Teaching World Epics (MLA Options for Teaching World Literature)

Epics/topics covered:

Part I: The Ancient World

1. Mahabharata
2. Ramayana
3. Homer, Iliad
4. Vergil, Aeneid
5. Statius, Thebaid

 

Part II: From the Tenth to the Fifteenth Century

6. Song of Roland; Daurel and Beton; Journey of Charlemagne to Jerusalem and Constantinople
7. Poema de mio Cid
8. Nibelungenlied
9. Kudrun
10. Book of Dede Korkut
11. Tale of the Heike (Heike Monogatari)
12. Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi yanyi)

 

Part III: Literary Epics from the Sixteenth to Seventeenth Century

13. Ariosto, Orlando Furioso and Bigolina, Urania
14. Spenser, Faerie Queene
15. Camões, Os Lusiadas; Ercilla, La Araucana; Villagrá, Historia de la Nueva México
16. Milton, Paradise Lost

 

Part IV. Writing Oral-Derived Epics from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century

17. Popol Wuj
18. Kalevala
19. Manas
20. David of Sassoun

 

Part V: The Enduring Oral Tradition

21. the Mwindo Epic
22. the Epic of Sun-Jata
23. the Epic of Askia Mohammed
24. the Legend of Poṉṉivaḷa Nadu (Land of the Golden River)

 

Part VI: Teaching World Epics in Various Contexts

25. Gilgamesh; Iliad; Odyssey; Aeneid; Beowulf
26. Táin Bó Cúailnge; Geste Francor; Infancy Gospel of Thomas; Life of Buddha; Egil’s Saga
27. Gilgamesh; Shahnameh; Sirat Bani Hilal
28. Odyssey; Kebra Nagast; Shahnameh