84
Lectures
30
minutes/lecture
1.
Foundations
This lecture introduces both the first two parts of this seven-part course, and the course in general. Professor Vandiver defines the key terms, "Western" and "literature," and describes the course's objectives.
1.
Foundations
|
43.
William Shakespeare—The Merchant of Venice
The first of two lectures on Shakespeare looks at The Merchant of Venice as a representative comedy, shedding light on the qualities that give Shakespeare a central position in Western literature.
43.
William Shakespeare—The Merchant of Venice
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2.
The Epic of Gilgamesh
The Epic of Gilgamesh is the earliest surviving work of Western literature. We explore its themes and the parallels between the Mesopotamian flood story as reflected in Gilgamesh and the story of Noah as it appears in Genesis.
2.
The Epic of Gilgamesh
|
44.
William Shakespeare—Hamlet
Turning to Shakespearean tragedy, we examine Hamlet, focusing on Shakespeare's genius for multiple plots. In particular, we look at the conflict between Hamlet's introspective world and the Machiavellian court of Claudius.
44.
William Shakespeare—Hamlet
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3.
Genesis and the Documentary Hypothesis
We examine the Documentary Hypothesis, which posits four different source documents for the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. Then we compare the Book of Genesis to other Mesopotamian creation stories.
3.
Genesis and the Documentary Hypothesis
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45.
Lope de Vega
Lope de Vega was a remarkably gifted and prolific playwright of the Spanish Golden Age. We concentrate on his Fuente Ovejuna, a story of sex, love, and justice that was one of his most popular plays.
45.
Lope de Vega
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4.
The Deuteronomistic History
This lecture considers the Books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings, and discusses the theory that these books were edited and reworked to form a unified whole, perhaps around the time of the Babylonian Captivity. We analyze the story of David and Bathsheba.
4.
The Deuteronomistic History
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46.
Miguel de Cervantes
Cervantes's Don Quixote has been called both the first novel and the greatest novel. We study it as a work harking back to the world of the chivalric romance and looking forward to the mature modern novel.
46.
Miguel de Cervantes
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5.
Isaiah
The Book of Isaiah contains some of the finest poetry in the Bible. We examine its role as a prophetic text during a critical period of Jewish history. Later, Christians read certain passages as foretelling the birth of Christ.
5.
Isaiah
|
47.
John Milton
After a brief overview of the career and writings of Milton, we concentrate on his Paradise Lost, the most important epic poem written in English. We look closely at Book Nine, narrating the Fall of Adam and Eve.
47.
John Milton
|
6.
Job
We conclude our treatment of the Hebrew Scriptures by considering one of the most remarkable books of the Bible, the Book of Job—the story of a righteous man who undergoes great suffering through no fault of his own.
6.
Job
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48.
Blaise Pascal
Pascal is claimed as an important figure by scientists, mathematicians, and philosophers, as well as by literary scholars. This lecture explores his Pensées, or Thoughts, an incomplete but profound work of religious meditation.
48.
Blaise Pascal
|
7.
Homer—The Iliad
Beginning our survey of ancient Greek literature, we study the nature of Homeric epic. Then we turn to the Iliad, paying special attention to its themes of kleos (glory or fame) and time (honor).
7.
Homer—The Iliad
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49.
Molière
Professor Heinzelman begins this part with a discussion of the key terms "Neoclassical" and "Romantic." We then turn to Molière and through Tartuffe explore his representation of Neoclassical values.
49.
Molière
|
8.
Homer—The Odyssey
We continue our discussion of Homeric epic by looking at the Odyssey, focusing on its portrayal of the human condition through Odysseus's reunion with his wife and son after 20 years of absence.
8.
Homer—The Odyssey
|
50.
Jean Racine
Racine's re-creations of classical Greek tragedy are deeply moving representations of psychological conflict. In this lecture, we study Phaedra, an example of Racine's elegant simplicity of style and form.
50.
Jean Racine
|
9.
Sappho and Pindar
This lecture considers the development of Greek lyric poetry, taking Sappho and Pindar as outstanding examples—Sappho for her exquisite love poetry and Pindar for his victory odes commemorating athletic competitions.
9.
Sappho and Pindar
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51.
Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz
What kind of life could an intellectual woman live in the 17th and 18th centuries? We study Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz, a Mexican nun, composer, poetess, dramatist, philosopher, and feminist.
51.
Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz
|
10.
