For the Spring 2014 section of EN 281, we will be focusing on Book VI of Virgil's Aeneid, in conjunction with LT 399, whose students will be reading the text in Latin. Students in EN 281 will supplement Robert Fagles' modern translation with weekly close readings and brief, informal presentations on the reception of Virgil's works in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. For more information, see the Spring 2014 syllabus.
Here are the close reading passages, in pdf form.
Presentations
Guidelines
P1: Vergil as "Virgil" and as a magician
P2: Dante's Virgil
P3: Sir Orfeo and other trips to the Underworld
P4: The House of Rumor in Ovid and Chaucer - see Metamorphoses, Book XII, and House of Fame, Book II.
P5: Ovid's treatment of Virgil - see Heroides 7 and Metamorphoses III (Juno, Jove, and Semele) and I (Lycaon's Feast)
P6: Chaucer's Dido - see House of Fame I and Legend of Good Women.
P7: Purcell's Dido and Aeneas - listen here.
P8: Aeneid in art
P9: Medieval curriculum
P10: Allegory and Christian interpretations of Virgil
Information on Vergil Week 2014 at CWRU!
The Life of Vergil written by Aelius Donatus. Scroll down to chapter 32 for the account of Vergil reading sections of the Aeneid aloud to Augustus and Octavia, who fainted at the mention of her son, Marcellus, in VI.884.
The decision to use a quotation referring to Nisus and Euryalus in the 9/11 memorial has provoked controversy.
Other Points of Interest
Why (and how) do we read Classical literature today? Theater of War uses Greek drama in discussing PTSD. Here's an NPR story from early in the project.
It turns out that the Mycenaeans barbequed!
A newly excavated (and reburied) temple is the oldest one known in Rome.
Another excavation, this one into a catacomb where victims of the Antonine or another plague may be buried.
For those not familiar with the "Romani eunt domus" scene.