122. Myth, Legend, and Folklore (Staff )

Traditional cultures (indeed, all cultures) have stories, images, foods, clothes, sayings, music, dance, etiquettes, and other folkways that define them to themselves and to others. This introduction to folklore surveys gods, humans, animals, and even plants in the world of the Greeks and Romans, and other cultures, sometimes including Mesopotamian, Hebrew, Slavic, Scandinavian, African, African American, and American Indian. Topics include epic and comic heroes and monsters, tricksters and fools, creation, extinction (millennialism), and social hierarchies (by gender, class, race, etc.). Myth theory (for example, archetypes, psychoanalysis, and functionalism) may be included in particular sections. F, S.

Classical Mythology (Fratantuono)

A study of the classical hero (and heroine) in Greek and Roman mythology. Beginning with Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, we move on to three masterpieces of Greek tragedy: Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, Sophocles’ Ajax, and Euripides’ Trojan Women. The course concludes with a detailed study of Virgil’s Aeneid. Occasional text substitution or addition based on class interest, e.g., Sophocles’ Philoctetes, Euripides’ Hecuba, Ovid’s Metamorphoses. This class offers a comprehensive introduction to the classics, a fine gateway to the major in classics, and wonderful opportunity for anyone interested in the ancient Greeks and Romans to learn more about the timeless tales that constitute the very foundations of western civilization.

European & Arabian Tales 12c-17c (Lovell)

In this course, we shall study post-classical, mainly European tales in English translation whose origins comprise rich folkloric traditions. Manifestations of the “story” form, major topics such as love, justice, conflict and the supernatural, as well as a range of interpretative approaches will be considered. Do stories have a moral? How do stories originate? Are they the result of an individual mind, a collective tradition, or both? How are they situated with respect to elite and popular culture? Primary readings will include selections from Marie de France, Chrétien de Troyes, The Poem of the Cid, Boccaccio, Marguerite de Navarre, Molière and the Arabian Nights.

124. Love and Sexuality in Literature and the Arts (Staff )

An introduction to development and influences of divine, Platonic and ancient Indian, and sexual love in music, literature, and the visual arts from ancient Asian, Indian, Hebrew and Greek civilizations to the 20th Century. The works and artists considered may include Song of Solomon, Hesiod, Sappho, Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, The Kama Sutra, Plato’s Symposium, Catullus, Boccaccio’s Decameron, The Tale of Genji, Shakespeare, Freud, Lawrence, Michelangelo, Monet, Picasso, Foucault, Marguerite Duras and others. F, S.

127. Myth, Legend, and Folklore (Sokolsky)

Why do we read myths, legends, and folklore? Can you recall the lessons about life that you were supposed to cull from these stories? What about the tales that come from non-Western countries such as Japan, Korea, China, Morocco, and India? Are the underlying premises of myths, legends, and folklore of Asian and Arabic cultures the same as those of Western cultures? In this class, through assigned literary readings, we will travel to Japan, China, Korea, Morocco, Bali, India, and other places to see how people of these countries are shaped through they myths, legends, and folklore of their respective cultures. The goal of the class will be to see if there is a universal theme to all of these texts. Thus are we as human beings ultimately the same? Or are there cultural differences in the way people from different countries perceive the world? How do ideas of gender, class, and race get subtly transmitted in these tales? Moreover, we will look at how such stories get transmitted (oral versus written tradition). By studying the myths, legends, and folklore of other cultures, we will have a better understanding of how the worldviews of people who live in distant lands, as well as our own worldview, are shaped by supposed entertainment tales. Some of the readings and assignments will include: the Pansori of Korea, the storyboards of Palau, the puppet theatre of Bali, the Buddhist tales of Japan, China, and Korea, A Thousand and One Arabian Nights, and the famous Indian legend, The Ramayana.

190.5 Bad Girls: The Making of the Femme Fatale in Japanese Literature, Film, and Culture (Freshman Honors Tutorial) (Sokolsky)

The common stereotype of Japanese women is that they are demure and walk two steps behind their men. When women step out of this image, they are often labeled as “bad.” In this course, we will examine the construction of “bad women,” or femme fatales, in Japanese literature, film, and culture both past and present. Questions we will consider are how does “bad” get defined over time and by gender? Why is there even a need by society to have such a pejorative label used for women and not men? When men are “bad,” are the standards different? How does the notion of the “bad” Japanese woman compare with such a notion in other cultures? By examining works that portray such women by both male and female writers from Japan’s past and present in both the canons of literature and film, as well as more recent cultural materials, we will try to discern if there are any universals about the definition of “bad” and how this label reflects broader ideas about gender in Japanese culture as well as in other societies.

