GREEK 970 WRITING AND THE ORIGINS OF GREEK LITERATURE 2001

Monday 2:30-4:30 Greek and Latin Reading Room

PROFESSOR POWELL

Required texts:

B. Powell, Homer and the Origin of the Greek Alphabet (Cambridge, 1991).

B. Powell, WRITING AND THE ORIGINS OF GREEK LITERATURE (photocopy)

Recommended:

Daniels W. and Bright P. T., The world's writing systems, eds. (Oxford, 1996).

The purpose of this class will to be explore major issues in the history of writing and their relevance to the nature and origins of Greek literature (“things in letters”). Hence we will derive a theoretical basis by which to understand genre, reception, and performance.

During the semester I will assign weekly topics to explore in the secondary literature. I will loan out the texts or place them in my office in Van Hise for easy reference.

I require a final paper on a topic of interest, which should evolve doing our work. There is no set length for the paper, simply enough to cover the topic of your choice. Your grade will be based on class work and on this paper.

Week 1. Introduction. Bibliography

Week 2. Literate/Oral: the nature of the problem (Powell, WRITING chps. 1-7)

Report on R. Thomas, Literacy and Orality in Ancient Greece (Cambridge, 1992).

Week 3. Eastern origin of writing and Greek civilization (Powell, chp. 8).

Report on M. L. West, The East Face of Helicon: West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth (Oxford, 1997).

Week 4 The theory of Writing (Powell, WRITING chps. 10, 11; ORIGINS, chp 2).

Report on I. J. Gelb A Study of Writing (Chicago 1960); E. L. Bennett, Jr., "Names for Linear B Writing and for Its Signs." Kadmos 2 (1963) 98-123.

Week 5. Chinese writing (Powell, WRITING, chp 12)

Report on , S. Robert Ramsey, The Languages of China (Princeton, 1987)

Week 6. Cuneiform writing (Powell, WRITING, chp 13)

Report on C.B.F Walker (Berkeley, 1987) Cuneiform; Nissen, H. J., P. Damerow, R. K. Englund, Archaic Bookkeeping. Early Writing and Techniques of Economic Administration in the Ancient Near East (Chicago, 1993).

Week 7. Egyptian hieroglyphic (Powell, WRITING, chp 14)

Report on W. V. Davies, Egyptian Hieroglyphs (Berkeley, 1987); A. Loprieno, Ancient Egyptian (Cambridge, 1995).

Week 8. Linear B writing

Report on J. Chadwick, The Decipherment of Linear B (Cambridge, 1967); J. Chadwick, Linear B and Related Scripts (Berkeley, 1987).

Week 9. West Semitic writing (Powell, WRITING, chp 15).

Report on J. Naveh, Early History of the Alphabet (Leiden, 1982).

Week 10. The origin of the Greek alphabet (Powell, WRITING, chp. 16; ORIGINS, chps. 4-5, appendix)

Report on J. Healey, Greek Inscriptions (Berkeley, 1987).

Week 11. Archaic Greek inscriptions (Powell, ORIGIN, chp. 3)

Handout and workshop.

Week 12 : papyrology (Powell, chps 17-20)

Workshop on Wisconsin papyri

Week 13 papers

Week 14 papers

Week 15 summary: What is literature?