Slav singers of heroic tales about war, lust, honour and revenge have made a special contribution to our appreciation of classical literature and mythology. We will compare Slavic epics and African-American rap songs to reveal the connection between Homer's Iliad and Nas's iconic Illmatic, between the mythical image of the pagan goddess Aphrodite and the mystique of Nicki Minaj, Lauryn Hill, and other iconic singers today. As we read The Iliad closely, we will study songs from the Russian, Bosnian Muslim, Croatian and Serbian traditions. Employing new performance formulaic theory, we will learn that they share much, in melody and message, with the work of today's hip-hop artists, whose roots of rap "flowing" reach back to the beginnings of Western literature and the epic singers of ancient Greece. Students will have the opportunity to interact with a unique online multimedia edition of an epic song by a traditional Slavic singer. No knowledge of languages other than English is required.
Slav singers of heroic tales about war, lust, honour and revenge have made a special contribution to our appreciation of classical literature and mythology. We will compare Slavic epics and African-American rap songs to reveal the connection between Homer's Iliad and Nas's iconic Illmatic, between the mythical image of the pagan goddess Aphrodite and the mystique of Nicki Minaj, Lauryn Hill, and other iconic singers today. As we read The Iliad closely, we will study songs from the Russian, Bosnian Muslim, Croatian and Serbian traditions. Employing new performance formulaic theory, we will learn that they share much, in melody and message, with the work of today's hip-hop artists, whose roots of rap "flowing" reach back to the beginnings of Western literature and the epic singers of ancient Greece. Students will have the opportunity to interact with a unique online multimedia edition of an epic song by a traditional Slavic singer. No knowledge of languages other than English is required.
