ENGL 22 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Genius Loci, Enkidu, Cedar Forest
Document Summary
Surrounded by a wall (the greatest so far in history at that point in time) designed to protect it from other human beings and the environment, both of which are seen as a threat. The environment had been seen as a danger @ that point in human history. Celebrated what was inside the wall, the nature outside is a threat. Creation = what was inside the walls, city as opposed to natural world outside the walls. We now privilege the natural (country) over the unnatural city. But 5,000 years ago it was the opposite. In the myth of gilgamesh, they celebrated city. This text predates formal written language, it was just told verbally when it was created. Outside of the epic we know very little about gilgamesh. He is a tyrant but he improves throughout the work. He was an absolute monarch, no one challenged him, he raped women.
