Ancient Classical Literature and Sifrut Chazal

There is evident discourse and many interrelationships and between Rabbinic literature and the literature of ancient Greece and Rome. The Department of Comparative Literature offers a variety of courses that explore the reciprocity between these two cultures that have evolved side-by-side for hundreds of years. In these courses, you will discover the ancient origins, Jewish and non-Jewish, of modern and current aesthetic conceptions and obtain a solid knowledge of the philosophy behind Western and European culture. Structuralism, deconstruction, reception theory, critical theory—these, and many other research tools, enable us to explore and compare the Greek philosophy and myths to those in the Talmud and Midrash, point out motifs and the moral dilemmas that concerned both Chazal and the classical thinkers, and follow motif metamorphosis from the ancient world through the Middle Ages to modern time in philosophy, poetry, and theater.