200.2 Epic and Anti-Epic (Lateiner)

Heroic epic traditions spawned imitations and counter-traditions. What does epic do for and to western societies, their classes, ages, and genders. Epic has distinctive approaches to time and space, life and the after-life, supernaturals, and humans. We examine the fluid boundaries of this nationshaping genre. Texts include Mesopotamian Gilgamesh, then Classical Greek Homer, Hellenistic Apollonios of Rhodes, the Roman revolutionaries Catullus, Virgil, and Ovid, and Anglo-Saxon Beowulf. F.

200.6 Modern Arabic Literature (Staff)

This course surveys the development of modern Arabic literature and the influence of Western literary genres. Poetic and prose selections, in English translation, will be read, examined and related to the historical, cultural, social, political, and economic contexts in which they were created. Themes such as the conflict between tradition and modernity, change of gender roles, alienation, orientalism/anti-colonialism, religion and politics, poverty and literacy, and construction of individual and national identity are treated. There will be a special focus on Arab women novelists and the construction of gendered relations: Arab women and feminism, patriarchy, civil war, sexuality, religion, and the West. The course attempts to provide the student with (1) an appreciation for the literary and intellectual challenge posed by Arabic in the panorama of world literature and (2) a critical insight into the major developments of the 20th century Arabic literature and its transitional cultural dilemmas and transformation.

200.8 Classical Arabic Literature in Translation (Staff)

The course is a historical survey of classical Arabic poetry and prose genres, their styles and literary conventions that developed between the 5th and 16th centuries. It examines texts in English translation with reference to the ways poetry and prose were recited and written down, sources of literary inspiration for various genres, and canons of traditional Arabic literary criticism.

Among the topics to be treated are heroic odes, Qur’anic, philosophical, aesthetic, and mystical narratives, fables, epistles, erotic tales, love lyrics, drama, and folkloric romances such as the Thousand and One Nights. Class discussion, based upon the readings and the questions and issues posed by the students, will be conducted and background lectures to provide historical and cultural contexts will be given.

222. Archaeology of Ancient Greece and Rome (Fratantuono, Lateiner)

The visible past, the material remains of vanished Mediterranean civilizations, excite the student and the tourist. The Greek polis and the Roman urbs organized labor, concentrated civic energies, and led to barely believable human monuments on the European, Near Eastern, and North African landscapes. Dwelling among such structures, grand and mean, decisively influenced the course of Western civilization. The history of archaeology, the classical landscape and cityscape, pots and temples, athletics and spectacles of violence, and trade and slavery provide some of the topics to be interpreted by stones, shards, coins, and testimonia. F.

226. Gender and Identity (Sokolsky)

What do words such as “male,” “female,” “man,” and “woman” mean? How do they affect our sense of ourselves? Judith Butler, a famous feminist, argues that “man” and “woman” are not just nouns, but also verbs, implying a performance of gender. There is also now an increased awareness of transgender, thus complicating the binary of male versus female. We will look at literature, film, and other art forms to see how concepts of gender have changed over time and place. Possible texts include Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland, Sandra Cisneros’ House on Mango Street, Mishima Yukio’s Forbidden Colors, Fatima Mernissi’s Beyond the Veil, and the Japanese pre-modern classic of gender bending, The Changelings.

227. Rites of Passage (Kent)

A study of the human life span with emphasis on the ways major authors from different nations treat the transitions from stage to stage: infancy, childhood, adolescence, a adulthood, old age. The primary goal of the course is to enable students, through study of selected novels, essays, dramas, short stories, and poetry, to deepen their understanding of human development and to sharpen their perceptions of their own lives—past, present, and future. In short, to help them “see life steadily and see it whole.” Readings will include Erikson’s Childhood and Society; Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus; Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard; Montaigne’s Essays; Schwarzbart’s Bridge of Beyond, and Roy’s The God of Small Things. S.

250. The Ancient Novel (Lateiner)

The world-view, fears, and fantasies of the Greeks and Romans. Prose fiction is the focus, but texts of similar tone and function will be read. Topics include romance, travel, freedom and slavery, divine interference in human affairs and chance, retreat from public life, and sexual identity. Texts include: Herodotus, Menander’s The Grouch, Theocritus’ Idylls, Petronius’ Satyricon, Heliodoros’ Ethiopian Tale, Longus’ Daphnis and Chloe, Apuleius’ Golden Ass. S.

251. Women in Antiquity (Fratantuono, Lateiner)

A historical survey of women’s lives and roles in Lesbos, Sparta, Athens, Alexandria, and Rome. Topics will include political, economic, legal, medical, religious, familial, and artistic questions. Contrasts between various communities and various periods will be examined. Useful evidence includes: archaeology, inscriptions; prose works of history, law, medicine, and philosophy; drama; poetry by and about women. Serves as a core requirement in Women’s and Gender Studies.

255. The Devil, the Hero, and God (Merkel)

The human image, or the hero, as it is related to exterior forces of good and evil; God as sustaining power against the Devil as destroyer. Works to be read include Homer’s Iliad, Virgil’s Aeneid, Job, Dante’s Inferno, Goethe’s Faust, and Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. S.

260. Public Life and Private Lives (Lovell)

Through selected readings in continental European literature ranging from Plato to the eighteenth century, this course will investigate tensions inherent in the opposing principles of public and private spheres, the individual and society, and work and leisure. Readings may include Plato’s Crito and Apology; Abelard, Historia calamitatum; Machiavelli, The Prince; excerpts from Montaigne and Rabelais; Madame de Lafayette, The Princess of Clèves; Molière, Tartuffe; Pascal, Pensées; Diderot; Laclos, Dangerous Liaisons.

265. Freedom and Constraint (Sokolsky)

An inter-disciplinary study of the theme and representations of freedom and constraint in literary, psychological, political and philosophical works from various cultures. The many connotations of freedom will be drawn out through an examination of social, political, historical and gendered contexts. Authors read may include Freud, Nietzsche, Fanon, Foucault, Wittig, and Cixous as well as memoirs and fiction related to ideas of freedom and its obverse, constraint.

280. Tragic Vision (Lovell)

In this course, we shall examine major developments in western tragic literature, primarily within drama, with emphasis on the parallels between ancient Greek models and later French works. What is tragedy, and why is it associated with wrenching emotions and intolerable situations? Tragedy’s range as a genre extends beyond the mere formula of the downfall of a fatally flawed heroic character: tragedy explores self-understanding, conflicts between reason and passion, fate and free will, dynamics of power, difficult choices, and unexpected consequences. Since plays generally are composed to be performed for an audience, we also shall consider tragedy as performance. Texts may include Aristotle’s Poetics, Sophocles’ Antigone, Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, Euripides’ Hippolytus, Racine’s Phèdre and Iphigénie, Corneille’s Le Cid, Shakespeare or Marlowe, Stendhal’s essay Racine and Shakespeare, Diderot’s Paradox on Acting (Paradoxe sur le comédien), and Anhouilh’s Antigone. All works will be studied in English.

285. Comic Vision (Lovell)

The dramatic genre of comedy developed in Europe in part to explore human foibles through irony, wit and mockery, whether gentle or deadly. Comedy can manifest as satire as well, and its serious side lurks beneath the banter. Humor in comic plays is contingent: usually it depends on culture, place and time. Thus the comic is relative; its universality tends to be ephemeral. Readings are drawn from the ancient Greek, French, Italian and English traditions. Within each work, we shall focus on social critique and resistance to conventions in their respective contexts. Readings may include Aristophanes, selections from Boccaccio and Chaucer, Shakespeare or Jonson, Machiavelli’s Mandragola, Molière’s The Misanthrope, Beaumarchais, Marivaux, Goldoni and Wilde. All works will be studied in English.

290. Rogue’s Progress: The Picaresque Experience (Merkel)

An exploration of the meanings and implications of the literary term picaresque, used generally to describe a narrative relating the episodic adventures of a rogue or anti-hero. Special attention is given to the picaresque hero or heroine. Works may include Lazarillo de Tormes, Don Quixote, Dostoevsky’s The Gambler, Mann’s Felix Krull, Ilf and Petrov’s The Twelve Chairs, Woody Allen’s Zelig, and Nabokov’s Lolita.

300.4 Great Books of Asia (Sokolsky)

In this course, we will probe both the term “great books” and “Asia.” During the first week of class, we will discuss the politics of canonization. Questions we will consider are: What makes a work of literature great? And who gets to decide? Then we will specifically look at famous literary texts from Asian countries. The term “Asia” is a complicated one. Sixty percent of the earth’s population lives on the Asian continent and some of the oldest civilizations of the world are part of Asia. Yet, people unfamiliar with the vastly different cultures of the numerous countries that fall under the heading of “Asia” often view it as a single cultural entity. One of the goals of this course will be to examine the diverse ways of thinking and expression of various Asian countries. S.

300.5 East Asian Film (Sokolsky)

Some scholars argue that film is the new literary form of the late 20th and early 21st century. This course will focus on films that are products of one of the most populous and economically powerful parts of the world – Asia. We will look at Asian film (specifically East Asian film) to see in what ways they are unique expressions of Asian ways of thinking and in what ways they are part of a more global world of film-making. First we will study film theory and learn how to critically watch a film. Then we will look at famous Asian films that have made a historic impact in the film world. Finally, we will look at current trends in Asian film, with particular emphasis on the way Asian films are influencing Hollywood. Works we will consider are: Akira Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai, Ang Lee’s Eat Drink Man Woman, Zhang Yimou’s Raise the Red Lantern and Hero, Chen Kaige’s Farewell My Concubine, Im Kwon-taek’s Sopyonge, as well as Japanese anime, and the recent trend in Japan that is affecting Hollywood films – Jhorror.

310. Literature and Thought of Ancient Greece (Lateiner)

An introduction to the major works of Greek literature and the Greek contribution to epic and lyric poetry, tragic and comic drama, historiography, and philosophy. Homer, Archilochus and Sappho, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, Aristophanes, Herodotus, Thucydides, and Plato constitute the basic texts. All works are read in English translation. Recommended: 122.

321. Literature and Thought of Ancient Rome, Part I: The Republic (Fratantuono)

A comprehensive study of the history and literature of Rome from the legends of the founding through the Battle of Actium in 31 B.C. Chronological survey of the Roman regal and republican periods, with special attention to the personalities and conflicts of the first century B.C. Authors read in English translation may include selections from Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita, assorted lives of Plutarch, Caesar (and Lucan’s) Bellum Civile, extensive excerpts from the works of Cicero, the poetry of Catullus and Lucretius, Sallust’s Bellum Iugurthinum, Virgil’s Eclogues and Georgics, Horace’s lyric poetry and selected satires, Propertius’ amatory elegies, a comedy or two of Plautus and/or Terence, and the remains of archaic Latin.

322. Literature and Thought of Ancient Rome, Part II: The Empire (Fratantuono)

A comprehensive study of the history and literature of ancient Rome from the Battle of Actium in 31 B.C. through the collapse of the western Roman Empire. Detailed examination of the nature of the imperial principate, with special attention to the personalities of the Roman emperors and the response of poets and historians to the madness around them. Authors read in English translation may include selections from the monumental histories of Tacitus, Dio Cassius on the reign of Augustus, Suetonius’ lives of the Caesars, some lives from the so-called Augustan history, Virgil’s Aeneid, extensive passages from the poetry of Ovid, satires of Juvenal, Petronius’ Satyricon, some works of Seneca and the two Plinys, Silver Latin epic and late historiography.

330. Medieval and Renaissance Thought (Lovell)

This course offers an introduction to Western European thought and literature of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Along with a consideration of our historically and culturally conditioned designations of the time period in question, we shall examine the emergence of spiritual and cultural ideals, humanism, the roles of women, constructions of the “other,” and the attempts to synthesize classical and Christian traditions. Among the authors considered are Boethius, Christine de Pizan, Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Montaigne, Erasmus, Luther, and Marlowe. F.

350. Reason and Romanticism (Merkel)

The course explores the notion of “cultural age” by examining literature, music, fashion, and philosophy during the Age of Enlightenment and the Romantic Rebellion. Students read Sterne’s Tristram Shandy, Voltaire’s Candide, Diderot’s Rameau’s Nephew, Goethe’s Sorrows of Young Werther, Catherine the Great’s Oh, These Times!, Lermontov’s A Hero of Our Time, Pushkin’s Tales of Belkin, Queen of Spades, and Captain’s Daughter. All continental books are read in English translation. F.

360. Great Books of the Nineteenth Century (Merkel) (Alternate years.)

Major literary works serve as an introduction to the century sometimes called the Age of Ideology and the Age of the Machine. Works of literature are presented in the context of the major cultural movements of the nineteenth century, such as Romanticism, Realism, Naturalism, and Symbolism. Students read Tolstoy’s War and Peace, Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, Dostoevsky’s The Idiot, Stendhal’s Red and Black, Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons, and plays of Anton Chekhov.

365. Modern Jewish Literature: A Study in Identity (Staff )

A study of the quest for identity and the need to preserve ethnic integrity by the Jewish people. Novels and short stories are read which raise the issue of what it means to be a Jew. The implications of accepting and rejecting one’s Jewishness are explored in a variety of fictional contexts. The authors read are Saul Bellow, Isaac B. Singer, Elie Wiesel, Henry Roth, Chaim Potok, and Bernard Malamud. Historical and religious background material necessary to understand the literature is provided by class lectures.

370. The Modern Temper (Kent)

An exploration of the modern temper as it is revealed in contemporary art and literature. Consideration will be given to those writers, including Joyce, Eliot, Mann, Kafka, Camus, and Malraux, who have given shape to the contemporary sensibility. Special attention will also be given to those artists and composers, including Picasso and Stravinsky, who reflect the modernist tradition. S.

375. Postmodern World Literatures (Sokolsky)

We live in what is often dubbed a post-modern age. But what does this actually mean? The word itself is paradoxical and thus often hard to define. In general, post-modernist thinkers tend to question the absoluteness of ideas such as “God,” “Truth,” “Reason,” and the “Law.” In this class, we will first discuss and define “post-modern” by looking at seminal essays by some of the world’s most famous post-modern thinkers such as Jacque Derrida, Jean-Francois Lyotard, Frederic Jameson, and Jean Baudrilland. Then we will zoom in on some of the most post-modern countries and their cities today. While European intellectuals might have begun conversations about post-modernism, it is in Asia that post-modernism seems most alive today. We will look at Tokyo and Shanghai in particular. Both cities are often described as exemplars of post-modernism. Balancing the traditional value systems of their countries with their futuristic technology, Tokyo and Shanghai epitomize the benefits and pitfalls of living in a post-modern era. We will look at the literature and films produced by some of Japan and China’s most famous post-modern writers and directors who try in their texts and cinema to grapple with the complexities of being a human being in the post-modern world. To ground these works in a broader discussion of post-modernism, we will also discuss, when appropriate, works and films from other countries such as the United States, Germany, and France.

380. Great Books of Russia: The Russian Enigma (Merkel)

This course presents Russian masterpieces in the context of Russian culture and history. We explore the reality of Russia as “one country, two continents,” that is, as a Eurasian culture. Students study works by Russian monks, folk singers, poets, novelists, and film makers. Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin, Gogol’s short stories, Dostoevsky’s Poor Folk and The Devils, Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, Bely’s Petersburg, and Olesha’s Envy are among works read. S.

499. Senior Seminar

499A. Geisha, Belly Dancers, and Dragon Ladies: Debunking the Myth of the “Oriental” Woman (Sokolsky)

During the era of Western imperialism, spaces occupied by non-white Europeans were viewed in a variety of ways: dark, exotic, erotic, savage, and uneducated. The people of these supposedly exotic lands were observed, explored, and exploited by Western imperialists. Rarely were these people given a voice of their own, and rarely were they viewed as autonomous humans on par with the “civilized” Western world. For women in these countries, they had to endure a double-negative of silencing because they were second-class citizens in the patriarchal societies in which they lived and they were also exoticized and orientalized by the Western white men who decided to see in them the fantasies they could not find in the women of their home countries. The goal of this course is to explore these stereotypes. Why have they been created? Why do they still persist? And what are women from the “Orient” truly like? We will read texts by and about Asian and Arab women to see how women have resisted these stereotypes of exoticism and how they have articulated their own and diverse voice. Texts may include Sheridan Prasso’s The Asian Mystique, Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha (USA), The Kagero Diary (Japan), The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong (Korea), Pearl Buck’s The Good Earth (China), Xiao Hong’s Field of Life and Death (China), Hanan Al-Shaykh’s The Story of Zahra (Lebanon), and the feminist writings of Fatima Mernissi (Morocco).

499B. Senior Seminar: French & Italian Poetics of Love, 11c-17c (Lovell)

This course is open to all, but is designed mainly for senior Humanities majors to fulfill their requirement. We shall trace major poetic developments in western conceptions of love in its diverse French and Italian manifestations through the Middle Ages and Renaissance. These conceptions contributed to the rise of Petrarchism, whose impact on European literature was immense. Our purview primarily includes poetry by both male and female writers; we also shall examine relevant treatises related to the courtly tradition, as well as resistance to courtly constraints. Readings may include the troubadours and trobairitz (women poets), Andreas Capellanus’ Art of Courtly Love, the Romance of the Rose, Cavalcanti, Dante, Petrarch, Ficino, selected sonnets of Michelangelo and Shakespeare, Gaspara Stampa, Vittoria Colonna, Poliziano, Scève, Louise Labé, Ronsard, and Du Bellay. All works will be studied in English, though students are welcome to consult the original texts also, if they have the requisite language training.

