COMPLIT 362. Comparative Studies in Form and Genre
Meets with Classical Civilization 386.001
Prof. James I. Porter
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This course will offer an introduction to one of the most innovative modern thinkers on Greek tragedy. The core of the course will be formed around Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy, or, Hellenism and Pessimism, with supplementary readings by Nietzsche from around the time (1872) and excerpts from his later writings on the Greeks and on Greek tragedy. By way of background we will read and discuss a handful of Greek plays (Prometheus Bound, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Euripides’ Bacchae, Aristophanes' Frogs), and we will also look at ancient and contemporary literature written on (or against) Nietzsche and Nietzschean themes (for example, on the ritual origins of Greek tragedy, Dionysianism, catharsis theory, psychoanalysis, and cultural criticism), including short selections from Plato, Aristotle, Wilamowitz, Jacob Bernays, Walter Burkert, Freud, Lacan, Jonathan Lear, and Bernard Williams, as well as a book called Nothing To Do With Dionysus?. No prerequisites.