ENG-302 Themes in Literature: Classic - Modern
This course explores paired readings from classical and modern literary works and introduces students to the inter-textual nature of literary interpretations and to such common concerns as self, identity, and community. Students will become acquainted with ancient texts and concepts from the classical Greek and Roman worlds, and the Judeo-Christian tradition, to today's society. Students will read such authors as Homer, Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides, Dante, and Shakespeare, and a more recent work from the 19th-21st century. Students will read deeply and critically in multiple genres, disciplines, and themes to understand how "great works" remain in dialogue with one another over time and how the legacy of western thought can be understood through the prism of contemporary literature. Each of the literature read describes a series of choices shaped by experiences that leave the main characters changed by their encounters as they construct their identity and assess what they learned on the way.