The Classical Origins of Western Culture
The Core Studies 1 Study Guide
by Roger Dunkle
Brooklyn College Core Curriculum Series
Copyright © 1986 by Brooklyn College, The City University of New York
All rights reserved. Published 1986.
HOW TO USE THE STUDY GUIDE FOR CORE STUDIES 1
The "Exercises for Reading Comprehension and Interpretation" form the most
important part of the study guide. One of the aims of Core Studies 1 is
to teach you to read literary texts with understanding. The questions contained
in these exercises are designed to focus your attention on the literary
texts by leading you step by step through them. A good method would be
to read a portion of the assignment and then stop to see if you can answer
the relevant questions in the exercises. Continue with this procedure to
the end of the assignment. You might be able to answer some questions easily;
others might be more difficult. Some might stump you completely, but in
that case you should ask your instructor about them. This process requires
a fair amount of effort, but it is very valuable for learning and much
more profitable than using the plot summaries given in review books. If
you fell you must use review books, be sure never to use them as a substitute
for the assigned text. Reading a plot summary of a literary work is not
the same as reading the work itself.
In addition to the exercises, this guide provides a considerable amount
of supplemental information intended to enrich your understanding of the
literary texts. For example, in the unit on the Iliad, preceding
the exercise in Book 1, there are sections on genre, reading the Iliad,
the heroic code, and the gods. These could be read either before or after
doing the exercise. The best practice would be to read them before doing
the exercise and then again afterwards. The first reading of these sections
would put you on alert for significant ideas in the text, and the second
reading would be even more meaningful because of your acquaintance with
the text. The background narratives that are not part of a unit on a literary
work (for example, "Philosophical Background of the Fifth Century B.C.")
should be read in conjunction with the study of whatever work immediately
follows it in the guide, unless you are told otherwise by your instructor.
Be sure also to take advantage of the sections at the end of this guide:
Writing a Core Studies 1 Paper and the Glossary. The latter is a handy
alphabetical listing that includes not only important terms with their
definitions, but also significant characters, events, and places with their
identifications.
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