Aeschylus
From speculation on the origin of Greek tragedy, we move to Aeschylus, the first of the three great Athenian tragedians. We focus on his trilogy The Oresteia, discussing how he used myth to reflect on social issues of the day.
10.
Aeschylus
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52.
Daniel Defoe
Defoe exploited the public's appetite for new stories, publishing narratives about the sexual and commercial entrepreneurs of London, such as Moll Flanders, Roxana, and that essential guide to empire building, Robinson Crusoe.
52.
Daniel Defoe
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11.
Sophocles
Sophocles wrote 123 plays; only seven survive. We concentrate on the play Ajax. The absence of the gods makes Sophocles's work in some ways the most realistic of the three tragedians.
11.
Sophocles
|
53.
Alexander Pope
This lecture focuses on two of Pope's works: An Essay on Criticism and The Rape of the Lock. The first is a poetic essay asserting the values of Neoclassical culture. The second is a mock-epic satire on Pope's social circle.
53.
Alexander Pope
|
12.
Euripides
This lecture discusses how Euripides differs from Aeschylus and Sophocles. In particular, we focus on Euripides's unorthodox treatment of the gods, especially in The Bacchae and Hippolytus.
12.
Euripides
|
54.
Jonathan Swift
We use Swift's Gulliver's Travels and The Modest Proposal to analyze the "other" side of Neoclassical thought: the extremism produced by the single-minded pursuit of reason untempered by compassion.
54.
Jonathan Swift
|
13.
Herodotus
The first great prose narrative in Western literature is the Histories by Herodotus, which describe the Persian invasions of Greece in the 5th century B.C. Professor Vandiver explains the nature and significance of this work.
13.
Herodotus
|
55.
Voltaire
Voltaire's work spans the spectrum of literary genres, from drama and satire to history and philosophy. We examine his satirical masterpiece Candide for its use of wit to expose the self-deceiving dogma of philosophical optimism.
55.
Voltaire
|
14.
Thucydides
Many scholars see Thucydides rather than Herodotus as the true father of history. This lecture examines Thucydides's Peloponnesian Wars and looks at the key differences between his methodology and that of Herodotus.
14.
Thucydides
|
56.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
We study several of Rousseau's works, including The Discourse on Inequality and The Social Contract, both of which played an inspirational role in the French and American revolutions.
56.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
|
15.
Aristophanes
Aristophanes is the only 5th-century comic playwright whose work has in part survived. This lecture pays particular attention to two plays, Clouds and Frogs, that satirize philosophers and tragedians respectively.
15.
Aristophanes
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57.
Samuel Johnson
Johnson wrote widely and prolifically. We look at "The Vanity of Human Wishes" as an example of his poetry. Then we examine some of his essays from "The Rambler" and "The Idler," as well as his "Life of Pope."
57.
Samuel Johnson
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16.
Plato
This lecture offers an overview of Plato by concentrating on one work, The Republic, and its treatment of literature and poetry. Among other issues, we consider why Plato banishes poets from his ideal state.
16.
Plato
|
58.
Denis Diderot
Diderot spent 20 years writing and soliciting articles for his Encyclopedia, the creation of which was arguably the defining intellectual event of the 18th century. We explore some of the articles and investigate another of his works, Rameau's Nephew.
58.
Denis Diderot
|
17.
Menander and Hellenistic Literature
Menander wrote a new style of comedy that took its subject matter from the troubles of everyday people. After discussing his plays, we consider other writers from the Hellenistic age and their influence on later Roman authors.
17.
Menander and Hellenistic Literature
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59.
William Blake
For Blake, the Enlightenment heralded a progressive loss of meaning in the world. We study his deceptively simple and deeply ironic poems, "Songs of Innocence" and "Experience."
59.
William Blake
|
18.
Catullus and Horace
We begin with a brief summary of Rome's cultural borrowings from Greece, and then examine two Roman lyric poets, Catullus and Horace, who used Greek models to transform the poetic possibilities of Latin.
18.
Catullus and Horace
|
60.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Born at the height of the Enlightenment, Goethe symbolizes the transition to Romanticism. We concentrate on his Faust as a way to understand the philosophical and aesthetic concerns of the time.
60.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
|
19.
Virgil
Inspired by the Iliad and the Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid went on to become one of the most influential texts in Western culture. This lecture examines how Virgil infused his epic with a psychological complexity beyond that of Homer.
19.
Virgil
|
61.
William Wordsworth
Professor Heffernan opens this part of the course by briefly treating Wordsworth's autobiographical epic, The Prelude. Then he examines at length Wordsworth's first major poem, "Tintern Abbey."
61.
William Wordsworth
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20.
Ovid
Ovid's most important work is the Metamorphoses, which features stories linked as much by themes of love, desire, and sexual passion as by the stated subject of "bodies changed into other forms."
20.
Ovid
|
62.
Jane Austen
In Pride and Prejudice, Austen makes the traditional fairy-tale romance fit the socioeconomic facts of life in early 19th-century England, but nonetheless contrives a fairy-tale ending.
62.
Jane Austen
|
21.
Livy, Tacitus, Plutarch
The Roman historians Livy and Tacitus reflect the contrasting styles of their Greek predecessors Herodotus and Thucydides. We also study the immensely influential Roman biographer Plutarch, who wrote in Greek.
21.
Livy, Tacitus, Plutarch
|
63.
Stendhal
In Stendhal's Red and Black, the hero is obsessed with the memory of Napoleon's glory, yet impelled to gratify his ambition by social rather than military triumphs. One conquest ultimately leads to disaster.
63.
Stendhal
|
22.
Petronius and Apuleius
This lecture considers the development of the ancient novel, exemplified by the two remarkable extant Roman novels, the fragmentary Satyricon of Petronius and the Metamorphoses of Apuleius.
22.
Petronius and Apuleius
|
64.
Herman Melville
When Melville started writing Moby-Dick at age 30, he was already well known for his novels about sea life. In telling the tale of a maimed sea captain obsessed with revenge on a great white whale, he brings to modern fiction the mythic power of ancient epic.
64.
Herman Melville
|
23.
The Gospels
We examine the four Gospels of the New Testament, whose importance to Western culture cannot be overestimated. As literary works, they pioneered the presentation of common people as subjects for serious rather than comic writing.
23.
The Gospels
|
65.
Walt Whitman
In "Song of Myself," Whitman inaugurates the reign of free verse in American poetry and re-conceives the tradition of autobiographical writing reaching back to Rousseau's Confessions.
65.
Walt Whitman
|
24.
Augustine
We consider Augustine as both one of the last great writers of Roman antiquity and one of the first great writers of Christianity, concentrating on his powerful works Confessions and the City of God.
24.
Augustine
|
66.
Gustave Flaubert
In writing Madame Bovary, Flaubert struggled to make his prose as poetic as possible while realistically depicting the commonplace life of a bourgeois adulteress.
66.
Gustave Flaubert
|
25.
Beowulf
After introducing this part of the course, Professor Noble begins his study of medieval literature with Beowulf, a stirring tale of monsters and dragons that in our own era inspired the themes and stories of J. R. R. Tolkien.
25.
Beowulf
|
67.
Charles Dickens
In Great Expectations, Dickens transforms the familiar story of the foundling. Narrator Pip is an abused orphan whose innate gentility is "recognized" and nurtured by a mysterious benefactor, but his dream of wealth and marriage to the beautiful Estella becomes a nightmare of frustrated expectations.
67.
Charles Dickens
|
26.
The Song of Roland
French literature emerges with stunning rapidity in The Song of Roland, an epic tale of Christians versus Muslims that is the earliest and perhaps finest of the genre called chansons de geste, stories about great exploits.
26.
The Song of Roland
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68.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment tells the story of a man who believes that his exemption from moral law gives him the right to murder an old woman for her money. In the end, however, he accepts and even wills his own punishment.
68.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
|
27.
El Cid
Probably composed between 1201 and 1207, El Cid is the oldest epic in Spanish. The poet creates a new epic hero who is a more complete and believable character than either Beowulf or Roland.
27.
El Cid
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69.
Leo Tolstoy
Anna Karenina, Tolstoy's psychologically complex novel of domestic life, shows why a socially distinguished woman who has left her unfeeling husband for a dashing and devoted Count takes her own life.
69.
Leo Tolstoy
|
28.
Tristan and Isolt
In this lecture, we study the origins of romance. We turn to the greatest of the German romances, Tristan and Isolt, which immerses us in the Arthurian world of quests, courtly love, mistaken identity, and enchantment.
28.
Tristan and Isolt
|
70.
Mark Twain
Like Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn tells the story of a boy's adventure, but this time Twain fuses the adventure with the history of the struggle to break the chain of slavery in America, and dramatizes the conflict between Northern and Southern morality.
70.
Mark Twain
|
29.
The Romance of the Rose
Though long, complex, and difficult, The Romance of the Rose enjoyed unprecedented popularity in the Middle Ages. In this lecture, we unravel its sustained allegory "in which the entire art of love is contained."
