Week 2: Reading Overview

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Choose from CLASSICAL and/or BIBLICAL units for Weeks 3 and 4.

Week 3: Ancient Rome - Ovid's Metamorphoses

Week 4: Later Legends - Women Saints

Choose from MIDDLE EASTERN and/or INDIAN units for Weeks 5 and 6.

Week 5: Folktales and Fairy Tales - Persian

Week 6: Buddhism and Hinduism - Life of the Buddha

Choose from ASIAN and/or AFRICAN units for Weeks 7 and 9. [Week 8 is review week.]

Week 7: Asian Mythology - Japanese Mythology

Week 9: Folktales - Tibet

Choose from NATIVE AMERICAN units for Weeks 10 and 11.

Week 10: Regional Anthologies- Great Plains

Week 11: Regional Anthologies - British North America

Choose from BRITISH and/or CELTIC units for Weeks 12 and 13.

Week 12: Celtic Tales - Celtic Fairy Tales

Week 13: Hero Tales - Beowulf

Choose from EUROPEAN units for Weeks 14 and 15.

Week 14: Literary Works - Inferno

Week 15: Fairy Tales by Country - Italy


Final Thoughts:

    I was really impressed with the variety of stories offered overall, but something that seemed missing to me were folktales and legends from the indigenous tribes of Latin America. There were dozens and dozens of tribes inhabiting both Central America and South America before the arrival of the Spanish, and some of their legends have been well-preserved. Having such a close connection with Mexico, I personally would love to read some stories from the Maya or Aztecs (I had actually been hoping to write about one of them for the final project). I actually got to visit the ancient Aztec capital of Teotihuacan near Mexico City a few times. For future classes, it might be interesting to include stories from Latin American cultures in the anthology. Other than that, I loved the balance between mythology, folktales, and legends, and the variety overall looks great. I'm especially excited for the Tibetan and Persian units I've chosen for myself.

A personal photo I took of the volcanoes near Mexico City. The two volcanoes, called Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl, are supposed to be symbols of a Nahua (Aztec) legend.

Comments

  1. Laura GibbsJanuary 18, 2020 at 3:08 PM

    You have figured out one of the biggest problems I face, Cece: there are almost no public domain sources for Latin American folktales. I have a couple of books from Brazil, a few from Mexico, but it's very slim. There are SO MANY GREAT BOOKS that I can recommend on Kindle, though, along with books we have in Bizzell, so if you want to build a Latin American / Central American reading project using the extra credit reading option, we can totally do that. Check in with me as class progresses and let me know! One of the very best projects last semester was this Aztec project: Huitzilli's Journey. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Laura GibbsJanuary 18, 2020 at 3:09 PM

    And here are the South and Central American books at the Freebookapalooza. :-)

    ReplyDelete

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