The Global Village Of The Twentieth Century

It is the most curious thing I ever saw in all my life! exclaimed Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, as she watched the Cheshire Cat slowly disappear leaving only the outline of a broad smile. A student encountering an ancient Greek epic, an African mask, or a Mozart opera-lacking any context for understanding these works-might be equally baffled. It may be helpful, therefore, to begin by explaining how the individual products of the humanistic tradition relate to the larger and more elusive phenomenon of human culture.