Living Literature: The Classics and You Episode Guide

Episode Guide

• Aeneid

  The hero Aeneas; Virgil's purpose in writing the 'Aeneid.'

• Aeneid

  Virgil's purpose in writing the 'Aeneid.'

• Aeneid

  Virgil's ambivalent vision of Rome in the 'Aeneid.'

• Antigone

  State vs. religion in Sophocles' 'Antigone.'

• Beckett: Waiting for Godot

  Samuel Beckett's play centers on two men waiting for a messenger who never shows.

• Bertolt Brecht

  Bertolt Brecht's theatrical and social background and the development of his vision of drama.

• Candide

  Voltaire's 'Candide' and the meaning of evil.

• Chekhov: Uncle Vanya

  Anton Chekhov's play 'Uncle Vanya' parallels the destruction of land with the emotional problems of the people who live there.

• Course Overview

  Overview of the series.

• Crime and Punishment

  Suffering and spiritual regeneration in Dostoevski's 'Crime and Punishment.'

• The Death of Ivan Ilyich

  Consciousness of death in Tolstoy's 'The Death of Ivan Ilyich.'

• Faust

  Goethe's 'Faust' and European romanticism.

• Genesis, Chapters 1, 2 and 3

  The creation stories of Genesis; the myth of the Fall.

• Hamlet

  The unique place of Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' in Western culture.

• Hamlet

  The unique place of Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' in Western culture.

• The Iliad

  Homer's 'Iliad': the nature of the epic; gods and mortals; honor as a motivating principle.

• The Iliad

  Homer's 'Iliad': the nature of the epic; gods and mortals; honor as a motivating principle.

• Inferno

  Dante's 'Inferno': the nature of allegory; the nature of the soul.

• Inferno

  Dante's 'Inferno': the nature of allegory; the nature of the soul.

• Job

  Job's evolution from despair to faith.

• Madame Bovary

  Realism and feminism in Flaubert's 'Madame Bovary.'

• Madame Bovary

  Realism and feminism in Flaubert's 'Madame Bovary.'

• The Metamorphosis

  Humanity and inhumanity in Kafka's 'The Metamorphosis.'

• Molière: The Misanthrope

  Molière revealed the hypocrisy that he saw in the French court through 'The Misanthrope.'

• Oedipus the King

  'Oedipus the King' and the nature of tragedy; fate vs. chance.

• Paradise Lost

  Milton's purpose in 'Paradise Lost'; the role of knowledge.

• Paradise Lost

  Milton's purpose in 'Paradise Lost'; the role of knowledge.

• Tartuffe

  Molière's 'Tartuffe'; French neoclassicism; 'deus ex machina.'

• Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych