ENG 302: Themes in Literature: From Classic to Modern

This course explores paired readings from classical and modern literary works and introduces students to the inter-textual nature of literary interpretation and to such common concerns as self, identity, and community. Students read ancient texts from the classical Greek and Roman worlds, the JudeoChristian tradition, and modern works. Homer, Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides, Dante, Shakespeare and others may be included. Students will read deeply and critically in multiple genres, disciplines, and themes to understand how “great works” remain in dialogue with one another over time and how the legacy of western thought can be understood through the prism of contemporary literature. Each work read describes a series of choices that leave the main characters changed by their encounters as they construct their identity and what they learn on their way. [AREA 3]