This course will survey the literary and cultural heritage of the modern West, considering ancient, late antique, medieval, and early modern writings that have had a formative and enduring influence on our culture. Although we will discuss the historical influence, timeless themes, and abiding value of these writings, we will focus on their exegesis: on pursuing the close readings of these texts on their own terms and in their own contexts. Accordingly, special attention will be given to the cultural history of the period. By investigating the social and historical contexts that shaped each of these writings, we will ask how Western culture was forged in the encounters (due to war and imperial expansion, no less than trade and intellectual exchange) between different peoples, religions, and nations in the regions of the eastern Mediterranean, Near East, and Europe.

The course will explore two main themes. The readings for the first semester revolve around the human quest to understand the cosmos and our place within it. Our readings will include stories about the creation of the world, reflections on the worlds that we construct through culture, visions of the destruction of our worlds, and speculations about what lies beyond the visible cosmos in various otherworldly realities. Readings will include ancient Near Eastern texts, classical Greek literature, selections from the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, and late antique and medieval Christian literature. These will be supplemented with surveys of the history of the Near East and eastern Mediterranean world from Antiquity to the early Middle Ages.

In the second semester, we will consider the theme of power and difference in history. Readings for this term will allow us to investigate the dynamics of group interactions as well as the role of individuals in society. How have nation states solved (or failed to solve) problems of conflict, justice and morality? What were the social and political effects of assumptions about racial or religious difference? How did hierarchical structures of gender and age within the family both echo and shape political relationships in society at large? While exploring these questions, we will be reading some acknowledged masterpieces of Western literature, notably Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and Shakespeare’s King Lear. Secondary background readings will include two controversial modern works, Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel and Simon Baron Cohen’s The Essential Difference.