Enduring Texts: Non-Western Texts

An ancient Mesopatamian text regarded as the oldest surviving written literary epic. The epic deals with heroic and religious themes, and is often considered a prototype for themes and archetypes present in later sagas.

Primary Discipline: Literature
Secondary Discipline(s): History, Anthropology

The sacred teachings of Hinduism as preached by Lord Krishna (in Hindi poetic form with Sanskrit verse).

Primary Discipline: History
Secondary Discipline(s): Religon

Easwaran's best-selling translation of the ancient wisdom texts called the Upanishads is reliable, readable, and profound.In the Upanishads, illumined sages share flashes of insight, the results of their investigation into consciousness itself.In extraordinary visions, they experience directly a transcendent Reality which is the essence, or Self, of each created being. They teach that each of us, each Self, is eternal, deathless, one with the power that created the universe.Easwaran's best-selling translation of selections taken from the principal Upanishads and five others is reliable and accessible. It includes an overview of the cultural and historical setting, with chapter introductions, notes, and a Sanskrit glossary. But it is Easwaran's understanding of the wisdom of the Upanishads, and their relevance to the modern reader, that makes this edition truly outstanding.Each sage, each Upanishad, appeals in different ways to the reader's head and heart. As Easwaran writes, “The Upanishads belong not just to Hinduism. They are India's most precious legacy to humanity, and in that spirit they are offered here.

Primary Discipline: Philosophy

Jataka, (Pali and Sanskrit: “Birth”) any of the extremely popular stories of former lives of the Buddha, which are preserved in all branches of Buddhism. Each tale begins by noting the occasion that prompted its telling and ends with the Buddha identifying the lives of the people in the introductory story with those of people from the past. There is humour in these stories and considerable variety. The future Buddha may appear in them as a king, an outcast, a god, an elephant—but, in whatever form, he exhibits some virtue that the tale thereby inculcates.

Primary Discipline: History
Secondary Discipline(s): Religon

Qurʾān, (Arabic: “Recitation”) also spelled Quran and Koran, the sacred scripture of Islam. According to conventional Islamic belief, the Qurʾān was revealed by the angel Gabriel to the Prophet Muhammad in the West Arabian towns Mecca and Medina beginning in 610 and ending with Muhammad’s death in 632 ce.

Primary Discipline: Religion
Secondary Discipline(s): Philosophy, Literature, History
Non-Western Text

The Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address are the “words that come before all others.” The address is spoken at the opening and closing of governmental and ceremonial gatherings held by the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee (Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas, and Tuscaroras). The Thanksgiving Address acknowledges the people, earth, waters, plants, animals, birds, bushes, trees, winds, sun, moon, stars, as well as the unseen spiritual forces. The address draws attention to the many connections between human beings and other living beings in the world, expresses thankfulness of what nature provides, and acknowledges the ongoing impact of these forces on human lives.

Primary Discipline: History
Secondary Discipline(s): Philosophy, Environmental Conservation, Ecology, Native American Studies

The Great Law of Peace provides the foundation for the traditional government of the Haudenosaunee, and constituted by the original Five Nations of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, with the Tuscarora later joining as the Sixth Nation. Onondaga Nation still follows the traditional structure. The Great Law reads as part historical narrative, part governmental framework, with overlays of metaphysics in the message of the Peacemaker. It talks about the responsibilities, obligations, and powers of the chiefs and clan mothers, with a strong emphasis on community health and good authority.

Primary Discipline: History
Secondary Discipline(s): Political Science, Philosophy, Anthropology, Native American Studies
Non-Western Text

Drafted during a period of intensive fasting and “in-dwelling” at his ashram in Ahmedebad, his story of the soul portrayed the deeper, more inward experiences that made him externally an innovator in the struggles against violence, racism, and colonialism.

Primary Discipline: Autobiography
Secondary Discipline(s): History, Philosophy

A philosophical and spiritual text attributed to Lao Tzu that emphasizes the importance of living in harmony with the Tao, a natural force that underlies and governs the universe, through cultivating qualities such as humility, simplicity, and non-action (wu-wei) to achieve a state of inner peace and transcendence.

Primary Discipline: Philosophy

The pen would smoothly write the things it knew But when it came to love it split in two, A donkey stuck in mud is logic's fate - Love's nature only love can demonstrate.'Rumi's Masnavi is widely recognized as the greatest Sufi poem ever written, and has been called'the Koran in Persian'. The thirteenth-century Muslim mystic Rumi composed his work for the benefit of his disciples in the Sufi order named after him, better known as the whirling dervishes. In order to convey his message of divine love and unity he threaded together entertaining stories and penetrating homilies. Drawing from folk tales as well as sacred history, Rumi's poem is often funny as well as spiritually profound. Jawid Mojaddedi's sparkling new verse translation of Book One is consistent with the aims of the original work in presenting Rumi's most mature mystical teachings in simple and attractive rhyming couplets.

Primary Discipline: Poetry

The pen would smoothly write the things it knew But when it came to love it split in two, A donkey stuck in mud is logic's fate - Love's nature only love can demonstrate.'Rumi's Masnavi is widely recognized as the greatest Sufi poem ever written, and has been called'the Koran in Persian'. The thirteenth-century Muslim mystic Rumi composed his work for the benefit of his disciples in the Sufi order named after him, better known as the whirling dervishes. In order to convey his message of divine love and unity he threaded together entertaining stories and penetrating homilies. Drawing from folk tales as well as sacred history, Rumi's poem is often funny as well as spiritually profound. Jawid Mojaddedi's sparkling new verse translation of Book One is consistent with the aims of the original work in presenting Rumi's most mature mystical teachings in simple and attractive rhyming couplets.

Primary Discipline: Poetry

Chinua Achebe, in full Albert Chinualumogu Achebe, (born November 16, 1930, Ogidi, Nigeria—died March 21, 2013, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.), Nigerian novelist acclaimed for his unsentimental depictions of the social and psychological disorientation accompanying the imposition of Western customs and values upon traditional African society. His particular concern was with emergent Africa at its moments of crisis; his novels range in subject matter from the first contact of an African village with the white man to the educated African’s attempt to create a firm moral order out of the changing values in a large city.

Primary Discipline: Literature
Secondary Discipline(s): African Studies

Rooted in Gloria Anzaldúa's experience as a Chicana, a lesbian, an activist, and a writer, the essays and poems in this volume profoundly challenged, and continue to challenge, how we think about identity. Borderlands / La Frontera remaps our understanding of what a "border" is, presenting it not as a simple divide between here and there, us and them, but as a psychic, social, and cultural terrain that we inhabit, and that inhabits all of us. This twenty-fifth anniversary edition features a new introduction by scholars Norma Cantu (University of Texas at San Antonio) and Aida Hurtado (University of California at Santa Cruz) as well as a revised critical bibliography.

Primary Discipline: Autobiography
Secondary Discipline(s): Cultural Studies, Linguistics

Also available here: http://users.uoa.gr/~cdokou/TheoryCriticismTexts/Anzaldua-borderlands-la-frontera.pdf