Episodes in Literary Cultures

From antiquity to the present, writers and artists have addressed the question of how to lead a
good life, as well as addressing those obstacles—fate, the gods, our own divided psyches—that
have made it difficult for us to do so. They have also presented conflicting notions of what the
good life is, and what its relationship is to happiness and happenstance. In this course, we will
explore a range of ancient and modern takes on these questions. We will read texts by Homer,
Sophocles, Dante, Petrarch, Shakespeare, Montaigne, Molière, Frederick Douglass, Harriet,
Jacobs, Virginia Woolf, and Kazuo Ishiguro. We will also spend some time talking about how to
become better writers: how to develop a writing style that combines creativity, originality, and
analytical power.

Books on order:
Homer, The Odyssey (translated by Fitzgerald)
Sophocles, Three Theban Plays (translated by Fagles, Penguin edition)
Dante, Inferno (translated by Pinsky)
Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1 (Signet Classics)
Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (Signet)
Woolf, To the Lighthouse (Vintage)
Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go (Vintage)