Fall 2024 Middle East UN2399 section 001

ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN LITERATURE

ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN LIT

Call Number 00629
Day & Time
Location
T 4:10pm-6:00pm
502 Diana Center
Points 4
Grading Mode Standard
Approvals Required None
Instructor Nathanael P Shelley
Type COLLOQUIA
Course Description

This colloquium is a course on many influential texts of literature from Ancient Near Eastern cultures, including Sumerian, Egyptian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Hittite, Canaanite, and others. The emphasis is on investigating the literary traditions of each culture – the subject matter, form, methods, and symbolism– that distinguish them from one another and from later traditions of the Middle East. The course is not
a “civilization” course, nor is it a history class, although elements of culture and history will be mentioned as necessary. The course is intended to provide a facility with, and an awareness of, the content and context of ancient works of literature in translation from the Ancient Middle East.


Students in this course will gain a familiarity with the major cultures of the Ancient Middle East, the best known and most remarked upon stories, and the legacy of those works on some later traditions. The course is organized thematically in order to facilitate comparison to the materials in similar courses at Barnard and Columbia. The approach will be immediately familiar to students who have previously taken Asian Humanities (AMEC) or Literature-Humanities (Core), but the course does not require any previous experience with literature or the Ancient Near East and is open to everyone.


All assigned readings for the course will be in English. The course meets once a week and sessions are two hours long.

Web Site Vergil
Department Asian and Middle East @Barnard
Enrollment 3 students (20 max) as of 9:06PM Friday, December 6, 2024
Subject Middle East
Number UN2399
Section 001
Division Barnard College
Section key 20243MDES2399W001