For Wednesday: Aristophanes, "Lysistrata" (pp.141-161)

REMEMBER: No class on Monday (Labor Day); if you have a different edition of Lysistrata, read to the argument between Lysistrata and the Magistrate 

NOTE: As you read this play, think of it as a show like The Office or Parks and Recreation--something silly and over-the-top. It's a comedy about women who decide to withhold sex from their husbands to stop the war between Athens and Sparta in ancient Greece. While that alone is funny, the playwright also satirizes the power of women in a society where women were little more than slaves (and many were literally slaves). Could women really fight men on their own terms? Should women have a voice in the 'male' world? While we obviously live in a much more equal society, many of the sentiments expressed in this play are still familiar today, reminding us of why Aristophanes wrote it in the first place. 

The "Rainbow" Group (Group C) should answer TWO of the following

Q1: Many people are shocked by how 'dirty' Lysistrata is, particularly those who assume old literature is dry and boring. Why do you think Aristophanes throws in so many sexual innuendos and dirty puns? Does this detract from the message of the work? Could the play still work if it was more 'polite' and clean? 

Q2: How does this play help us understand the common biases and stereotypes of women in this period? Why were women not taken seriously by men (even by their husbands?), and why do many women not even take themselves seriously, as we see in the very beginning: "In our hands? Then Greece hasn't much hope."

Q3: In what way is Lysistrata a lot like Sappho? How do they both express some of the same ideas and values? Is there a particular speech or line of Lysistrata's that sounds like Sappho could have written it? 

Q4: How does the play try to turn the tables on men and make them experience a female position in Greek society? Consider the exchange between Lysistrata and the Magistrate when she says, "We must see that you're safe, my dear sir," and he answers, "Even if I don't want you to?" to which she says, "All the more if you don't!" 

For Friday: Comprehension Exam #1

As I mentioned in class (and following the syllabus' calendar), we're going to have our first Comprehension Exam on Friday. That simply means I'm going to give you a brief essay question to respond to in-class covering some of the significant ideas/themes we discussed with Sappho over the past few days. BRING YOUR BOOK! I want you to quote from at least one poem in support or your answer, to show me that (a) you've read the poems, and know them enough to dig up one or two of them, and (b) you can interpret the poems in new ways beyond what we said in class. 

The quiz won't be hard or tricky, and will be open to a variety of answers and responses. I just want to see you thinking and again, make sure you paid attention well enough to develop your own responses to the text.

ALSO: Next week will be a short week, since we have Labor Day off for Monday, and there will be no class on Friday (I have a meeting out of town). Wednesday is our only class, and I'll discuss that during Friday's class.

See you then! 

For Wednesday: Sappho, "Her Girls and Family," "Maidens and Marriages," and "The Wisdom of Sappho"

The "Revenge" Group should answer TWO of the following questions for Wednesday's class (see the groups two posts down if you forget what group you're in). Bring the questions with you to class, so if I call on  you, you can read your response (or remember what you wrote!).

Q1: How does Sappho define or complicate a "woman's" experience of life? For the Greeks, women were in the background--they couldn't own property or be citizens, being only a step up from slaves. How do the women seem to look at the own lives? As less than? Equal to? Different? The same? 

Q2: Some of the poems in the last part of our reading are wedding songs, which celebrate the wedding night of the bride and groom.  How do these poems show us a different side of Sappho’s art? Also, how might this show that Sappho is like many artists, composing for different audiences and occasions, rather than simply writing for herself? 
 
Q3: How might some of the “Maidens and Marriages” and "The Wisdom of Sappho" poems be advice from a mother to her daughter?  What advice might Sappho want to give to her daughters—or the next generation of women?  

Q4:  Pithy advice like those found in "The Wisdom of Sappho" easily survives fragmentation, since it doesn't need a lot of explanation. Like a fortune in a fortune cookie, it's meant to stand by itself. Which fragments seem to say the most with the least?

For Monday: Sappho, "Desire and Death Longing" and "Troy"

For Monday, read the poems/fragments in the sections "Desire and Death Longing" (pp.20-29) and "Troy" (pp.56-61). The "Love & Death" group will answer TWO of the following questions and bring them to class on Monday. If you forget what group you're in, see the post below this one. 

