NEH Enduring Questions Course on Ancient and Modern Meanings of Fame

FAIN: AQ-228910-15

College of New Jersey (Ewing, NJ 08628-0718)
David Haven Blake (Project Director: September 2014 to August 2017)

The development and teaching of a new mid-level undergraduate course exploring the meaning of fame from the ancient world through the Enlightenment.

From Homer to St. Augustine to Shakespeare, writers and thinkers have grappled with the question "What is the Meaning of Fame?" Part of the NEH's Enduring Questions program, this course explores the history and literature of fame as it occurred before the advent of mechanical and digital reproduction. Tracing the response of the ancient Hebrews and Greeks, of the Romans and early Christians, and of the great thinkers and artists of the Renaissance and Enlightenment, it demonstrates how fame provoked deeply moral and philosophical questions about vanity, honor, virtue, and mortality.