Undergraduate Courses Summer 2009

CL 201 Introduction to Pre-Modern Literatures/Tragedy
MTWR@ 11:45-2:25

Professor Chris Livanos
Ph (608) 263-3851 - 950 Van Hise

This class will first focus on the Ancient Athenian tragic playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. For the second part of the course we will read three Shakespearean tragedies. As we turn to the Elizabethan period, we will examine why Renaissance authors began writing in the ancient genre of tragedy which had rarely been used for some fifteen centuries. In the beginning of the course, we will discuss ancient theories of tragedy, particularly the theories spelled out by Aristotle in his Poetics, where he defines the tragic hero as a man who is good and noble yet somehow “misses the mark.”  In our discussions of Shakespeare, we will examine how the Elizabethans altered the characteristics of ancient tragedy to address their own cultural concerns.