2. Greco-Roman reading list
• Iliad - Homer
• Odyssey - Homer
• Antigone – Sophocles
• Medea – Euripides
• Aeneid - Virgil
3. Greco – Roman themes
• Emphasizes human struggle with flawed and
petty gods versus free will.
• Though democracy is established, women,
slaves and other outcasts are badly treated.
• Experience how ancient nations are founded.
• Feel how characters that make good and bad
decisions are rewarded or punished.
4. Medieval reading list
• Song of Roland - Anonymous
• Beowulf – Anonymous
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - Anonymous
• Arthurian legends – Several sources
• Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer
5. Medieval themes
• New gods are introduced – changing from
Zeus to Jesus.
• How the behavioral differences between the
two affect mortals and their lives.
• War, disease and the devastating aftereffects.
• Leaning towards free will and away from sins
of the fathers, despite biblical references.
6. Enlightenment reading list
• Jonathon Swift – Gulliver’s Travels
• Jonathon Swift – Modest Proposal
• Voltaire – Candide
• Daniel Dafoe – Robinson Crusoe
• Daniel Dafoe – Moll Flanders
7. Enlightenment themes
• Man takes primary responsibility for life.
• Discoveries in math, science, and economics.
• Satire and irony as political critique.
• All philosophy and religion held under same
microscope.
• Music and art examine the classical world but
become rational and mathematically precise.
8. Gothic reading list
• Dracula – Bram Stoker
• The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
• The Monk – Matt Lewis
• Jekyll and Hyde – Robert Louis Stevenson
• Edgar Allen Poe – House of Usher
9. Gothic themes
• Reaction to the Enlightenment – because it
did not solve everything or cure all ills.
• Bad things happen to good people – we learn
how they respond and flourish.
• Gets back to taking some control of life away
from humanity.
• Models fear of nature and the supernatural.
10. Victorian reading list
• Charles Dickens - selection by class vote
• Jane Austen – selection by class vote
• George Eliot – Middlemarch
• Thomas Hardy – Tess of the d’Urbervilles
• Bronte sisters – selection by class vote
11. Victorian themes
• Women’s and children’s literature gains
popularity.
• Lives of women and children more thoroughly
examined and critiqued.
• Poverty and industrialism become
intertwined.
• Marriage found to be less than ideal, though
rigorously insisted upon by society.
12. Modernism reading list
• H. G. Wells – selection by class vote
• F. Scott Fitzgerald – Great Gatsby
• George Orwell – selection by class vote
• Ayn Rand – selection by class vote
• Herman Melville – Moby Dick
13. Modernism themes
• Fear and alienation from nature and fellow
man due to differences in beliefs.
• World Wars I and II devastate humanity and
permanently change outlook and worldview.
• Government seen as the enemy.
• Future unknown and pessimistic.
• Feelings of unchanging solitude.
• Rich continue to abuse and neglect the poor.
14. Feel free to watch the movie
• Visualization of characters and setting cement
ideas of time and place.
• Parents able to review material and
knowledgably participate in discussion.
• Students may review key points.
• Most videos available on YouTube or Netflix.
• Don’t forget school and local libraries as
movie sources.
