to read lines many times to understand what he’s trying to say. However, the plot of Othello is intriguing because of the varying themes of love, jealousy and deception. Iago is considered the antagonist of the play, although it’s not obviously seen in the reading. Iago is annoyed that Othello did not choose him for promotion in the Venetian army and even though he is Othello’s trusted “friend”, he is simultaneously plotting his demise. It will be interesting to see how Othello’s trust in Iago will ultimately lead to his downfall, which is what I assume will happen.

Medea

This week in class we read the Greek Tragedy Medea. I found this story to be a pretty interesting read and I enjoyed the characters of this play. Medea is a powerful character who is described as a barbarian throughout the story because she is from a foreign land. Jason is somewhat of the anti-hero of the play because his character is not seen as very commendable because of his lack of heart for Medea and his children. This story was different from the other tragedies we read, mainly because the protagonist in the play is female, whereas we are used to reading plays with male protagonists. I was somewhat disappointed with the ending of the tragedy, mostly because Medea never is justly punished by fate for what she has done. Being banished and losing your children by your own hand is hardly enough punishment for the murder of four people. But then again, maybe it is? Maybe having to live after having to kill your children might be punishment enough.

Oedipus the King

This week in class we discussed the Greek Tragedy Oedipus Rex. With the plague of Apollo ravaging the city of Thebes, fellow Thebans beseech their King, Oedipus to aid them through the difficult times. Oedipus is determined to cleanse the city of the awful affliction, and soon after the play begins, his brother in law, Creon, returns from the oracles with news about the plague. The oracles say the plague is caused by the unresolved murder of Thebes’ previous King, Laius. This sets up the major plot of the play, Oedipus’ quest to find the murderer of King Laius. One theme seen through the play and most of Greek Tragedy in general, is the inevitability of fate. Oedipus is predicated by the oracles to kill his father and marry his mother, and to prevent this, his parents send him off to be killed. But, in fact, he isn’t killed, and in fact, ends up killing his father, and marrying his mother. I enjoyed reading this play and it was interesting to read on and see how this impracticable prophecy unfolded.

Agamemnon

The Greek Tragedy that we read this week was Agamemnon. It is about the events that take place at the Royal Palace at Argos after Agamemnon’s victory of the Trojan War. I found the use of the Chorus as the main commentators interesting. They expressed the social attitude and morals of the people in a given situation and acted as a voice for the audience on stage. Cassandra, the war prize from Troy for Agamemnon, is a peculiar character in the play. She was Apollo’s lover, and was given the gift of prophecy, but was punished by Apollo when she refused to have his child. Her punishment was that no one would believe her predictions, and this holds true when the Chorus did not believe her vision of the death of Agamemnon and herself. Overall, I enjoyed reading this tragedy and found the storyline to be entertaining.

Agamemnon

Agamemnon was an enjoyable Greek Tragedy to read. I thought the translation was very easy to understand and simple to decipher its meaning. The main theme seen throughout the play is the idea of justice, and how it’s served to those who transgress. The Chorus questions whether it was just for so many Greek lives to be lost over the sake of one woman. Also, later on in the play, the Chorus has accepted the attack of Troy, but feel the Greeks must moderate how badly they damage the city, because if they are too destructive, their acts become unjust and will be punished for their excess. Gender is another theme seen in Agamemnon. Ancient Greece is a patriarchal society, and the Chorus frequently refers to women as irrational, deceitful, and inattentive of the facts. However, her careful and rational planning of the murder of her husband disproves the irrational stereotype, while reinforcing deceit.

The Ramayana / Illiad

The Ramayana was quite an interesting, but difficult literary piece to read. It is one of the two Hindu epics, although it does not follow the traditional structure that most epics do. The poem does not start in medias res, which is uncommonly seen in epics. When comparing the Ramayana to the Illiad, one similar idea comes to mind, didactic verse. The epics are both aiming to teach a moral lesson to its readers, such as the consequences of fighting in a war. Another parallel seen between the two epics is the abduction of a women, or “prizes”, to then men who captured them. I found it interesting that the people in the poem were meant to represent the ideal type of person they were. The two epics were both enjoyable to read, somewhat confusing, but enjoyable nonetheless. However, I’m finding it a bit difficult to see any obvious comparable and contrasting themes between the Illiad and the Ramayana.