29.
The Romance of the Rose
|
71.
Thomas Hardy
In Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Hardy challenges us to see how a "pure" woman can remain so while losing her virginity to a seducer, living with him as his mistress, and ultimately killing him.
71.
Thomas Hardy
|
30.
Dante Alighieri—Life and Works
The first of two lectures on Dante considers his life and some of his "minor" works, including La vita nuova, which narrates his love for Beatrice. Also covered are Convivio, De volgari eloquentia, and De monarchia.
30.
Dante Alighieri—Life and Works
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72.
Oscar Wilde
Wilde's wittiest play, The Importance of Being Earnest, dramatizes the varieties of suspense in courtship and resolves them in the end with a brilliant pun. A British law against homosexuality turned the ending of Wilde's own life into a tragedy.
72.
Oscar Wilde
|
31.
Dante Alighieri—The Divine Comedy
We discuss different aspects of The Divine Comedy, which comprises the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, especially noting Dante's growing wisdom as he moves from the hideous visage of Satan to the ineffable face of God.
31.
Dante Alighieri—The Divine Comedy
|
73.
Henry James
James wrote a series of novels that chiefly aim to dramatize the interaction of American energy and innocence with the sophisticated but often
73.
Henry James
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32.
Petrarch
Petrarch is sometimes called the "Father of the Renaissance." We examine his letters, My Secret Book, and beautiful lyric poems called the Canzoniere. A central theme is his attempt to reconcile Humanism and Christianity.
32.
Petrarch
|
74.
Joseph Conrad
In Heart of Darkness, based on his experience in the Congo, Conrad reveals the insane rapacity of European traders bent on "civilizing" the African natives whom they exploit.
74.
Joseph Conrad
|
33.
Giovanni Boccaccio
After reviewing Boccaccio's early Italian writings and his Latin works based on classical literature, we turn to his prose masterpiece The Decameron, 100 short stories told by 10 fashionable young people taking refuge from the plague.
33.
Giovanni Boccaccio
|
75.
William Butler Yeats
Yeats's early poems seek to reconfirm "the ancient supremacy of the imagination." In his late work, he became a visionary struggling to make order out of the "mere anarchy" war had loosed upon the world.
75.
William Butler Yeats
|
34.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
We study the celebrated poem in which a hideous Green Knight appears at Arthur's Camelot at Christmas and offers to let anyone cut off his head who will, one year hence, consent to the same fate. Gawain accepts the challenge.
34.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
|
76.
Marcel Proust
In Proust's oceanic novel, In Search of Lost Time, the narrator explores childhood memories awakened by the taste of pastry dipped in tea. In a rich tradition of autobiographical narrative, Proust paints an extraordinarily complex picture of social life in France at the turn of the 19th century.
76.
Marcel Proust
|
35.
Geoffrey Chaucer—Life and Works
The first of two lectures on Chaucer sets his life in context, discusses the many influences that affected him, and analyzes The Book of the Duchess, The Parliament of Fowls, and the exquisite Troilus and Criseyde.
35.
Geoffrey Chaucer—Life and Works
|
77.
James Joyce
In his autobiographical first novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce creates one of the three leading characters of his later novel, Ulysses. By tracing the life of Stephen Dedalus—his fictional self—from infancy to early manhood, Joyce reveals the genesis of his own art.
77.
James Joyce
|
36.
Geoffrey Chaucer—The Canterbury Tales
In The Canterbury Tales, we meet almost every kind and class of person in medieval England. To form a sense of Chaucer's art, this lecture considers the "General Prologue" and then several types of tales.
36.
Geoffrey Chaucer—The Canterbury Tales
|
78.
Franz Kafka
In The Trial, a respectable banker is arrested for no reason, subjected to endless delays by an incomprehensible legal system, and executed without being tried. Josef exemplifies the Modernist focus on the isolated self, cut off from all traditional sources of support—emotional, institutional, legal, moral, or spiritual.
78.
Franz Kafka
|
37.
Christine de Pizan
Professor Herzman begins his exploration of Renaissance literature with Christine de Pizan, believed to be the first European woman to earn her living as a writer. We focus on The Book of the City of Ladies.
37.
Christine de Pizan
|
79.
Virginia Woolf
Woolf produced a remarkable body of fiction, essays, and criticism. In Mrs. Dalloway, she tells the story of a single day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a prominent London hostess giving an elegant party.
79.
Virginia Woolf
|
38.
