presentation

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.

Sufi poetry

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.

Catullus Poetry

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.

Sappho poetry

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

"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.

othello act I

The play Othello takes place in the city of Venice. It begins with a discussion between Roderigo and Iago. Iago is bitter as being passed up as Othello's lieutenant in favor of the Venetian gentleman Cassio. Iago says that he only serves Othello to further himself; he is playing false, and admits that his nature is not at all what it seems. Iago is aware that Desdemona, the daughter of Brabantio, a Venetian nobleman of some stature, has run off with Othello, the black warrior of the Moors. Brabantio and many others know nothing of this coupling; Iago decides to enlist Roderigo, who lusts after Desdemona, and awaken Brabantio with screams that his daughter is gone.

Medea

Even though the play of Medea is centered around the tragedy of Medea, Euripides didn't show any sympathy to her like Aeshylus did to Clytemnestra in the tragedy of Agamemnon. Compare to Medea, her husband, Jason seems to play like a more righteous role even he betrays Medea ultimately. Jason is almost created as a hero on his way to Colchis because he has taken numerous adventures and succeed. In Jason's mind, he regards all of his successes to the gifts from gods. Based on this, he must overestimate his ability and neglect the help from others like Medea. Thus, when Jason gets a chance to choose between Medea and a princess later, he is surely to choose the princess because he wants to be rich. He must think that this opportunity is also predetermined by gods. On the contrary, Medea think that Jason's survival and successes should contribute to her. For helping Jason, Medea even killed her father and betrayed her country. She also overestimates her influence on Jason's life. In my opinion, the conflicts between these two different thoughts drag out the tragedy. So, sometimes human should be less selfish to earn a happier life.

Oedipus Rex

Believe in or not, the most famous part of the story of Oedipus is about the puzzle he resolved when he encountered with Sphinx on his way to Thebes. "What has four legs in the morning, two during the daytime, and three in the evening?" The great man used his wisdom to figure out the answer but he did not realize that his native wit was also the key that lead him to his tomb. In my opinion, the riddle plot is a very critical part of the tragedy. If Oedipus could not answer the question, he probably would be killed like many other travellers. Then, he would never get a chance to be overconfident about his immortal. The overconfidence blinded Oedipus and let him denied his fate till the very last moment. Therefore, Oedipus' overconfidence somehow strengthened his tragedy. I do not think that Oedipus should be a person who desired condemnation even though he killed his father and married with his mother. His fate was impressed at the very beginning of his life.

Agamemnon

The tragedy of Agamemnon begins with his back from Troy and ends with his murder by his wife Clytemnestra. Clytemnestra is created to be a viperous,dislikeable and vicious woman in the story. She murdered Agamemnon for fulfilling her revenge. Clytemnestra could not forgive Agamemnon because he sacrificed their daughter Iphigenia ten years ago in order to placate the goddess Artemis who had been sending contrary winds to prevent the Greek Armies from sailing to Troy. Agamemnon's behavior was improper and Iphigenia was an innocent girl. At this point, the murderer may win sympathy. However, if Agamemnon deserved to die because he was the murderer of Iphigernia, Clytemnestra also deserved "Payment of blood for blood". Thus, the tragedy is not only of Agamemnon, but also of his family.

The Iliad and The Ramayana

The Iliad and the Ramayana are synchronically world literatures. Both of these two epics were created before 100 A.D. Like the significant influence of the Iliad and Odyssey on Ancient Greek, The Ramayana and Mahabharata also played a very important role in Ancient India. We can find many common points between the Iliad and the Ramayana by just comparing the two centered heroes, Achilles and Rama. Meanwhile, we may also find some diversity due to the development of the civilization in different regions. But in conclusion, Ramayana is a didactic epic and Iliad is a dialectic epic. The similarities and dissimilarities of the two epics reveal the diversities of the literature, culture and social background between the Greek and India in the ancient heroic age. This also can be concluded as the difference between the Liberalism of the Western and the Conservatism of the Eastern in the ancient age.

The Ramayana

The Ramayana is one of the two epics that express the corn values of Hinduism around 1000 BCE. The epic created typical role models such like Rama, Sita, Bharata and so forth. Rama was created to be a perfect man without any blemish. He is a righteous ruler, an obedient son and a loyalty husband. Not only Prince Rama, but also his wife, Sita, was created to be a perfect woman. When Sita heard Rama was to be banished, she begged to accompany him to his forest retreat.because she thought that it was the wife's dharma to be at her husband's side. I think Sita's behavior sounds incredible in today's society because women are no longer the accessories of men. Later in the story, Ravana, the ten-headed evil king of Lanka traps Sita. He sends a magical golden deer and thus let Rama and Lakshman be away from Sita. Before Rama left, he drew a protective circle around Sita and warned her not to step outside the circle. However, Sita does not realize that Ravana will appear to be a beggar, she finally steps outside the circle and then be grabbed by Ravana. This plot is very similar to a Chinese legend, which called the Journey to the West. I think that the main character, Sun Wukong in the Journey to the West adopts a lot of characteristics from Hanuman in Ramayana such as the magic power.

