21L.707 Problems in Cultural Interpretation

Prereq: Two subjects in Literature or permission of instructor
Units: 3-0-9 HASS-H, CI-M; Can be repeated for credit

Recent years have seen an explosion of new works by women writers engaging with ancient myth. This class explores how these authors have responded to ancient epic by rethinking these stories through a feminist lens. Readings from Greek and Latin sources in translation provide background, but the focus this semester is on reading 20th and 21st century works including Ursula Le Guin’s Lavinia, Margaret Atwood’s Penelopiad, Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red, Anaïs Mitchell’s Hadestown, and Madeline Miller’s Circe.