English 2740 explores representative works of world literature from the earliest literatures to the sixteenth century, within a framework that compares cultures and historical periods and invites consideration of both what is shared among cultures and what is unique about the culture from which each text emerged.  Fulfilling a core requirement for the literary mode of inquiry, this course will examine several major genres of literature and will study themes, forms, and styles in the literary texts. 

Texts that students have explored in past incarnations of this course include: 

The Epic of Gilgamesh

Homer's The Odyssey

Sophocles's Oedipus the King

Euripides's Medea

Virgil's The Aeneid (excerpts)

The Ramayana (excerpts)

The Thousand and One Nights (excerpts)

Dante's Inferno (from The Divine Comedy, excerpts)

Cervantes's Don Quixote (excerpts)