Q1: In general, how would you characterize Sappho's relationship to love in these poems? Is it romantic? Idealistic? Fatalistic? Tragic? Is something you wish for or something you dread, like an illness? Which poem seems to capture this best?

Q2: Since many of these poems seem to be addressed to other women, can we see what kind of relationship they had? Was it merely a deep friendship? A platonic relationship? A sexual one? What hints do these fragments offer us?

Q3: The poem on page 59 is one of her most famous, as it begins "Some call ships, infantry or horsemen/The greatest beauty earth can offer." This is one of the few poems where she tackles 'male' subject matter directly. Why might we consider this her response to the kind of subject matter she was supposed to write about? How does she contradict it? 

Q4: What do these poems reveal about the realities of women's lives in ancient Greece? Who were they--what did they think, feel, fear, look forward to? What freedoms did they have? And what opportunities did they lack? Since Sappho is one of the only female voices writing at this time (that has survived), what can we learn from her? 

Reading Response Groups

Reading Response Groups: For every reading, we’ll have a series of reading questions on the blog. They are designed as a guide to help you get the most out of the reading, or to help you through difficult/confusing readings. But only ONE group per day has to answer them. We’ll start with the “Love and Death” group on Monday: they will answer 2 of the 4 questions on the blog and bring these responses to class. I will call on a few members of this group to start off our discussion. Then, on Wednesday, we’ll move to the “Revenge” group, etc. Be sure to remember which group you’re in, since missing these questions will hurt your overall grade (see syllabus). I’ll remind you which group is going in class and on the blog.

(1) “Love” & “Death” Group

Danielle M

Kara C

Sydney W

Bekkah T

Clea M

Madison G

Erica M

Heather B

Raven J

Jack A

Mya C

Kamala T

(2) “Revenge” Group

Liv C

Marissa M

Tara S

Rodney

Jordan H

Kele P

Cody T

Estelle L

Anthony Y

Casi B

Zach W

Brookelyn L

(3) “Rainbow” Group

Cody G

Kentajj A

Mariana E

Kate C

Tim V

Savanna T

Skyler H

Callie C

Taylor J

Jaren S

Kyle F

Babette R

For Friday: Read "Goddesses" from Sappho: Stung With Love (pp.5-17)

There are no questions (yet) for Sappho's poetry,  since I want to ease into the readings and discuss how we read and interpret poetry (especially incomplete poetry). So read pages 5-17 for Friday's class and we'll  do a brief in-class response to some big idea in the poems. 

Bring your book to class! You may need it. :) 

Also, on the left hand side of the page are editor's notes about each poem.  You don't have to read them if you don't want to, as they simply give background information about each poem and the art of translating it. I'll talk about some of this in class. Just be sure to read the poems themselves.

REMEMBER, the poems are incomplete except for the one on page 9. That's her only complete poem that has survived. So read these poems knowing that they might not make 100% sense, and look for the metaphors and the ideas that hint at larger things. Don't read these poems for a story, the way you would a normal book. 

 

Welcome to the Course!

Welcome to General Humanities I, subtitled "Love, Death, and Revenge". This is a discussion and reading-based class that asks the question, “who were the first people to write/think the way we do today?” If the “humanities” is the study of what makes us human, then literature is study of how we learned to express this humanity in writing (and performance). By reading widely throughout many cultures and eras, we’ll slowly uncover how little separates the past and the present, and how history is never past—it’s still alive in the room. From love poems to ghost stories to vicious power struggles, this class has a little bit of everything. And while most of it will initially sound strange or old, by the end, I hope that much of it will feel familiar—and change how you look at the 21^st century. Be prepared to read a lot, write a lot, and listen and learn from your classmates, since the study of the humanities is constantly being re-written with each new generation of readers/thinkers.

Required Texts (all available at the ECU bookstore):  Sappho, Stung With Love: Poems and Fragments; Aristophanes, Lysistrata and Other Plays; Hearn, Kwaidan; Basho, The Narrow Road to the Deep North; Machiavelli, The Prince; Shakespeare, Hamlet 

Please let me know if you have any questions. You can find me in my office, HM 348, or via email at jgrasso@ecok.edu .

More posts to follow!