This is a continuation of the History Through Literature meetings first established in 1998. In the past we have worked with international epic literature and comparative mythology with a focus on world areas mandated in the 6th and 7th grade world history curricula. This year we will turn our focus to world poetry.

Our faculty advisor will be Edan Dekel. Dekel is an advanced graduate student in the Classics department working on comparative epic literature and popular instructor on campus. He has been active the History Through Literature programs since their inception.

The group is free and open to all teachers. Teachers are welcome to join the on-going meetings at any time there is space available.

For further information contact Michele Delattre at ORIAS: 510-643-0868 or orias@uclink4.berkeley.edu

Registration	Calendar
Class Resource Page	Speaker Biographies and Contact information

wORIAS

wClass Resource Page

CALENDAR (Note that the February session has been cancelled. We will extend the meetings into May.)

All meetings will be held on Saturday Mornings 10:00am - 1:00pm with coffee and lunch provided.

January 31 - Introduction: Lost in Translation
Presenter: Edan Dekel
Encountering poetry from ancient times or foreign places can bring world history alive with the voices of other peoples. Recognizable themes and emotions often make these distant voices surprisingly contemporary and can add real life to a textbook landscape. Likewise working with comparative literature can help students recognize techniques and issues of form and content also relevant to English writing. How much cultural context is necessary to understand poetry from other times and places? What technical challenges face translators? We'll consider questions like this using examples from various regions identified in the 6th and 7th grade history standards and try out some activities that simulate the activity of translation.
wTranslation exercises

March 20 - Love in the cultural context
Presenters: Edan Dekel, Martin Backstom (Institute of East Asian Studies, UCB)
Appropriate for the Valentine month our theme will be love. Love poetry seems to evoke a universal language, but how much does the meaning of romance change across time and place?

April 24 - Exile, fate and death
Presenter: Edan Dekel
This cheery trio of universal anxieties happily inspires much of the most engaging world poetry. The social studies lens we'll use to discuss this set of poems will be the struggle between society and the individual.

May 8 - Nature poetry
Presenter: Robert Ashmore (Department of East Asian Languages, UCB)
We'll use the pastoral month of May as an opportunity to delve into world nature poetry with a focus on China. Poetry selections.

LINKS

ORIAS HISTORY THROUGH LITERATURE ARCHIVES:

CLASS RESOURCES

wComparative Mythology Working Group (2002-3) http://orias.berkeley.edu/2003/myth/mythhome.htm wMonomyth (Hero's Journey) Home Page orias.berkeley.edu/hero/index.htm wSite Map for Hero's Journey .orias.berkeley.edu/hero/sitemap.html w6th grade area stories orias.berkeley.edu/lessonplan.html#HL w7th grade area stories orias.berkeley.edu/seventh1.html wInternational Children's Literature orias.berkeley.edu/summer2001/announce2001.html

wBibliography wTranslation exercises wRobert Ashmore's selection of poems in the Chinese landscape tradition woral interpretation wother poetry links

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

EDAN DEKEL (U. C. Berkeley, Classic Department) is a graduate student in the Department of Classics at the U. C. Berkeley where he is studying comparative epic, comparative mythology, and comparative linguistics. He is a founding organizer of the history through literature ORIAS program and co-author of the ORIAS "Journey of the Hero" web site.
Contact: edan@uclink.berkeley.edu

ROBERT ASHMORE (U. C. Berkeley, Department of East Asian Languages) is Assistant Professor, received his M.A. in classical Chinese literature from Beijing University in 1992, and continued his graduate studies in the department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University, where he received his Ph. D. in November, 1997. His research focus is on Chinese literature of the third through eleventh centuries, with special interests in lyric poetry and poetic theory, song and musical performance, and traditional concepts of identity and personality. He is currently completing work on a book manuscript on the literary culture of the early ninth century.
Contact: rashmore@socrates.Berkeley.EDU

MARTIN BACKSTROM (U. C. Berkeley, Institute of East Asian Studies) is the Assistant Director of the Institute of East Asian Studies. He received his Ph.D. in Berkeley's Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures in 1989, specializing in early Chinese poetry.
Contact: backstrom@berkeley.edu

WHERE:
U.C. Berkeley
ORIAS
2223 Fulton Street, 6th floor 
Berkeley, CA 94720 
Directions