Week 2 Reading Overview

Choose from CLASSICAL and/or BIBLICAL units for Weeks 3 and 4.

Week 3: Cupid and Psyche
Week 4: Women Saints

Choose from MIDDLE EASTERN and/or INDIAN units for Weeks 5 and 6.

Week 5: Ancient Egypt
Week 6: Turkish

Choose from ASIAN and/or AFRICAN units for Weeks 7 and 9. [Week 8 is review week.]

Week 7: Japanese Mythology
Week 9: African Tales (Lang)

Choose from NATIVE AMERICAN units for Weeks 10 and 11.

Week 10: Marriage Tales
Week 11: Alaska

Choose from BRITISH and/or CELTIC units for Weeks 12 and 13.

Week 12: Celtic Tales
Week 13: Faerie Queene

Choose from EUROPEAN units for Weeks 14 and 15.

Week 14: Hunt
Week 15: Heptameron

This spider reminds me of Anansi, the trickster spider who appears in some of the West African tales I've read before. (Image by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen via unsplash) 

With these selections, I tried to choose reading units that I have little to no previous knowledge of. For example, I've loved the story of Beowulf ever since I first saw a brief version of it on the TV show "Wishbone," and I recall reading stories about Anansi, the trickster spider who appears in many West African tales, when I was little. I was also already familiar with many of the classical texts like the Odyssey, the Iliad, and Dante's Inferno (and even the Ramayana) because I've had to study both English literature and world literature in some of my previous classes at OU, back when I was an English major.

So for these choices, I instead wanted to pick readings that would be completely, or at least mostly, new to me. I'm particularly excited to read the story of the Faerie Queene based on the description in the UnTextbook, and I'm also eager to dive into the Turkish mythology unit, not only for the stories themselves but also for the illustrations.