Erasmus
We study the great Dutch humanist scholar Erasmus, focusing on his satirical Praise of Folly. Erasmus uses Folly to criticize corruption in Christianity and show the way to live a proper Christian life.
38.
Erasmus
|
80.
William Faulkner
By turns grotesque, tragic, and comic, Faulkner's As I Lay Dying tells the story of a family taking a corpse to a burial ground on a journey menaced by fire and flood. It is narrated from 15 points of view.
80.
William Faulkner
|
39.
Thomas More
Executed by order of Henry VIII, Thomas More was a high government official and humanist scholar. His best-known work is Utopia, which coined the term "utopia" and served as a powerful critique of contemporary society.
39.
Thomas More
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81.
Bertolt Brecht
At the outset of World War II, Brecht wrote the sympathetic Mother Courage to dramatize the effect of the Thirty Years' War in 17th-century Europe. An unmarried mother of three sons and a brain-damaged daughter makes her living off the war from a wagon she hauls herself.
81.
Bertolt Brecht
|
40.
Michel de Montaigne
In his ceaseless attempt to understand himself and thereby the human condition, Montaigne invented a new literary form—the essay. We concentrate on his essay titled "On the Education of Children."
40.
Michel de Montaigne
|
82.
Albert Camus
In The Plague, which he wrote during World War II, Camus narrates a doctor's struggle against bubonic plague. The novel may be read as symbolizing the seemingly inexorable recurrence of war. Exemplifying the dogged faith of his landmark essay, The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus' doctor strives to heal in the face of futility.
82.
Albert Camus
|
41.
François Rabelais
Imbued with humanist philosophy, Rabelais' great work Gargantua and Pantagruel combines comedy, satire, obscenity, fantasy, farce, parody, and politics. Fittingly, ribald exuberance has a name: "Rabelaisian."
41.
François Rabelais
|
83.
Samuel Beckett
In Waiting for Godot, a play with no action in the conventional sense, Beckett depicts the human condition as one of interminable waiting for something that never comes.
83.
Samuel Beckett
|
42.
Christopher Marlowe
Born the same year as Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe died young and is one of the great "what-ifs" of literature. He left us seven superb plays. We look in particular at Dr. Faustus.
42.
Christopher Marlowe
|
84.
Conclusion
Looking back on 3,000 years of literary history, is there a way to make sense of it all? This lecture shows how literature treats war, love, and humankind's relation to God in three basic literary forms: lyric, narrative, and drama.
84.
Conclusion
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24
Lectures
30
minutes/lecture
1.
A Sequence of Words
Building great sentences depends on more than just stringing words together. This lecture explores the definition of a sentence and introduces several assumptions on which the course rests, such as that a greater control of syntax is one of the most direct routes to improving writing.
1.
A Sequence of Words
|
13.
The Riddle of Prose Rhythm
Follow along with scholars and critics as they try to study, measure, and explain the mystery of prose rhythm. Learn to better recognize the distinctive rhythms that characterize your sentences by imagining their modifying levels as long or short bits of Morse code.
13.
The Riddle of Prose Rhythm
|
2.
Grammar and Rhetoric
Examine some of the key terminology used throughout the course and focus on learning how sentences work (their rhetoric) instead of merely labeling their constituent parts (their grammar).
2.
Grammar and Rhetoric
|
14.
Cumulative Syntax to Create Suspense
Learn to start thinking about sentences as not just "loose" or "periodic" but as possessing degrees of suspense. Base clauses in a cumulative sentence can be moved about or split to increase or decrease the reader's suspense about how the sentence will end.
14.
Cumulative Syntax to Create Suspense
|
3.
Propositions and Meaning
A sentence may contain more propositions than are visible in the grammar and syntax of its surface language. Discover how the facts, ideas, and feelings in a sentence lie beneath its words and organization.
3.
Propositions and Meaning
|
15.
Degrees of Suspensiveness
In this lecture, you unpack the periodic/suspensive sentence, which suggests a greater degree of control over its material and, when used effectively, can generate interest by combining complex concepts with syntactical suspense.
15.
Degrees of Suspensiveness
|
4.
How Sentences Grow
Adding propositional content to a kernel sentence ("They slept.") moves sentences forward and enriches their meaning. Here are three types of strategies that give sentences more momentum and depth: the connective, the subordinative, and the adjectival.
4.
How Sentences Grow
|
16.
