Spring 2019 - WL 103W D100

Early World Literatures (3)

Class Number: 5753

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Jan 3 – Apr 8, 2019: Mon, 12:30–2:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Exam Times + Location:

    Apr 15, 2019
    Mon, 12:00–3:00 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Instructor:

    Azadeh Yamini-Hamedani
    aya23@sfu.ca
    1 778 782-8761

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Introduces ways of comparing early world literatures across time and space. May explore fundamental themes such as love, heroism, or the underworld. Writing/Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:


What does the wealth of world literature teach us about love? From Plato’s Diotima, who argues that love of the particular can transform into a philosophy of seeing beauty in the world, to Dante’s Beatrice, whose image becomes a heavenly signpost, to Rumi’s poetics of love as a religion, we will look into the ways in which love encapsulates the sublime. Exploring the tie between lover and beloved, we will see what happens when love faces social conflict, death and madness, beauty and metamorphosis, the ineffable and the inception of the poetic.   

  

Readings will include Plato’s Symposium, Ovid’s “Echo and Narcissus” from the Metamorphosis, Dante’s La Vita Nuova, Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun’s Romance of the Rose, Nezami’s Leyla and Majnun, along with poetry by Rumi.

 

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:


  • Critical thinking and analytical writing skills
  • Learning how to close-read
  • Writing a thesis paper
  • Working on presentation and public speaking skills

Grading

  • Midterm Exam 30%
  • Presentation 10%
  • Participation 15%
  • Art Project 5%
  • Final Paper (1st draft) 10%
  • Final Paper (final draft) 30%

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

Jalal al-Din Rumi. Mystical Poems of Rumi. Edited by Ehsan Yarshatar. University of Chicago Press, 2009.
ISBN: 0226731626

Plato. The Dialogues of Plato, Volume 2: The Symposium. Translated by R.E. Allen. Yale University Press, 1993.
ISBN: 0300056990

Registrar Notes:

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Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the University community.  Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the University. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the University. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

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