User talk:Atcovi/ENG225/History and the Victor - Discussion Board Two

Preface

 * Homer's Odyssey: travelers in real need of food and were justified in taking food vs. glory hunters trying to take advantage of unsecured loot?
 * Epic of Gilgamesh: Uruk, Iraq (first large city in human history)
 * Emily Wilson's translation of the Odyssey provided new insights into the lives of Penelope ("powerful woman who held a rowdy group of suitors at bay") and Helen (not a "whore", but was the "face" of the fight vs. the Trojans).
 * The author asserts the "art" of translation, which makes world literature go around. The author argues against the idea that keeping a text in its original form is optimal. The author mentions translations of the Qur'an (Bruce Lawrence), Augustine's Confessions (Peter Constantine), and Inferno (John Ciardi).
 * Sunjata and oral storytelling.
 * "Expanded Selections": Story of Captivity in North Africa, The Headstrong Historian [three generation of Nigerations navigating through the loss of their culture].

—Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 00:49, 5 September 2023 (UTC)


 * Johanne Wolfgang, 1827: birth of world literature.
 * World literature contemplation: Fiction has recently been added to our studies of world literature, expanding world literature as a category.
 * —Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 01:06, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

Anceint Med. and Near Eastern Lit. Reading, 3-17, ENG251.pdf
—Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 02:13, 6 September 2023 (UTC)
 * The contradiction in "oral literature". Proverbs > "authored essays".
 * First writings were not to preserve information, but contained legal/political information. First pieces of writings we have are from Mesopotamia, 3300 - 2290 BCE.
 * Cuneiform --> Gilgamesh
 * Phonecian script. YHWH (Tetragrammaton). Signs for the vowels were made by Greeks.
 * Romans took from the Greeks and we're able to see it today.
 * Societies back then HAD to stay near bodies of water in order to flourish, unlike today. Slavery was a tool that was used by ancient civilizations to do manual labor. Societies formed around the Fertile Crescent, Nile River Valley, Mesopotamia (area near the Euphrates), etc.
 * The Hebrews, the Greeks & the Romans develop from the second millenium BCE onwards. The Med. & Near East became a single unit with the amount of trade, colonization, and imperalism going on between the various cultures present in these areas.
 * Generally polythiestic, but had certain values creeping towards monotheism: Egyptian Great Hymn to the Aten & Hebrew Bible.


 * Greeks
 * Native tribes mixed with Indo-European raiders (as seen with random words).
 * Minoans: brilliant society with massive palace structures, oral trad. of Illiad & Odyssey.
 * Dark Ages, then totally new alphabet different from the Phonecians. City-states formed and were ruled by their own separate nationalized gov't. New civilizations developed along the Greek coast
 * 6th century BCE: The Persians dominated the Middle East. The empire held places, such as Perspepolis (modern-day Iran) & modern-day Turkey. The Persians tried to attack the Greeks, but it proved to be fruitless.
 * Voting system & direct representation in democracy due to small population.
 * War between two powerful Greek sides, Athens lose.
 * 6th century: Greek knowledge overpowers. Thinkers come to Athens.
 * 4th century (338 BCE): Alexander the Macedon & his father wreak control over Greece. Hellenistic age. Ptomely's Greek dynasty in Egypt. Greek knowledge expanded.
 * Jesus of Nazreth
 * —Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 23:52, 6 September 2023 (UTC)
 * Rome
 * Rome vs. Carthage (3 wars)
 * Rome became an established world power (towards the end of the BCE era)
 * Unlike Athens, Rome was never a democracy but infact a tyranny (ended after a coup). Republic is brought out until the Roman civil wars (first century BCE).
 * Romans saw conflict as deadly, while the Greeks thought otherwise (growth mindset?).
 * Virgil and Ovid questions deep loyalty to the Romans. Romans stuck to tradition.
 * Romans took from the Greeks, translated their works.
 * Roman city states fell apart and couldn't maintain themselves in a world government.
 * Cesear was a break in gov't ruling, but was assasinated. Octavian claimed he was restoring the Republic, but took full control.
 * Rome was so big, that it could not be effectively maintained. Aurelius detailed the Republic and its sharing of its empire in the Meditations. Eventually fell apart and the church became the leading religious figure & remnant of the Romans.
 * —Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 00:12, 7 September 2023 (UTC)