Embedded Files
Literary narrative is an important means by which we shape our understanding of our own lives as they unfold in time, as well as our understanding of our communal history.
We will explore the different ways works of literature have charted paths for this understanding. We will begin with classical works of prose wherein time arises as an aspect of a higher ordering principle – dispensed by cosmic or divine forces. We will then read works of prose fiction that are representative of the modern experience of time as something that can be shaped and mastered by humanity.
Jan 17: The Ancient Experience of Time
Jan 17: The Ancient Experience of Time
Required Reading (on-line):
- Homer, from The Odyssey, Book XI (750 BCE)
Lecture Outline:
Jan 24: The Ancient Experience of Time (Homer)
Jan 24: The Ancient Experience of Time (Homer)
Required Reading (on-line):
- Homer, from The Odyssey, Book XI (750 BCE)
Lecture Outline:
- Homer's Odyssey: The Ancient Literary Representation of Time
Jan 31: The Ancient Experience of Time (Aristotle)
Jan 31: The Ancient Experience of Time (Aristotle)
Required Reading (On-line):
- Aristotle, from Poetics (350 BCE)
Lecture Outline:
Feb 7: The Christian-Medieval Conception of Time (Boethius)
Feb 7: The Christian-Medieval Conception of Time (Boethius)
Required Reading (on-line):
- Boethius, from The Consolation of Philosophy, Book II (524 CE)
Lecture Outline:
- Boethius and the Christian-Medieval Experience of Temporality
Feb 14: The Early Modern Experience of Time (Machiavelli)
Required Reading (on-line):
- Niccolo Machiavelli, from The Prince, Chapter 25 (1513)
Suggested Reading (On-line):
- Leo Strauss, "The Three Waves of Modernity" (1975)
Lecture Outline:
Feb 28: The Early Modern Experience of Time (Defoe)
Feb 28: The Early Modern Experience of Time (Defoe)
Required Reading (Benjamin Books):
- Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719)
Lecture Outline:
- Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and the Temporality of the Castaway
March 6: The Early Modern Experience of Time (Defoe)
March 6: The Early Modern Experience of Time (Defoe)
Required Reading (Benjamin Books):
- Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719)
Lecture Outline:
March 13: Late Modernity and the Experience of Time
Lecture Outlines:
- The Second Wave of Modernity and the Rise of History
- The Third Wave of Modernity: Nietzsche's Critique of Historicism
March 27: The Phenomenology of Time (Woolf)
Required Reading (Benjamin Books):
- Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway (1925)
Lecture Outline:
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse