Introduction to Western Literature http web nchu edu

Introduction to Western Literature 西洋文學概論周淑娟 http: //web. nchu. edu. tw/pweb/index 2. php? pid= 185&menu=2#

A Completely New Course A course which differs a lot from the language skill training courses and with which you are unfamiliar. A course which you’ll need to spend a lot of time working on it.

A Completely New Course A course full of fascinating stories. The focus is not on the memorization of vocabulary, grammatical rules or sentence structures. The focus is on the understanding of the cultural or philosophical meanings of the texts as well as the capability to discuss them. A course which you’ll find you hate and love very much at the same time.

Guiding Questions for a Preliminary Overall Preview What are the two origins of Western civilization? When was the nation of modern Israel established? And where? Have you ever heard of Palestine, Palestinians, or Yasser Arafat?

Guiding Questions for a Preliminary Overall Preview What is the cause of the political disturbances in the Middle East? Which race does the Israelites belong to? What is the religion the Israelites believes in? What is their holy scripture? Which race does Christ belong to?

Guiding Questions for a Preliminary Overall Preview What is the holy book of Christianity? Who are the people that caused Jesus Christ’s death? And Why? Do you know the relation (the differences) between Judaism & Christianity? ) Have you ever heard of Ten Commandments? Or Disney animation Prince of Egypt?

Guiding Questions for a Preliminary Overall Preview Do you know “IS”? What is the root of the conflict between “IS” and the Western world? Do you know the controversy/trouble the Taiwan local band “ 911” caused recently?

Guiding Questions for a Preliminary Overall Preview In what language was the four gospels of New Testament written? What was the official religion of the later Roman empire? What is the British orthodox religion? How did this religion come about?

Guiding Questions for a Preliminary Overall Preview Who is the official leader of the Church of England?

Guiding Questions for a Preliminary Overall Preview Why did the Puritans migrate to America?

Mapping Up the Development of Western Civilization East West South North

Structure of the Norton Textbook I. Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Literature (1900 BCE onward) II. Circling the Mediterranean: Europe and the Islamic World (the beginning of CE— 15 th century ) III. Europe and the New World: Early Modernity (Renaissance)

Our Focus I. The Hebrew Bible (ca. 1000— 300 BCE) II. The Greek & Roman World ----Homer (8 th century BCE) ----Aeschylus; Sophocles; Euripides (5 th century BCE) ----Virgil (1 th century BCE) III. The Christian Bible: (the New Testament; 1 th century CE)

I. Ancient Mediterranean & Near Eastern Literature 1. Near Eastern (vs. Far East) (Mesopotamia; Egypt; the Hebrews) 2. The Greeks 3. Rome

Explanation of Syllabus

The Invention of Writing Oral literature Written literature

First appearance of writing place: Mesopotamia (Tigris & Euphrates rivers) Material: tablets of wet clay 1. 3300 – 2900 BCE (inscriptions with a pointed stick) 2. 2800 BCE: cuneiform (wedge-shaped; 楔形文字) ---(Sumerian epic Gilgamesh; ca 1900— 250 BCE)

The Fertile Crescent (肥沃月灣) : Euphrates & Tigris Sumerians （3000 BCE) Babylonians (Hammurabiˌha-mə-ˈrä-bē; ca. 17281686 BEC) Assyrians

The Deplorable History of the Hebrews tribal period （ca. 2000 -1005 BCE） empirical period （1005 -925 BCE） the divided kingdom: Israel: 721 BCE Judah: 612 BCE Ruled by various alien races: --Assyrian Empire (746 -609 BCE) --Babylonian Empire (609 -539 BCE) --Macedonian Empire (336 -323 BCE) --Roman Empire (509 BCE--) --Byzantine [bɪˋzæntɪn] Empire (--AD 1453)

Egypt (North Africa) Egypt (3000 BCE) Macedonia （Alexander the Great; 326 -323 BCE） Ptolemy’s Greek dynasty (till Cleopatra died in 30 BCE; ) The Roman Rule: (the period when the New Testament was written）

