Martha Kennedy posted: " Today is Goethe's birthday -- 273 years ago. Yesterday, on a whim, I signed up for a free online class put out by -- of all places -- Harvard University. What struck me was that the first topic in a six week course "Ancient Topics of World Literature" "Summer is the season of inferior sledding" - Inuit proverb (Women's Wilderness Legend)
Today is Goethe's birthday -- 273 years ago. Yesterday, on a whim, I signed up for a free online class put out by -- of all places -- Harvard University. What struck me was that the first topic in a six week course "Ancient Topics of World Literature" was Goethe. I did the first week's lectures yesterday (all of them about Goethe) and I loved every minute of it. What's ahead? Some familiar works and a couple of completely new works. I don't know if I'm actually going to do the whole class, and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to do the discussions. We're reading Gilgamesh, The Odyssey, 1001 Arabian Nights, Tale of Genji, and the Lusiad. That is a lot of pages for six weeks -- but the "kids" who pay for the course have longer to do it. I have read all of these but The Lusiad though some a long time ago. Since I didn't officially enroll for a certificate, I figure I can do what I want.
Here's the course description, "Welcome to Ancient Masterpieces of World Literature. You're joining an international group of literature enthusiasts from over 150 countries—a fitting cohort given the global history of literature you'll discover. Over the course of the semester, we'll introduce you to the great texts that have shaped our world, but also the people behind those texts and the places from which they emerged.We believe that literature is the best way to learn about the world because the foundational texts of literature we'll be discussing are the DNA of entire cultures, stories that were told and retold countless times..."
I wondered why the course started with Goethe. It seemed a little odd, but great, as far as I was concerned. It turns out that the term, "World Literature," was invented by Goethe. Maybe I should have noticed it because it's reported in one of my favorite books, Conversations with Goethe written by Goethe's secretary, Johann Peter Eckermann. I guess in all the times I read that book, I didn't pay attention to that. It's a very small thing in a larger context, and Goethe's remark didn't matter much to Eckermann. Goethe had just read a Chinese novel and Eckermann had commented, "That must have been strange." Goethe responded that it wasn't strange at all, but that it was good, but different.
We'll see what kind of student I will be, but an intellectual challenge and something new to learn feels very, very good. But...I wish I could talk to Goethe about Chinese novels. This time travel thing is still fraught with limitations .
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