Iliad Book1

The Iliad recounts the events when the Greek siege of the city of Troy during the final year of Trojan War. The epic begins with the conflicts between Achilles and Agamemnon. At the beginning, Apollo sent the plague onto the Greek army due to his priest, Chryses was insulted by Agamemnon. Agamemnon refused to release his daughter Chryseis. Achilles then summoned an assembly to figure out the reason. Calchas, the prophecy interpreted what must be done to appease Apollo, which including release Chryseis to her father. Agamemnon was unwilling to retrocede the girl but he was forced to do so to end the plague. To make up the reward, Agamemnon took away Achilles's concubine Briseis, which lead to the rupture between Achilles and Agamemnon. Achilles was furious and he decided that he would not involve into the war anymore. He also felt that he should not deserve less than Agamemnon. Therefore, Achilles prayed to his mother, the goddess of the sea, Thetis for revenge. Thetis then interceded with Zeus in Olympus. Recalled that Thetis once helped himself, Zeus promised to help Achilles to be an indispensable person in Trojan's success.

Three Flood Stories

Even though the flood story in "Gilgamesh" was thought as a pioneer related to many other flood myths, the reason why the Gods inflicted the flood and how the heroes were selected to survive were quite different in these three epics. In "Genesis", the God decided to destroy human mainly due to his dissatisfaction of the sinners, and Noah was selected because of his faith. "Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God." (Genesis 6:9) Compare with this, the reason for the occurrence of the flood in "Gilgamesh" was explained as the overpopulation. Unlike Noah, Utnapishtim survived just depended on a random selection. When it came to "Metamorphoses", Ovid explained that the flood was the consequence of human and giants' irreverences. "They, like the seed from which they sprung, accurst, Against the Gods immortal hatred nurst, An impious, arrogant and cruel brood." In my opinion, Deucalion and his wife finally survived should just be another random selection. "But, two, the best of either sex, surviv'd" somehow implied that their survival was not that random enough as I thought. By noticed that Deucalion was a son of Prometheus, he probably had been warned and aided by his father.

The Flood

Both of the stories of "Genesis" and "Gilgamesh" have mentioned the legend of the flood, and both contributes a lot to describe the scene vividly. The flood in both stories are talking about how the Gods intend to destroy human and how the heroes survive with a boat at the end.
According to the data, "Gilgamesh" is the first great heroic narrative of world literature, which has existed in 2700 B.C. Compare with that, the "Pentateuch"(first five books of the Bible) does not appear until 539 B.C. Therefore, the flood stories in "Genesis" and "The Epic of Gilgamesh" are very similar but still have some bifurcations due to the development of the civilization.
The difference between "Genesis" and "Gilgamesh" can be concluded as the following points. First, there exists a very different attitude about the God. It is obviously to see that the sole god in "Genesis" has absolutely centred power. Compare with that, "Gilgamesh" has variety gods in diverse positions with very similar power. Second, the reason why God inflicts the flood are quite different. Anu and other gods intend to destroy human just simply because of the overpopulation while the God in "Genesis" inflicts the flood due to his dissatisfaction with the sinner. Third, the selected heroes are different. Utanapishtim is a random selected human but Noah is selected because his faith.

The flood and Noah's story

Genesis 6-9 is basically talking about the judgement and recreation God has made to human being in Noah's age. In the flood, God destroys everything excepts Noah and his family somehow shows God's grace and mercy. God judges but still rescues at the same time. He rescues the life of Noah and his family drops a hint that the rescuer-ruler will bring human back to the Garden of Eden some day in the further. 6:5 says like "that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" which seems conflicts with 6:8 "but Noah found grace in the eyes of the LOAD". In fact, it reveals the grace of God and emphasis the importance of the belief-- only those people who believe in God will be rescued and reward permanent peaceful life ultimately. In this case, Noah somewhat behaves like a rescuer-ruler but still ends with a sinner. He deserves to die because he builds a vineyard, becomes drunk on the wine and lies naked, which all violates God's inclination. The flood and Noah's death once again convince people the absolute power of God and the importance of the belief. I just wonder to know is there any special meaning for all the accurate number in Genesis 6-9?