English 496/502:  American Writers and Greece
 



 
 
 
 

Course Description:

This course focuses upon the influence of ancient and modern Greece on American writers.
The influence of ancient Greece on Western civilization and literature is profound, and we will discuss the importance of classicism and Romanticism in 19th and 20th century American literature.  This course requires your participation in all visits to sites, class meetings, and assignments.  Since it is an on-site study-abroad program, participation is a vital, key part.
Readings will be provided for you.
We will meet in Greece daily for lectures and discussions.
You will keep a reading journal, which I will pick up weekly; you will write an essay weekly on the readings; and I will give a final exam.
All honors students and graduate students will give a seminar report; all other students will report on a work about Greece.

Readings:

Background articles provided
American literature will include the following:
 American poems from 1820's about the Greek Revolution
 Nathaniel Hawthorne, from A Wonder Book
 Henry David Thoreau -- some of his translations from Greek
 Herman Melville -- poems from Timolean, (about sites in Greece he visited)
 Samuel Clemens -- excerpts from Innocents Abroad regarding Athens and Greece
 Stephen Crane -- "Death and the Child"; some correspondence from Greece
 Eugene O'Neill -- Mourning Becomes Electra
 T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound
 Amy Clampitt, poems from Archaic Figure
 James Merrill, poems
 Henry Miller -- The Colossus of Maroussi
 And others

Assignments/Grading:
Grades are on the ten-point scale.



                                                  Undergraduate                                         Graduate

                                        Journal            15%                                                                                5%
                                        Report               5%                                                                              15%
                                        Written report    5%                                                                                5%
                                        Essays             50%                                                                               50%
                                        Final               15%                                                                               15%
                                        Participation    10%                                                                               10%

                                                                            Wandering in Plaka
  An Arch in Old Rhodes

 
 

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