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Homer’s Odyssey and the Art of the Story

Session:
Session B: July 20 - July 30, 2021
Time:
1:30 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Category:
English and Writing
Instructor:
Adrienne Atkins
Description:

What makes a story interesting, relatable, and powerful? In this course, students will embark on a reading of Homer’s Odyssey, with each session focusing on a different aspect of storytelling, such as worldbuilding, character development, and resolution. To guide us along the way, we will examine selections from modern artists and writers whose work reimagines the Odyssey, and in doing so, offers insight into how its story functions. Case studies will stem from a variety of media, including painting, rap, and video games, and include some of the most influential creative minds of the past century, such as Jorge Luis Borges, Romare Bearden, and Margaret Atwood. In addition, each student will prepare a presentation on a work of art, literature, or another medium that engages with some aspect of the Odyssey; this may be a work of their own choosing or their own creation. By the end of our nine-day journey, students will arrive at a richer understanding of the shapes that a story can take, and the ways in which it can be used to make meaning.

Goals:

  • Equip students with a deeper understanding of storytelling that they can utilize in future courses in English, comparative literature, creative writing, and other literary and creative studies – as well as in their own pleasure reading and personal creative pursuits.
  • Provide a venue for students to practice universal academic skills like primary source interpretation and presentation design.
  • Challenge students to cultivate curiosity about the stories most prevalent in their own worlds, and to translate that curiosity into creative and critical responses.
  • Offer students a point of entry to core issues in the humanities such as the purpose of art and the relationship between the past and the present.

Assignments:

  • Odyssey reading (2-3 books per day from Emily Wilson’s translation; students may use book, audiobook, or a combination)1
  • Modern case studies (1 per day assigned; these are short, e.g. a video clip, song, or excerpt of a longer work; see syllabus)
  • Presentation (8 mins)
    • Student presentations throughout the course, with 2-3 per day; each student gives one presentation.
    • OPTION 1: Choose a piece in any medium that engages with the Odyssey or its legacy and present it to the class. Presentation should focus on interpreting this example in light of the reading or topic of the day. Students may choose a work from a list provided by the instructor, or they may choose another work in consultation with the instructor.
    • OPTION 2: Create your own painting, song, etc. inspired by the Odyssey. Explain your artistic choices and how your work engages with the reading and/or topic of the day.

Syllabus:

Day 1: Beginnings

  • Topic: Introduction to the story of the Odyssey, its historical and literary background, and how it gained authority during antiquity.
  • Odyssey 1-3
  • Case study: opening lines of Gilgamesh (Mesopotamian epic poem) and the Aeneid (Roman epic poem)

Day 2: Language

  • Topic: Different languages have different structures and can accomplish different literary effects. How does the language of composition affect the final result of the story?
  • Odyssey 4-5
  • Case study: Jorge Luis Borges, “Some Versions of Homer” (short essay)

Day 3: Oral and Written Storytelling

  • Topic: Some stories are improvised in the moment, others are planned and edited, and others incorporate both modes of composition. How does the process of composition affect the final result of the story?
  • Odyssey 6-8
  • Case study: Akala, “Blind Bard’s Vision” (rap)

Day 4: Cultural Context

  • Topic: How does the cultural context in which a story is written affect its meaning? How does the meaning change when the story is received by audiences of other places and times?
  • Odyssey 9-10
  • Case study: Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, “Blues: Odysseus” (poem)

Day 5: Medium

  • Topic: What unique storytelling effects can non-literary media achieve?
  • Odyssey 11-13
  • Case study: Romare Bearden, Odysseus series (paintings/collages)

Day 6: World Building

  • Topic: What makes a story’s world vivid and coherent? How might the world of the story relate, or not relate, to the real world?
  • Odyssey 14-14
  • Case study: Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (video game; assigned as a video clip about the game with footage of game play)

Day 7: Plot

  • Topic: What are the core elements of a plot, and what makes a plot memorable or relatable? Is every journey story the Odyssey?
  • Odyssey 16-18
  • Case study: book reviews of modern novels in which critics compare the story to the Odyssey (e.g. Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God; Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler’s Wife; Chigozie Obioma, An Orchestra of Minorities)

Day 8: Characters

  • Topic: What makes characters distinctive and memorable?
  • Odyssey 19-21
  • Case study: Margaret Atwood, Penelopiad (novel; assigned as an excerpt)

Day 9: Resolution

  • Topic: How does the ending of a story affect its meaning? Would the Odyssey have achieved the same legacy if it had ended differently?
  • Odyssey 22-24
  • Case study: Zachary Mason, The Lost Books of the Odyssey (novel/short stories; assigned as an excerpt)
  • Wrap-up