Since 1919, The New School has been home to scholars, creators, and activists who challenge convention and boldly make their mark on the world. To celebrate this groundbreaking legacy, we are opening our doors to the public for a weeklong festival of innovative performances, talks, workshops, screenings, exhibitions, and more.
On October 1–6, 2019, join us as we reflect on a century of world-changing ideas and together imagine a new kind of future.
This course introduces students to the birth, evolution, and history of literature through an examination of the foundational texts that have shaped the literary history of the West. Reading sacred texts (such as the the Book of Genesis, selections from the Qur'an, or works from other traditions), epics (such as Gilgamesh and The Odyssey), dramas (by Aeschylus or Sophocles), philosophical dialog (Plato), literary theory (Aristotle), and poetry, we will study the historical, thematic, and stylistic origins of the literary genres and texts that have endured since antiquity. Among the larger questions that we will consider are the personal and social functions of reading and writing; the complex uses that writers make of the material they inherit from their traditions; the politics of canon-formation; and the role literature can play in a liberal education. This course satisfies one of the Foundations requirements for Lang Literary Studies majors. Students must register for both the lecture and discussion section (LLST 2004) of this course.
