English 1027F/G Lecture 1: English 1027F/G ALL LECTURES
30 Jan 2019
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Department
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Professor
The Odyssey Part 1
September 11, 2018
12:24 PM
GENRE
• What kind? -> so what?
o The way they produce connections
o Emotional
• An epic poem
o Looks and feels like a novel
o Originally meant to be a song
o Line breaks help to remind one of its poem origins
o No audible rhythm for the translated version, but can be heard in the Greek
version (think: Humpty Dumpty)
• Rude people who have overstayed their welcome - almost comical
• Father-son relationship, host-guest relationship
Features of the epic
1. Repetition
a. Within single lines
b. Throughout
c. Narrator uses a phrase that is echoed throughout by other characters
d. Certain phrases embed themselves in your mind
e. Repeated phrases almost like a chorus of a song
f. Embeds ourselves in our lives
g. Elevated - Gods are given more emphasis
h. Knitting together high seriousness and simplicity
i. Songs and singing are important - they're storytellers; Focal point for groups
to come together; sings about current history, spreading news, creating a
connected society, intense emotional effects - moved to tears
2. Epic simile
a. As...so...
b. Heightened emotion
c. The comparison is like a distraction
i. Loses track of what's going on
ii. Abrupt jolt
iii. Boundaries are being crossed
iv. O - during his greatest victory he never imagined how much he lost
v. Lost at sea / loved one recovery
vi. Connects two stories together by shared emotions
vii. Works as a primer for empathy
3. Homeric epithet
a. Giving characters labels
b. Cool headed reasoning - > self control
i. Can coexist with emotions
ii. Expectations from our culture contradict the views of the book
c. Certain set adjectives
i. Grey-eyed Athene
1. Associated with the mind and thought
2. Detached, coolness, physical emblem of her wisdom
3. Operation of the head and not heart
4. A poem wanting to make us feel things, contrasted with a goddess
who only thinks
ii. Thoughtful Telemochus
1. "considerate"
2. A seeker of knowledge, if it's the first novel, it's the first
mystery/detective novel
3. He's not driven by hope, but curiosity and need for knowledge
4. Makes more weighted decisions, quiet deliberation
5. Often assured that people will not lie to him
6. Respectful treatment of gods and others
7. Recognizes gods enjoy their respectfulness
8. Look at the opposite of the word
iii. Circumspect Penelope
1. Strategy that she has adopted for the suitors
2. Postponed all confrontation with her suitors
3. Prudent
4. Giving them enough hope to think they have a chance, but not
enough to make them too hopeful
5. Keeps all her options open
6. preventing potential violence
7. Play upon people's hopes and beliefs, by keeping the peace
8. Considers multiple courses of actions and chooses the one best for
them
iv. Godlike, resourceful Odysseus
1. Considers multiple courses of actions and chooses the one best for
them
2. Learn about his reputation
a. What other people have to say about him
3. Why does he make poor decisions?
d. Potential opposition to the coolheaded thinkers (the poem)
e. O &P are emotional as well as coolheaded
f. Heroes more emotional and more intelligent than others
g. T deliberately trying to feel less (there's his pessimism) - defense mechanism
i. Less experienced thinker doesn't believe he can have both head and
heart
h. Feel intensely, but think before you ask
i. A is placing T in a place where he can take an emotional risk
j. Suitors - unbridled optimism, their rudeness is an opposite of thoughtfulness
i. Short term thinking, no consequences in the present
ii. Contrasts the thinkers (considers and weighs all options)
iii. Very naive, violent
iv. Doing whatever they want cause they can ("who is going to stop us")
v. Defined by their appetite, governed by emotion and bodily impulses
vi. Strategic and long-term thinkers vs suitors short term thinking
• Suffering of the victors = suffering of the losers
• Viewed from the victors side
The Odyssey Part 2
September 13, 2018
11:20 AM
• Not obvious this is an important story
• Divine revelation (about laundry)
• Pg 140, 105 - two opposing ways of living
o Missing pieces of lives that make them savages (Cyclopes)
• Civilized:
▪ Laws & counsels - community
• You have to stifle impulses and let a civilized body decide
• Ithica is a place that used to have this civilized life, in danger
of losing it
• No coordination of efforts
▪ Architecture
• There's a lot of attention shown to the houses
• Cyclopes live like caveman (literally)
▪ Lack of agriculture
• Everything grows without cultivation
• Orderly - good quality, a compliment
• Cyclopes represents everything Ithica has to lose
▪ Hospitality
• One of the absolutes
• Trust your host
4. Invocation of the Muse
a. Muses inspiring him
5. Supernatural machinery
a. Zeus, Athene, gods
6. Vast setting
a. Over the 10 years, vast geographical setting (includes a trip to Hades)
7. In medias res
a. Out of chronology
b. Whole poem is united around the suitors
c. Issue of how to be civilized, how to work with others
d. Chronologically - O is only an individual hero
i. About society itself and how it can function
ii. Different perspectives of O
Traits
1. Emotion