Other Forms of Writing 1 Place: Egypt Location: temple walls and public monuments Form: hieroglyphic (sacred, carving) (pictographic; 象形文字)

Other Forms of Writing 2: The Phoenicians The language that survived, in modified forms, until the present day Adopted by the ancient Hebrews Modified by the Greeks Passed down by Romans

Their Cultures 1 Economic dependence on slaves Heavy reliance on natural resources: agriculture and animal husbandry ---valley of the Nile (Thebes & Memphis) ---valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers (Babylon & Nineveh; Fertile Crescent)

Their Cultures 2 Time: 2 nd millennium BCE onward The Hebrews, the Greeks, the Romans

Mediterranean & Near East: A Single Unit Large-scale cultural exchanges Ex. Greek sculpture & architecture (7 th BCE) Egypt Striking similarities between Greek and Near Eastern myths

Religion Most were polytheistic Gods often reinvented from one place to another (cross-cultural influence) Exceptions: the Egyptian & Hebrew god Religious practice (orthopraxy) more important than religious belief (orthodoxy) Exception: the Hebrew—religion linked to moral code

Jump to Slide 53 (the Middle Age)

(After mid-term) The Greeks Language: Indo-European (印歐語系) First cultural blossom: Minoan (King Minos) Time: 2 nd millennium BCE Place: Crete Citadel: Mycenae Palace: Pylos Knowledge of writing

The Dark Ages of Greece The Minoan culture destroyed, together with its writing system, by fire in the last century of the millennium 11 th— 8 th century BCE: illiterate

The appearance of a new Greek culture 8 th century BCE: literate again New language system: borrowed from the Phoenicians Made up of many independent cities: city-states: rivals and fierce competitors land of mountain barriers and scattered islands

The Greek Colonization period: 8 th & 7 th century BCE Location: all over the Mediterranean coast, including the coast of Asia Minor It was in the cities founded on the Asian coast that the Greeks adapted the Phoenician system of writing

The Persian invasion of Greece Period: 490— 479 BCE Result: the Greeks won under the leadership of Athens and Sparta Effect: the Athenians produced their most important literary and cultural achievement

The Film: 300

Sparta vs. Athens Sparta: ---Oligarchy (“rule of the few”) ---strict military discipline ---superior land army controlled majority of the city-states of the Peloponnese

Sparta vs. Athens Attica (Athens as its leading city): ---direct democracy (excluding women, slaves & resident aliens) ---women with especially low autonomy than other city-states ---strong fleet power naval alliance

Peloponnesian War Conflict: Athens vs. Sparta Period: 431— 404 BCE Result: total defeat of Athens Effect: great political and cultural changes

Changes in Athens Self-confidence social tensions & anxieties Cultural & intellectual prosperity ---1 st anthropological historian: Herodotus ---1 st political historian: Thucydides ---the dawning of prose literature ---the great age of Athenian theater: tragedy & comedy

Changes in Athens: Education Before: based on the poems of Homer Now: stressing public speaking Sophists (wisdom teachers; 詭辯學家) Subjects: the techniques of rhetoric; government; ethics; literary criticism; astronomy Result: generation gap (“Man is the measure of all things. ”

A particular Sophist: Socrates (who taught without fee) Investigating ethics, politics, and truth Method: dialectics (question and answer) Belief: the possibility of true goodness His most brilliant student: Plato Historical significance: the starting point for all later Western philosophy

The decline of Athens The whole traditional basis of individual conduct, stressing the concern for the unity of the city-state, was undermined. The surrender to Spartan in 404 BCE The execution of Socrates The defeat by Macedon (馬其頓王國) in 338 BCE

Macedon and Alexander The great empire that extended into Egypt in the south and to the borders of India in the east Alexander’s death in 323 BCE a number of independent kingdoms rules by his generals (the Hellenistic age) Ptolemy Cleopatra 埃及豔后 (died with the Roman conquest)

The Hellenistic Age: A Greek. Speaking World The immigration of the Greeks to the newly conquered territories The great Hellenistic cities grew out of the earlier city-state model and continued many of its civic and political institutions. At Alexandria, in Egypt, a Greek library was formed.

