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Ovid and his influence are studied in classrooms as various as his poetry, and this Approaches volume aims to help instructors in those diverse teaching environments. Part 1, “Materials,” is fittingly collaborative and features brief overviews designed to give nonspecialists background on the more challenging aspects of teaching Ovid. Contributors examine his life and legacy, religion, and relation to the visual arts as well as his afterlife in the Latin classroom, in various translations, and in the Ovide moralisé. The editors detail the contexts in which Ovid is taught, identify trends in teaching his work and the Ovidian tradition, and recommend editions and resources for classroom use.
The introduction to part 2, “Approaches,” considers Ovid’s relation to Vergil and the development of Ovid’s influence and reception, from the medieval and early modern period to the reinvigoration of Ovid studies in the twentieth century. In the four sections that follow, contributors provide practical ideas for classroom instruction, examine the political and moral discourses shaping Ovid and his legacy, explore how gender and the body are represented in Ovid and the Ovidian tradition, and look at various ways Ovid’s works have been used and transformed by writers as diverse as Dante, Cervantes, and Ransmayr.
Vergil’s Aeneid has been the most continually read and discussed work by a Roman author in the history of Western literature. Yet it can be a challenging work to teach—Vergil is a complex, subtle poet; his culture and time are removed from us; and Latin is less studied in college than it was a generation ago.
Part 1 of this volume, “Materials,” critiques the main English translations, lists reference works and resources (including those on the Internet), and gives an overview of criticism. Part 2, “Approaches,” strikes a balance between traditional and new approaches to the text. Among the subjects of these essays are Augustan politics, Homeric parallels, key terms (pietas, furor), narrative techniques, uses of simile, images of women, the treatment of warfare, and comparisons of the Aeneid with such works as Dante’s Divine Comedy and Milton’s Paradise Lost.
Known for their fully drawn characters, artistic complexity, and a multifaceted engagement with social issues, the plays of Euripides inspire divergent critical views. While some scholars find that the dramatist writes from a traditional Greek perspective, others see a radically innovative artist who criticizes Athenian politics, the treatment of women, and the Olympian gods. Readers will find both views in this collection of essays designed to help teachers present Euripides and his plays to today’s students.
Literary-critical approaches to the Hebrew Bible have influenced courses in secondary schools, colleges, and universities throughout North America—and courses in a variety of disciplines, including English, Hebrew, comparative literature, theology, religious studies, history, sociology, anthropology, and archaeology. Approaches to Teaching the Hebrew Bible as Literature in Translation will therefore serve many teachers, from those who wish to incorporate sections of the Bible into literature courses to those who wish to adopt interdisciplinary strategies for presenting the Bible to their students.
The volume, like others in the MLA’s Approaches to Teaching World Literature series, is divided into two parts. The first part, “Materials,” surveys translations and editions of the Hebrew Bible, recommended readings for students, background materials for teachers, and works of literary criticism. In the second part, “Approaches,” teachers suggest ways to present the Bible in the classroom. The first three essays discuss the challenges of studying the Bible in translation and teaching the differences between Tanakh (Jewish Scriptures) and the Old Testament (Christian Scriptures). The next eight essays demonstrate the application of specific pedagogical and theoretical approaches—socioliterary, textual, feminist, comparative—to the Bible as a whole. The last eight essays suggest ways of teaching parts of the Bible, including the genealogy in Genesis, the flood story, Exodus 32, the prophetic literature, Psalm 23, Ruth, Job, and the Song of Songs.
Homer’s epics usually appear first in anthologies used for the general literature courses required of most college and high school students throughout the country. His influence extends beyond the confines of English and classics departments into seminars offered in comparative literature, history, philosophy, and the social sciences. This volume in the Approaches to Teaching World Literature series describes how teachers present Homer in the classroom and convey to students the importance of his epics in Western culture.
Like other books in the series, this one is divided into two parts. The first part, “Materials,” reviews editions and translations of the Iliad and Odyssey and surveys secondary readings and audiovisual materials for both students and instructors. The second part, “Approaches,” consists of seventeen essays by specialists and nonspecialists on teaching Homer in upper-division literature seminars, in undergraduate surveys, in composition courses, and in disciplines other than English and classics. The essays discuss backgrounds, influences, and themes and describe specific approaches, such as using the Iliad as a springboard for teaching literary history, examining what the Odyssey offers modern readers, and reading Aristotles’s Poetics to glean insights into Homer’s achievement.
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