World & British Literature (Lectures)

Description

This course explores the perennial theme of man trying to achieve happiness in spite of the difficulties of life. It involves heavy reading, and will include either entire books or sections from The Odyssey, Augustine’s Confessions, The Divine Comedy, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Hamlet, Paradise Lost, Pride & Prejudice, Heart of Darkness, All the King’s Men, and important British poets.

Regular writing assignments included local students presenting papers publicly to the class in a seminar-style setting, in addition to regular discussion.

This course is part of the Compass Lectures Series where veteran teachers are filmed as they teach in an actual classroom. Purchase of this product grants access to videos filmed live in Nashville as well as assignments given to the students attending in person by means of our Learning Management System. Any homework needs to be graded by students or parents.

Required Books

Introduction to the Classics – Os Guiness and Louis Cowan
The Odyssey – Richard Lattimore Translation
Augustine’s Confessions – Translated by Thomas Williams (2019)
The Divine Comedy – 3 Vols – Dorothy Sayers (Penguin) (it’s possible these are on other sites, but I just couldn’t easily find them)
- Hell, Vol 1
- Purgatory, Vol 2
- Paradise, Vol 3
Gawain and the Green Knight – Marie Borroff translation
Hamlet – Shakespeare, Folger Library (any edition)
Paradise Lost – John Milton (Norton Critical Edition by Scott Elledge)
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen (any Norton Critical Edition)
Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad (any Norton Critical Edition)
All the King’s Men – Robert Penn Warren
Six Centuries of Great Poetry – Warren and Erskine
On Writing Well – William Zinsser (any edition will work)
The Elements of Style – Strunk and White (any edition will work)

Copies of these books can be acquired on Amazon, BookFinder.com, Better World Books, and Half Price Books

License: This product is licensed for use by one family. Coop participants must purchase one subscription per family.

Additional information

Age	14+
Age/Grade	High School
Credit	1 HS English Credit
Credit Amount	Full Credit
Teacher	Thomas Purifoy
Lessons	28
Lesson Runtime	1 hour runtime per lecture
Type	Curriculum
Format	Streaming
Subscription Duration	Month

Bio

Thomas Purifoy is a producer, writer, and director with Compass Cinema & Compass Classroom. He has been the director of a classical school in France where he taught 20th Century History, English Literature, Film History, Old Testament, and Philosophy. Thomas has also served as an officer in the U.S. Navy and is a graduate of Vanderbilt University. He is married and has three daughters.

Lessons

Introduction & the World of Homer
Lecture – Exploring The Odyssey
Paper Presentations – The Odyssey
Lecture – Augustine’s World & Confessions
Lecture – Exploring the Confessions
Paper Presentations – The Confessions
Lecture – Introduction to the World of Dante
Lecture – The Divine Comedy “Hell”
Lecture – The Divine Comedy “Purgatory”
Lecture – The Divine Comedy “Paradise”
Lecture – Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Paper Presentations – Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Lecture – Hamlet
Lecture – Hamlet (Pt. 2)
Paper Presentations – Hamlet
Lecture – Shakespeare, Donne, and the Cavalier Poets
Lecture – Paradise Lost
Lecture – C.S. Lewis on Paradise Lost
Lecture – Pride & Prejudice and Introduction to Literary Criticism
Lecture – Pride & Prejudice and Q&A on Literary Criticism
Paper Presentations – Pride & Prejudice
Paper Presentations – Pride and Prejudice (Second drafts)
Lecture – The Romantic Poets
Lecture – A Tale of Two Cities
Lecture – The Victorian Poets
Lecture – Heart of Darkness
Paper Presentations – Heart of Darkness
Lecture – The Modern Poets

Sample Lesson

This lecture was delivered during the second week of live classes. Thomas goes over the Odyssey with his students.

Here’s the homework the students were assigned:

Your assignment is to write a 2 page paper (double-spaced) that would convince the class of something from the Odyssey. It could be a comparison between two things, a question you have, a problem you notice, or an argument that you want to convince someone about. For instance, to take an idea from one of our class members, “Homer had a dysfunctional view of fathers, and we see that through his depiction of father-son relationships in the Odyssey.” You then could bring evidence from the relationships between Telemachos and Odysseus, Nestor and his son, Odysseus and Laertes, etc. (I’m not saying this is a good idea, but just how you would go about arguing it.)
Finally, read the Introduction to the Odyssey that Lattimore wrote before The Odyssey (it’s in your volume). I think it could be very useful to you in your assignment, and could give you a lot of ideas if you’re concerned you don’t have a good one. I rarely read introductions before I read a book for the first time; instead, they should be kept for reading after you finish. I think you will appreciate it in light of finishing his translation.

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