This course firstly introduces the Greek drama to explore the theatre of ancient Greece. After discussing Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, Antigone, and Euripides’s Medea, we enter the world of Greek philosophy by reading Aristotle’s Poetics. Then we read Ovid’s Metamorphoses to explore how the Romans reshaped Greek mythology. The second part of this course focuses on Christianity, and we will discuss the New Testament Gospels and Augustine’s Confessions. The final part of the course leads us into the world of the Middle Ages. By reading Marie de France’s Lais, we get to know medieval chivalry. Finally, this course ends with Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy and Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron to see how Dante created a great medieval work by combining great literary traditions before him and how Boccaccio depicted medieval Italy in the dawn of the Renaissance. Each of these works will be read closely, analyzed carefully, and discussed with its own cultural and historical context. We will proceed mainly in two forms: lectures and small group discussions. Every week, students need to finish reading materials and post responses on the course website’s forum. At the beginning of each class, we will have a 5-minute quiz. Finally, students are required to make a short oral group presentation (no more than 10 minutes) in class.

*本課程不開放旁聽。