Category: Great Books

The bright ghosts of antiquity by John Talbot

February 17, 2021 at 9:54 am

In this feature for The New Criterion titled “The bright ghosts of antiquity”, BU alumnus John Talbot writes about the baffling translations of the Loeb Classical Library, and wonders about the impact of such translations on the study of Latin and Greek: https://newcriterion.com/issues/2011/9/the-bright-ghosts-of-antiquity But then if your Greek were good enough, you wouldn’t be reading […]

By Gabriela Padilla | Also posted in alumni, Community, Other Publications, Quotes, Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Alter on writing The Art of Biblical Narrative

September 24, 2020 at 3:12 pm

Robert Alterisa scholar and translator whose rendition of the Pentateuch into English we read in the first-year Core humanists as The Five Books of Moses. Earlier this year, in January, Alter was invited to deliver a lecture to students in Brigham Young University’s program in Ancient Near Eastern Studies. In his talk, he discusses The […]

By zakbos | Also posted in Academics, Great Ideas, Great Personalities | Tagged | Comments (0)

Akkadian Dogs

September 4, 2020 at 10:08 am

Our first-year students are beginning with the beginning in this first week of the Fall 2020 semester, by reading the oldest book we have written copies of — the Epic of Gilgamesh. In keeping with the Mesopotamian moment, let us share these marvelous little clay dog figurines from the 7th century BCE. We spotted this […]

By zakbos | Also posted in Community | Tagged , | Comments (1)

The poems of the 2020 Core Poetry Reading

April 15, 2020 at 11:03 pm

On the evening of April 15th, four and a half dozen classmates, alumni, lecturers, and friends, all members of the extended community we call the BU Core, came together on Zoom for our traditional spring poetry reading, an event Core has organized for nearly two decades. Despite a hitch at the start (we were Zoom […]

By zakbos | Also posted in alumni, Community, Core Authors, Events, Great Personalities | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Ajax, Hecuba, and Vietnam

November 21, 2019 at 11:02 am

The image above is taken from a stage adaptation of the Iliad, now performing at ArtsEmerson. A group of Core students is venturing downtown to see this production, titled An Iliad, putting us in mind here on campus about the enduring relevance of this ancient text. Do our modern times still reflect that old world? […]

By CAS Core Curriculum | Also posted in Great Questions, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Meditation on Remediation

October 24, 2019 at 2:35 pm

An update from the front lines of the Core classrooms! This week, students are exploring Hamlet, and discovering what it means to remediate a text. Core students know better than anyone that some stories strike such a chord with the human experience that they continue to be told throughout history. Storytellers have always taken source […]

By hjdion | Also posted in Academics, Community, Core Authors, Core Lecturers, Future of the Book, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Dare We Hope That All Men Be Saved?

January 30, 2019 at 8:25 am

Hell is everywhere we look. It is integral to religious belief systems, literature, and even popular TV shows. As editor of the new compilation “The Penguin Book of Hell,” Scott Bruce explores 3,000 years of this damnation, from Odysseus traveling to Hades to Climate Change as Hell on Earth. While doing so, he reckons with […]

By hjdion | Also posted in Academics, Core Authors, Great Ideas | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Core Meets Core: Virginia Woolf on Jane Austen

January 25, 2019 at 3:07 pm

In her 1913 essay, Virginia Woolf writes on the merits and failings of Jane Austen. While Woolf describes Austen as “singularly blessed,” she also critiques Austen’s lack of rebellion of her “artificial” life. For Woolf, Austen someone satirizes middle class life and the fools who inhabit it, but never fully pushes away from it. Perhaps […]

By hjdion | Also posted in Academics, Community, Core Authors | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Machiavelli, Man of the People

December 18, 2018 at 5:03 pm

We’ve known our share of allegedly misunderstood literary figures (lookin’ at you, Nietzsche). But is Machiavelli one of them? In The Prince, Machiavelli argues that leaders shouldn’t be objectively virtuous or truthful, but rather effective at preserving their reign. Hence a just end can excuse a leader’s horrendous acts, or “the ends justify the means.” […]

By hjdion | Also posted in Academics, Core Authors | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Free Books, Yours for the Claimin’

November 16, 2017 at 4:53 pm

The end of the year is looming, and we want to make sure our orphan books go to good homes before the snows begin to fall here in Boston. Core has an inventory of hundreds and hundreds of used books, donations from members of the Core community. We invite you — students, alumni, and friends […]

By zakbos | Also posted in alumni, Community | Tagged , | Comments (2)