ClassInfo - Fall 2021 Classical and Near Eastern Std Classes

Fall 2021 | CNES 1913 Section 001: Homer's Odyssey and Politics (35106)

Instructor(s): S. Douglas Olson
Class Component:: Discussion
Credits:: 3 Credits
Grading Basis:: A-F only
Instructor Consent:: No Special Consent Required
Instruction Mode:: In Person Term Based
Class Attributes:: UMNTC Liberal Education Requirement
Freshman Seminar
Enrollment Requirements:: Freshman and FRFY
Times and Locations:: Regular Academic Session

09/07/2021 - 12/15/2021

Mon, Wed 09:45AM - 11:00AM

UMTC, East Bank

Nicholson Hall 135
Enrollment Status:: Closed (19 of 19 seats filled)
Also Offered:: Fall 2021

Course Catalog Description:: Homer's Odyssey is the story of a man who returns from war to find a world much different from the one he left ten years earlier - and one that seems to have no place for him. On his way home, he lies to some, robs and murders others and, arguably through his own negligence, loses all his men. Once back on his native island of Ithaca, he re-establishes his authority as local strong-man through a mass killing of rivals. He is nonetheless emphatically a "hero" and the moral and political center of the story: what Odysseus does is (in the storyteller's eyes, and those of most readers ever since) right and just. This seminar will use a close reading of the Odyssey, a study of Season One of the Netflix series House of Cards and of selections from Robert Caro's biography of Lyndon Johnson, and extensive discussion of contemporary political and social events, to ask what sort of political and social world Homer's poem imagines; how it formulates and discusses power and justice; how it encourages its audience to accept judgments about human behavior and "what is right" that may, upon reflection, seem horrifying; and what we are to make of this today.
Class Description:: Student may contact the instructor or department for information.
Textbooks:: https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/35106/1219

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