CLAS 292 Love's Song--A History

In this course we will trace the European history of what we today call "love" from Ancient Greece to the Renaissance and shall do so through a careful examination of the literature that sought to give expression to this ever-changeable and ever-provoking concept: the lyrics of Sappho the dialogues of Plato the satirically erotic "technical manuals" of Ovid the Gospels of Christianity the troubled Confessions of Augustine the courtly tales of knights in the Middle Ages and the great all-encompassing journey of Dante's through heaven and hell in the Divine Comedy. Significant attention will be paid to the way each of these works continues to contribute to our own modern notions of love in all their ecstatic heartbreaking inspiring and frustrating complexity.