WORLD LITERATURE I (ENG 251)

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Course Materials, Unit Contents, and WWW Resources

Dr. Diane Thompson, NVCC, ELI



All students will post their work on Blackboard. Go to the Blackboard Start page to learn how to get your email address and your password to log on to the Blackboard forums. All students must now use their college email accounts; due to new Federal Privacy Laws, I can only write to you using those accounts.

I send an email grade for each task as soon as I read and respond to the task. If you are not receiving my email grades, you have an email problem. Call the NVCC Help Desk at 703-426-4141 for help with your email.

First, read the entire Course Guide. Then, begin working on Unit 1. The four Units, listed below, contain all of the course  assignments and detailed directions for how to do them. Complete each Unit before going on to the next one. Allow a month for each Unit. You have four months from your enrollment date to complete the course.

You will receive your own enrollment date from ELI and will need to keep track of your own schedule using the Grade Record form. Your end date is 16 weeks after your enrollment date, which may or may not be at the end of a regular NVCC semester.

To see a list of all the tasks for the course, go to the Grade Record form.

There are optional videos available which contain the same material as each Study Guide. If you prefer to watch the video instead of reading the Study Guide, click here for the video broadcast schedule, or go to an NVCC library to watch the videos there. You can also rent the videos: contact ELI for information on how to rent them.


Useful Course Pages

Course Guide   Grade Form Email Instructions
Blackboard Start Blackboard Writing About Literature
Exam 1   Exam 2 Exam 3

Course Materials Table

Note: I have identified free online versions of most of the required and optional readings, so it should be possible to complete this course without buying the textbook set. However, the translations online are very old and not nearly as readable as the ones in the textbooks. So, unless money is a BIG problem, I encourage you to buy the textbook set. It is wonderful and you almost certainly will want to keep it for many years.

Unit 1 Unit 2 Unit 2: Options Unit 3 Unit 4
Gilgamesh and Genesis from the Hebrew Bible

Homer's Odyssey and a Greek Drama OR see Options in the next column.

Aeneid and/or
Ramayana and/or Bhagavad Gita
The Song of Roland and The Thousand and One Nights (The Arabian Nights) Courtly Love and Dante's Inferno with Popul Vuh Option

 

Gilgamesh Study Guide OR Gilgamesh Video (Blackboard>ELI telecourses>English> ENG251>Gilgamesh) Homer Study Guide
OR the Homer Video
 (Blackboard>ELI telecourses>English> ENG251>Homer)
Virgil Study Guide
OR the Virgil Video
(Blackboard> ELI telecourses> English> ENG251> Virgil)
Roland Study Guide
OR the Roland Video (Blackboard>ELI telecourses> English>ENG251>Roland)
Courtly Love Study Guide
OR the Courtly Love Video (Blackboard>ELI telecourses> English>ENG251>Courtly Love)
The Epic of Gilgamesh: etext translated by Maureen Gallery Kovacs. Troy Web Site: Homer: links to etexts of Homer Virgil: etext of the Aeneid

Roland etext (trans. Moncreiff)

Roland etext (trans. Crossland)
Eliduc, Lanval, Laustic: by Marie de France; etexts
Decameron: by Boccaccio; etext
Brother Alberto: (from Decameron) etext
The Story of Ying Ying: etext
The Art of Courtly Love: etext

The Epic of Gilgamesh: (Blackboard>Annenberg Videos>Invitation to World Literature>Enter Series Website> Gilgamesh> Watch) The Odyssey: (Blackboard> Annenberg Videos> Invitation to World Literature>Enter Series Website>Odyssey> Watch) The Sermon on the Mount etext Roland Activities Courtly Love Activities
Gilgamesh Activities Odyssey Activities Aeneid Activities Nights Study Guide
OR the Nights Video (Blackboard>ELI telecourses >English >ENG251>Nights)
Inferno Study Guide
OR the Inferno Video (Blackboard>ELI telecourses >English >ENG251>Inferno)
Hebrew Bible Study Guide Greek Drama Study Guide OR the Greek Drama Video (Blackboard>ELI telecourses>English> ENG251> Greek Drama)
Bhagavad Gita(Blackboard> Annenberg Videos
>Invitation to World Literature>Enter Series Website> The Bhagavad Gita>Watch)
The Thousand and One Nights (Blackboard>Annenberg Videos>Invitation to World Literature> Series Website> The Thousand and One Nights>Watch)

 
Dante's Inferno etexts
Genesis: etext from the Hebrew Bible The Bacchae: (Blackboard>Annenberg Videos> Invitation to World Literature>Enter Series Website>Bacchae>Watch) Bhagavad-Gita: etexts in many languages.  Arabian Nights etext Popul Vuh: (Blackboard>Annenberg Videos> Invitation to World Literature>Enter Series Website>Popul Vuh>Watch)
Introduction to the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) with Professor Christine Hayes. A wonderful free ecourse from Yale. MIT Internet Classics: Select etexts of dramas from Aeschylus, Euripides and/or  Sophocles The Ramayana: etext and background English Text of the Koran The Popol Vuh: an etext; translated by Lewis Spence
Gilgamesh / Bible Activities Greek Drama Activities Aeneid / Indian Epic Activities  Nights Activities Inferno / Popol Vuh Activities

Interesting WWW Links for Each Unit

The white boxes below list optional WWW sites for each UNIT. Check them out if you are interested in learning more about an area or era, or if you wish to do some of your reading on the WWW. (Note: Troy Web Sites have their own activities, which are not intended for this course.)


Library and Other Resources


(c) Thompson: 8/13/1998; updated: 08/19/2015