The Hellenistic Age: A Greek. Speaking World The Middle-East became a Greekspeaking region The accounts of life and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth were recorded in the simple vernacular Greek know as koine.

Rome: History Dominated most of the Italian peninsula by the middle of the 3 rd century BCE. Expansion southward brought collision with Carthage, the greatest power in the western Mediterranean. A world power in 201 BCE with its victory over Carthage.

Rome: Political System A republic from around 509 BCE Power was shared among Senate (元老院) , the Assemblies (議會) , and Magistrates (政務官). The republic would last until 1 st BCE.

Rome: Culture Seeing conflict as deadly Stressing a sense of tradition which valued seriousness, manly courage, industry, and above all, duty the basis of the Roman power: efficiency and strength through unity a legal code that formed the model for all later European and American law

Rome: the talent for practical affairs Sewers Baths with hot and cold water Straight roads Aqueducts to last two thousand years

The Middle Ages The rule of the Church vernacular literature besides Latin; Islamic culture the age of faith: religious literature the age of chivalry：knights offering protection against invaders

The Story of King Arthur

Renaissance (文藝復興) a cultural movement that spanned the period roughly from the 14 th to the 17 th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe Human beings became again the center of intellectual inquiries.

The Beginning of Modernity travel & discovery：Captain John Smith （Pocahontas ） Reformation：--Protestants vs. Roman Catholic Church --Church of England vs. Puritanism

Major Writes

I. The Classical Period

Homer: The Iliad; The Odyssey

Aeschylus: the Greek Tragedist (524? -456 BCE) Oresteia A trilogy Agamemnon

Sophocles: the Greek Tragedist (ca. 496 -406 BCE) Oedipus the King

Euripides: the Greek Tragedist (480 -406 BCE) Medea A tragedy with feminist thought

Plato: the Greek Philosopher (429 -347 BCE) Philosophical writing in the form of dialogue Symposium (Drinking Party; 饗宴篇)

Virgil: the Roman Poet (70 -19 BCE) The Aeneid Epic written by a single author The story about the origin of the Roman empire

Augustine: the Roman Theologist

II. The Middle Ages

Beowulf Epic written in old English Author unknown ca. the 9 th century

The Song of Roland Epic about chivalry (Charlemagne ) Written in French ca. 1100 AD

Dante Alighieri: (1265 -1321 AD) The Divine Comedy Written in Italian

Boccaccio: (1313 -1375) Decameron: written in Italian

Sir Gawain & the Green Knight Romance written in middle English Story about King Arthur’s knight Author unknown ca. 1380 AD

Sir Thomas Malory: The British Writer (1405 -1471) Morte Darthur (Death of Arthur) Religious, chivalric themes

Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales 1340 -1400 AD Written in middle English

Everyman (middle English) Morality play written in middle English Allegory Author unknown ca. 1495

III. Renaissance

Francis Petrarch: The Italian Poet (1304 -1347 AD) Father of humanism Sonnets

Francois Rabelais: (1495 -1533 AD) Gargantua and Pantagruel (巨人傳) Written in French the story of two giants amusing, extravagant, and satirical descriptions of humanistic ideals of the time

Desiderius Erasmus: 1466? -1536 AD Dutch renaissance humanist The Praise of Folly 愚人頌 (Latin) A satirical examination of pious but superstitious abuses of Catholic doctrine

Niccolo Machiavelli: The Italian Philosopher (1469 -1527 AD) The Prince (君王論) Written in Italian Treatise on the need for stability in a prince’s principality; at stake is its preservation