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The Odyssey: Estrangement and Homecoming
| Semester and Year | SP 2012 |
| Course Number | IDSEM-UG1457 |
| Section | 001 |
| Instructor | Laura Slatkin |
| Days | Tue |
| Time | 3:30 PM - 6:10 PM |
| Units | 2.0 |
| Level | U |
| Foundation Requirement | HUM, PREMOD |
Notes/Restrictions
Course meets 1/24- 3/6 only.
Description
One of the two foundational epics of so-called Western Culture, the Odyssey features a wily hero whose journeys are extraordinary and whose longing for home is unbounded. The Odyssey offers a complex meditation on brotherhood, bestiality, sexuality, kinship, and power; it is the great epic of cross-cultural encounter, in all its seductive and violent aspects, as well as the great poem of marriage. An adventure in nostos (homecoming), the Odyssey shows us the pleasures and dangers of voyaging among strangers. Constantly exploring the boundaries between the civilized and the savage, the poem offers as well a political critique of many ancient institutions, not least the family, patriarchy, hospitality customs, and the band-of-brothers so central to epic ideology. And as a masterwork of narrative art, the Odyssey asks us to consider the relation of fiction to “truth.” We will explore these and other matters in the Odyssey , and may make some concluding forays into contemporary re-workings of Odyssean themes and characters.
Syllabus
Course Type
Interdisciplinary Seminars (IDSEM-UG)