The Illiad Book 1

I thought that reading Book 1 of the Illiad was much more enjoyable than the other three literary works we have read so far. It seemed to follow the formula of most ancient epics, which is something we also went over in class this week. The poem begins with Homer invoking the muses to assist him in telling the story about the rage of Achilles during the Trojan War. An invocation to the muses is characteristic of how mostly all epics begin. All throughout Book 1, there is constant quarrel (rage) between two of the main characters, Achilles and Agamemnon. Agamemnon has abducted the daughter of a god’s priest, Chryseis, and has refused to return her to her father (Chryses) despite the generous ransom he has offered. Enraged Chryses’ prays to Apollo and asks for divine intervention in the form of plague and terror on the Archaen army. These first few events lead to, and are mainly the cause of what occurs throughout the rest of the epic.
It was interesting to see the struggle for supremacy between both Agamemnon and Achilles, and to see how they both prioritized their individual glories over the well-being of the Archaen army, ultimately jeopardizing the efforts in war.

Metamorphoses

I did not enjoy reading Ovid’s epic poem Metamorphoses. I found its text rather confusing and difficult to understand while reading along, more so than Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis. Near the beginning of the poem, Ovid begins his tale of transformations by describing how the earth, the heavens and the rest of life were created out of Chaos. This leads into the story of creation and the flood. He describes the progression of mankind to be degenerative as time advances from Gold to Silver to Brazen to the Iron Age. This notion of the progressive deterioration and corruption of mankind is interesting, as I feel it can be paralleled with modern-day man. The appalling behavior of man instigates an attempt by the giants to seize the heavens. Jove’s response to all this corruption is to unleash a great flood onto the earth, which eradicates all living things except one pious couple, Deucalion and Pyrrha. After the flood recedes, this couple repopulates the earth by obeying the commands of the goddess Themis and throw rocks over their shoulders. These rocks then transform into a new “brood” of men and women. The epic then reveals more story lines, such as Daphne and Io, creating even more confusion in my mind. It moved all over the place and seemed like it was never going to end. However, the epic did share striking similarities to the Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis.

Gilgamesh/Genesis

The two Great Flood stories, also known as origin/creation myths, are similar in so many ways, but the motivations behind the Great Floods were vastly different. In the story of Noah’s Ark in Genesis, God deemed in necessary to cleanse the Earth from the evil and corrupt human race. God chooses Noah to build the Ark and basically “restart” the human race with all of the character and morals he possesses. However, in the epic of Gilgamesh, Anu and other gods plan to destroy the human race simply because of overpopulation and for amusement. No one is chosen to be the hero for any reason; Utanapishtim overheard Ea talking to the reed house about the flood and how to prepare for survival. But I find the fact that Ea, in a sense, purposely allowed Utanapishtim to overhear him, quite interesting. I’m not sure if he does this because he has a good heart and wants to see someone survive, or if he is simply doing this because he can’t keep a secret.
In both of the stories the dimensions of the boats to be built are very specific; however the shapes of the boats are different. In Gilgamesh, the boat is square, whereas in Genesis it is more like a rectangle. The lengths of the floods are different as well. In Gilgamesh, the flood lasts 7 days, whereas in Genesis it lasts 150 days. I think this is important to the reasoning behind the floods. God in Genesis is aiming to destroy and punish all life except for everything on The Ark and a lengthy flood is necessary for this. Since in Gilgamesh the Gods just want to have fun and kill humans for no real reason a shorter flood will suffice.
Some interesting symbolism I saw in both stories was that of peace and hope. In the Christian religion a dove symbolizes peace and hope, and after the flood in Genesis, Noah releases a dove (and a raven) in hopes of finding out the flood is over and they can leave the Ark. In Gilgamesh a dove, raven, and swallow were released for similar reasons.

Kevin Capps, Genesis 6-9

This was my first time actually reading the story of the Great Flood in Genesis, and pretty much any story from the Bible. However, I’ve seen plenty of movies and heard about this particular story several times. I found the repetitious verses to be interesting and precise descriptions of the written text to be rather peculiar. The directions God gives to Noah about dimensions of the Ark seem insignificant to the story, yet they are still included. I do understand the repetitive nature of the verses though; they are meant to reinforce and canonize the myth, allowing readers to hold onto the story.

I’ve seen a documentary about Biblical Literalists that were searching for any remaining evidence of the Ark on Mount Ararat in Turkey. It was remarkable how much effort has been put forth to try and find proof in its existence. To think of the Ark in a literal sense is rather fascinating, as the Ark represents the only link to the pre-Flood time, before God decided to cleanse the world, and would be quite the artifact to discover.

Overall, I think this story will remain a popular over time because of it's powerful message and great significance to many cultures.