Talking Animals and Other Worlds: The Fa

Fables have long been considered sources of popular wisdom and education throughout the entire ancient
Mediterranean, marked by a diversity of literary, ethnic, geographic, political, and class associations. Further,
fable traditions have rather complicated oral and written receptions, often connected to historical/authorial
figures or fable collectors such as Ahiqar, Archilochos, Aesop, Callimachus, Jesus, Babrius, and Phaedrus.
Offering various approaches to world building and sometimes contradictory ethical and social reflections, fables
and their traditions serve as the ideal ground for exploring a variety of literary, methodological, and sociological
questions from the iron age to late antiquity.This course offers an exploration in translation of the fable as a
cross-cultural and multi-lingual discursive form that challenges assumptions around canon formation,
authorship, the socio-historical conditions of the "literary", and western literary narratives of cultural reception.