Homer’s Odyssey and the Art of the Story

What makes a story interesting, relatable, and powerful? In this class, students will embark on a reading of Homer’s Odyssey with each session focusing on a different aspect of storytelling, such as worldbuilding, character development, and resolution. To guide us along the way, we will examine works from modern minds who have reimagined the Odyssey. Examples will stem from poetry, collage, rap, video games, and other media, and come from creators such as Jorge Luis Borges, Romare Bearden, and Margaret Atwood. Students will also get up-close-and-personal with objects in the Penn Museum and the Kislak Center for Rare Books. As a conclusion, each student will prepare a short presentation on a work of art, literature, or another medium that engages with the Odyssey; this may be a work of their own choosing or their own creation. By the end of our nine-day journey, students will arrive at a richer understanding of the shapes that a story can take, and the ways it can make meaning.