Classic Texts and Contemporary Life

Semester and Year	SU 2012
Course Number	IDSEM-UG1239
Section	001
Instructor	Antonio Rutigliano
Days	Tue,Thu
Time	5:30 PM - 8:30 PM
Units	4.0
Level	U
Foundation Requirement	HUM, PREMOD

Notes/Restrictions

Session I: May 21-June 29.

Description

This course examines several “classic” texts to understand both their own intrinsic merit and their influence on society from their inception until our own time. Our emphasis, indeed, is on using these texts to understand our lives and world now. We explore classic texts in relation to contemporary life’s dilemmas of consumerism and spiritualism, individual rights and community rights, vocation and career, God and the afterlife, rebellion and escape from freedom. Readings may include Aeschylus’ The Oresteia , Sappho’s Poems , Plato’s Republic , Lucretius’ On the Nature of the Universe , Ovid’s Metamorphoses  or Cicero’s On the Laws , Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales or Cervantes’s Don Quixote .

Syllabus

IDSEM-UG1239

Course Type

Interdisciplinary Seminars (IDSEM-UG)