For Wednesday: Middle-Aged Women in the Middle-Ages

Close Reading Questions for

Chaucer’s “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue” (pp.1221-1240)

NOTE: “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue” is part of Chaucer’s great work, The Canterbury Tales, about a group of 14^th century Englishmen and women going on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas of Beckett.  To amuse themselves, each pilgrim tells a story and the rest comment on it afterward.  The most famous is this one, where a saucy Medieval woman dishes about her married life, love affairs, and the state of women in general. 

Answer 2 of the following...

[Click Below for Questions]

Short Paper #1 assignment: due Sept.13th

Short Paper #1 (of 3): Writings of Love and Beauty

Poems: Ancient Egyptian Love Songs, Sappho’s Fragments, Classical Indian Poets, Chaucer’s Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale

Choose ONE of the following options...

[Click below to see the entire assignment]

For Friday: Paper #1 and How to Write for a General Humanities course

For Friday, I cancelled the reading in the syllabus since (a) I don't want to overload you with short poems too early in the semester, and (b) I want to give you the paper assignment sooner so I can discuss what I expect from these assignments, and how to write for a Humanities class in general.  So it will be a relaxed class which will hopefully be useful to you; I will also give you reading questions for Chaucer's "The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale" for Wednesday (no class on Monday--Labor Day).

See you tomorrow!

For Wednesday: 'Close Reading' Classical Indian Poets

For Wednesday: Poems from Classical India

Readings: Bhartrhari (pp.1259-1262); Vikatanitamba (1263); Bhavakedevi (1263); Bhavabhuti (pp/1265-1267); Rajasekhara (pp.1270-1271)

For this week, I only have ONE question for you, but it’s much more focused than usual.  I want you to choose one of the poems from one of the writers above, and write a ‘close reading’ analysis of the poem.  A ‘close reading’ means you explain what the poem is saying by examining the metaphors, the language, the tone, and even the sounds so we can ‘see’ how you read/understand the poem.

Remember, don’t summarize the ‘plot’ of the poem or be too vague.  The goal here is to examine specific ideas and words so you can analyze rather than summarize.  This will make you a better reader of poetry and a better writer in general.  Both are the goal of our readings in Humanities I!

For example, here is a close reading of the poem “When she’s out of sight” (pg.1260).  Don’t do this poem in your own analysis!  J

The poem opens with the poet discussing the longing he has for his love when she’s “out of sight.”  It seems love becomes more powerful with absence, as he admits, “When she’s out of sight,/we desire to see her;/when we behold her,/we want to hold her in a sweet embrace.”  In other words, the desire for the woman comes with a reunion; if he had seen her all along, would he want to “hold her in a sweet embrace?”  The poet goes on to say that when they are embracing, “we wish our separate bodies/to be one at once--/without difference.”  While this alludes to a sexual union, it also has a deeper, more passionate meaning.  If they could be “one—without difference” they could never again part, never be forced to imagine rather than love.  This poem seems to underline the old saying that “absence makes the heart grow fonder,” since the passionate desire of “oneness” comes from knowing what it is to be without.  Can true love take root without conflict and loss?  This ancient poem suggests that to love is to suffer, and without great pain we can never know great love—or great peace. 

For Monday: The Shards of Sappho

Close Reading Questions for Monday:

Sappho’s Fragments (pp.467-474)

NOTE: Be sure to read the Introduction to Sappho’s poetry starting on page 467, since this explains why the poems are fragments (unfinished) and why she remains important enough to read despite this.  As before, answer TWO of the following questions in a short paragraph and avoid vague responses that give answers instead of thoughts. 

1.         Reading the fragments as a whole, how does Sappho view love—or the idea of love?  Consider that some are written to Aphrodite, the goddess of love; how does she speak to this goddess?  Is love something welcome, something that transports her to a new universe…or is it a darker, less welcome emotion?  Is it a blessing or a curse (or both)? 

