two course specific objectivesidentify genres W r i t i n g
Epics Presentations: Choose one work not considered an epic and make an argument for it’s inclusion in the canon (a work generally accepted by academics and scholars as legitimate and influential). It must be either a work of non-Western literature or a work that is non-traditional in format. Ideally make sure to emphasize the universality of the work and its importance to and contribution it will make to our understanding of culture (while making sure to avoid essentializing). The presentation ideally should have a multimodal concept, PowerPoint, Google Slides, Prezi, Infographic, short film or video.
Epic is a literary term and can be defined as a long narrative poem about heroic deeds. However, as we’ve seen and as this course argues, epics are also a representation of a culture, but not the entirety of it. Generally, these stories also have archetypes, a recurring object, sign, character, or concept within the narrative. The most common one is the hero.
Epic heroes often have these characteristics:
Other common archetypes include the trickster (a rule breaker of society who laughs at the world) or the anti-hero (one who is not the typically more morally ambiguous or even evil who acts out of self interest rather than social interest).
Learning Outcomes:
- Identify various literary techniques, creative uses of language, and traditions, and interpret them within their relevant contexts
- Perceive the deeper issues addressed in aesthetic texts and articulate their continuing personal and social relevance
- Understand how different cultures encode their values, whether shared or contested, in the various kinds of imaginative writing. In addition, there are two course specific objectives
- Identify genres, conventions, and/or period-specific discourses and practices and their relevance to broader historical forces
- Understand the uses of writing, both formal and informal, for discovery, learning and communication
Course Goal:
Specifically, this course will examine narrative literary texts—epics, prose fiction, drama—texts which tell a story. Looking at texts and stories from ancient to modern, we will examine them as representative of their culture. We will investigate the changing idea of the hero, as well as other patterns and archetypes in our stories—noting which seem familiar to us and which seem strange.