Week One: Readings from the UnTextbook

Exploring the UnTextbook was so fun, there are so many different reading units that sound incredibly interesting. It's hard to narrow down which units I am most intrigued by, but I have come up with a working list of units I would be excited to explore.

I like the idea of progressing through the units in a hybrid of chronological and geographical order. To me it could be a sort of time travel adventure where as you are traveling through time you are also traveling through the different civilizations, gaining a picture of the stories and folklore of different cultures while also seeing how older stories impact and relate to the stories told in newer civilizations and cultures.

1. Bible Women (King James Bible). As a Christian woman I find the stories of the women in the Bible remarkable and fascinating. While I am knowledgeable about many of the women in the Bible: Mary, Ruth, Esther, etc. There are still many stories of which I have not studied in depth. Studying the stories of women , their courage and their faith in a time where women were not often regarded in a positive light is both comforting and encouraging to me.

2. Homer's the Iliad (retold by AJ Church). I am a big fan of classical history and literature. I have read many of the great Greek tragedies: Oedipus the King, Medea, Antigone, etc... but I haven't spent much time reading Homer's epic poems. I would love to study the Iliad because of it's focus on Hector who is one of my favorite characters in classical history.

3. Ramayana (as told in Mackenzie's Indian Myth and Legend). This story dates back to the 4th or 5th century BCE. It is an Indian epic poem, and I am very interested in it largely because I know little about Indian history and Hindu stories. Religious stories are very interesting to me because they have such a large impact on culture and reveal much about what characteristics and values that different religions esteem highly.

4. Boccaccio's The Decameron. The Decameron is of particular interest to me because I spent the past summer in Italy studying the Plague and its affects on literature, architecture, and culture. Boccaccio's the Decameron is structured as a series of stories told by several men and women who had fled Florence during the Black Death. I am relatively familiar with Boccaccio but have read only excerpts from his work and would love to read them in their entirety.

Franz Winterhalter's The Decameron, 1837. http://www.paintinghere.org/painting/the_decameron-24710.html

5. Margaret, Queen of Navarre's The Heptameron. I am a self-professed francophile and therefore tend to enjoy anything related to French language, history, culture, and food. The Heptameron would be particularly interesting to study following The Decameron because it was largely inspired by Boccaccio's work. It would be so interesting to see how the stories told by Boccaccio influenced Margaret as well as to see what elements between the Italian and French stories differed and how those differences reflect the differences between Italian and French culture.

6. The Fables of La Fontaine. I have read several of Jean de La Fontaine's fables in their original French, but it has been several years since I have read any of them. What I do remember about Fontaine's poems is how fun they were to read because of their rhymed structure. I would be excited to read the English translations done by W. T. Larned in Fables in Rhyme for Little Folks and Elizur Wright in Fables of La Fontaine and to be able to compare the translations with the original French verses to see how the language translation affects the structure and meaning of the poems.

A depiction of the fable "The Council held by the Rats" by Jean de La Fontaine illustrated by Condre. http://millefabulae.blogspot.com/2010/08/aesop-illustrations-conde.html