2.         Why do you think that Sappho’s poems survive in this fragmentary state?  Many works from her time—The Illiad, the plays of Sophocles, etc.—all exist in pristine condition despite the ravages of time.  If she was the greatest female poet in the ancient world, why is this all we have left?  What might this say about women in the ancient world and the idea of being an author? 

3.         Most ancient literature is from the male perspective—male heroes, male gods, male kings.  All of Sappho’s poetry is from a female perspective, showing us how women viewed ideas of love, relationships, and marriage.  How does Sappho offer us a female perspective on the ancient world?  What might she see that is specifically ‘female’ in these fragments?  In other words, what wouldn’t a male see or write that Sappho does? 

4.         Creative Option: Fragments 48, 51, 102, 130 and 168B are only a single line or two.  Try to finish the poem; where do you think she was going with this?  How could these poems relate to a modern setting—or your own life?  Try to add a few lines to make one of these (or more than one of these) into a complete short poem. 

For Friday's Class: Love in Ancient Egypt

Close Reading Questions for Friday: 

Ancient Egyptian Love Songs (pp.26-33) 

 NOTE: Answer 2 of the following questions in a short paragraph, at least a few sentences so I can see you thinking, but also, so you can get something out of the poetry.  The goal here is to use the questions to help you ‘see’ things you might not otherwise see, or simply to have something literal to respond to.  Don’t skim the poems: read them slowly and don’t be afraid to read them again (they’re short!).

1. How do these poems compare to modern love songs?  What sentiments/ideas are the same, and where do we see significant differences?  In other words, has falling in love changed over the centuries, or do we still do it in fundamentally the same way?  Use at least one poem to support your answer.

2. What is the general tone of these poems?  Though all are about love, are they upbeat about it?  Hopeful?  Sad?  Tragic?  In other words, how was the condition of love (or falling in love) viewed in ancient Egypt?  Another way to think about this is—what kind of music do you think should accompany at least one of these songs?  What kind of love song is it?

3. Poetry uses metaphors (comparing one thing to another, often unlikely things) to help us see the world from the poet’s eyes.  How does one or more of these poems use metaphors to discuss ideas of love and sex?  What metaphors/images invoke the idea of sexual contact or passion?  Do these make sense in the modern world, or are they dated to our eyes and ears?

4. Based on these poems, what do you think were the social rules and taboos between men and women in ancient Egypt?  How were men and women supposed to act around each other, and how do these poems discuss the difficulty of pursuing love in this society?  Again, use a specific poem to support your answer. 

Welcome to the Course!

What is “General Humanities I”?  Let’s start with what it isn’t: don’t expect a course where you are expected to memorize endless dates, figures, and factoids to regurgitate on a weekly exam.  Instead, the goal of this class is to explore our shared cultural heritage, a collection of works that continue to shape how we see, appreciate, and evaluate the world.  As the Norton Anthology of World Literature writes in its Preface, “World literature is ground in the history of the world, but it is also the history of imagining this world; it is a history not just of what happened, but also of how humans imagined their place in the midst of history” (xxv).”  In other words, this is a class that explains how we “made” history in our own image. 

The true ‘work’ of this course will be learning to read the literature that survived history to become culture, even though many of them will be unfamiliar to you.  From Greece to India, England to China, we’ll explore the most fundamental ideas of humanity so we can see ourselves in history.  If you are what you eat, you are also what you read—and what your ancestors wrote down to preserve for future generations.  Silly as it might sound, this is your story, preserved in black and white as your cultural DNA.  So start reading!  

BOOKMARK this page since I will post assignments, announcements, links, and other essential information for the course.  I look forward to teaching you this semester and hope you enjoy this vast buffet of cultural delicacies.  Remember that some works will seem difficult and obscure on a first reading; use the daily questions to help you respond to them, and feel free to ask questions in class and through e-mail.  You're not supposed to 'get it' on a first reading, and if everyone understood a work in its entirety, we wouldn't need this class (and I might be out of a job!).  See you in class!