The Mechanics of Delay
Look closely at four broad tactics to delay completing the base clause, two of which involve the manipulation of modifiers and two of which use initial clauses or phrases as either extended subjects or as modifiers. You also consider a possible fifth tactic that involves using a colon or semicolon.
16.
The Mechanics of Delay
|
5.
Adjectival Steps
Professor Landon makes the case for using adjectival strategies to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your sentences. Boiling down subordinate clauses to single modifying words allows you to pack more information into each sentence.
5.
Adjectival Steps
|
17.
Prefab Patterns for Suspense
Another option for adding suspense to sentences is starting them with certain prompts such as "if" or "since." This lecture illustrates the uses of these and other prompts and considers some reasons for making suspense a critical part of your prose style.
17.
Prefab Patterns for Suspense
|
6.
The Rhythm of Cumulative Syntax
Cumulative sentences lend themselves to writing moves that almost guarantee more effective sentences. Learn how these easy-to-write sentences take you through increasingly specific sentence levels and how they clarify and embellish preceding phrases.
6.
The Rhythm of Cumulative Syntax
|
18.
Balanced Sentences and Balanced Forms
Perhaps the most intense form of the periodic/suspensive sentence is the balanced sentence. Professor Landon points out that balanced sentences, in drawing their strength from the tension between variation and repetition, offer an advantage to writers comparing two subjects.
18.
Balanced Sentences and Balanced Forms
|
7.
Direction of Modification
Cumulative sentences also employ modifying words and phrases before, between, or at the end of base clauses. Investigate the benefits and potential risks of each of these placement options on the meaning of your sentences.
7.
Direction of Modification
|
19.
The Rhythm of Twos
Binary oppositions in balanced sentences lend confidence and conclusiveness to writing. With its mirroring effect, the duple (double-beat) rhythm gives balanced sentences the power to stay lodged in your mind.
19.
The Rhythm of Twos
|
8.
Coordinate, Subordinate, and Mixed Patterns
With your newfound understanding of the relationship between base clauses and modifying phrases, you examine the three major patterns of cumulative sentences and their effect on the base clause: coordinate (refining information), subordinate (providing new information), and mixed (combining the previous two patterns).
8.
Coordinate, Subordinate, and Mixed Patterns
|
20.
The Rhythm of Threes
Three-part series bring an extended balance to sentences through the buildup of elements in threes. Delve into the unity, progression, and intensification at the heart of this syntactical form.
20.
The Rhythm of Threes
|
9.
Coordinate Cumulative Sentences
This lecture elaborates on coordinate cumulative patterns, which pile up modifying phrases that point back to the base clause. It also emphasizes the importance of listening to how your sentences read as a means of tightening up their logic.
9.
Coordinate Cumulative Sentences
|
21.
Balanced Series and Serial Balances
Sentence balance is an extension of the organizational constructs of human consciousness. Explore the prevalence of balanced rhythm in our speech and writing and look at numerous examples of sentence balance.
21.
Balanced Series and Serial Balances
|
10.
Subordinate and Mixed Cumulatives
Continuing the discussion of various cumulative sentence patterns, Professor Landon zeroes in on subordinate and mixed patterns, which offer more variety to sentences by adding specificity or tapping into the strengths of both coordinate and subordinate patterns.
10.
Subordinate and Mixed Cumulatives
|
22.
Master Sentences
The opposite of the minimal base clause is the master sentence: a very long sentence that can function in remarkably original and controlled ways. While no formula can anticipate the context and purpose of master sentences, you can construct effective ones by combining a number of the strategies from earlier lectures.
22.
Master Sentences
|
11.
Prompts of Comparison
Prompts like "as if," "as though," and "like" can prompt writers to look for metaphors, similes, or speculative phrases that add information, clarification, and imaginative appeal to sentences. Learn how writers forge emotional links with their readers by incorporating figurative language into their writing.
11.
Prompts of Comparison
|
23.
Sentences in Sequence
Move beyond the sentence and on to the impact of several sentences in sequence and see new possibilities of resonance and relationship among their rhythms and structures.
23.
Sentences in Sequence
|
12.
Prompts of Explanation
Prompts can also speculate about the unknown. Examine three major prompts—"because," "perhaps," and "possibly"—to use in your sentences, so you can reveal more of your thinking and strengthen the connection between you and your readers.
12.
Prompts of Explanation
|
24.
Sentences and Prose Style
How do our sentences fit into prose style? In exploring critical approaches to this issue, Professor Landon emphasizes that prose style can be seen as both a problem and a gift passed on from writer to writer.
24.
Sentences and Prose Style
|