110–111. Introduction to Classical Greek (Fratantuono, Lateiner)

Basics of grammar, and then, readings in original texts as well as some oral and written exercises. Consideration of the culture and history of the areas in which Greek was spoken and written. Attention to Greek roots of English vocabulary. Useful for students of literature, history, philosophy, theology, and medicine.

A. Homer: Iliad or Odyssey

Read the greatest poems of the greatest poet in the original. This course introduces you to the foundational texts of Western literature. We study first the unusual Homeric dialect and syntax, then the character, plot, and other more recent issues such as orality, textuality, and narrativity. Issues of history and archaeology are also broad.

B. Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns

An introduction to the archaic Greek poetry of Hesiod (Theogony, Works and Days, ever more extensive fragments) and the anonymous collection of the so-called Homeric Hymns. Careful consideration of the work of M.L. West and the historical background of these fascinating gems of early Greek literature. A wonderful complement to work on Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, with plenty of time to consider the complexity of ancient Greek religion and the cults of the gods and goddesses. Outside reading in the still relatively modest bibliography that helps to explicate these deceptively easy Greek poems.

C. Greek Lyric Poetry

Pindar
Perhaps the greatest of Greek poets, not excepting even Homer, and certainly the most enigmatic, Pindar remains the lone candidate for the title of most difficult of the Greek poets. Our goal is to make sense of the collection of (mostly) victory odes that have survived from this fifth century B.C. master. A wonderful challenge for the advanced Greek student, which will expose him or her to the most enchanting, hauntingly beautiful of classical Greek verses. Some consideration of Greek athletics and the nature of the contests that prompted these astonishing poems. We shall read relatively little Greek, but we do read, we shall read well.

D. Greek Tragedy: Aeschylus

A close reading of one of the easier of the surviving plays of Aeschylus, the only historical play extant from ancient Greece, the Persians. A chance to reflect on the monumental conflict between Greece and its powerful eastern neighbor. Practice reading a Greek tragedy that is reasonable for all levels of upper level Greek. Some attention to the other plays of Aeschylus, especially the monumental Oresteia, and the relationship of Aeschylus to his fellow Greek tragedians of the fifth century B.C. Outside reading in the secondary scholarship that surrounds the Persians, as well as the history of this complicated but ever fascinating era of Greece’s history.

E. Greek Tragedy: Sophocles

The man we might well most associate with the magical fifth century B.C. in Greece. Sophocles’ seven surviving plays (and numerous fragments) are our concern; we shall spend the semester reading his Ajax, a profound reflection on the end of the Trojan War, or the Philoctetes, another episode from his Trojan cycle, depending on student interest. Careful consideration of the nature of Athenian tragedy and its performance, with outside reading to supplement our main goal: finishing a challenging tragedy in one semester. A good opportunity to read in Greek a play you may have read in mythology class, with a chance to mourn with Sophocles over the passing of a bygone age.

F. Greek Tragedy: Euripides. F.

An advanced Greek course for those who have completed the elementary Greek sequence: we shall read Euripides’ tragic masterpiece the Medea. Our study of Medea lore will take us beyond Euripides to a consideration of other treatments of the myth, including a chance to view some videos of modern versions with music and dance of the great story of Jason (of Golden Fleece fame) and his downfall. We shall read Seneca’s Medea in translation, along with some articles and book chapters on this perennial favorite of students of Greek tragedy.

G. Greek Comedy: Aristophanes and Menander

Clouds or Birds. Plato wrote that this comic’s portrayal of Socrates in Clouds was a major factor in ruining his career. Discover what the fuss was about. Ever want to strike out on your own? So did many of the Birds. By creating a City in the Sky (Cloudcuckooland) and blockading Olympus they built a not very Utopian community on—or above—Earth. Anarchists unite and read sublime poetry! We may also read sections of Menander’s Grouch.

H. Greek Historians: Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon. S.

The Greeks suffered history and then invented it. The Persian Wars, The Peloponnesian Wars, The March on Persia offer three ways to record the past events. We shall read in Greek some of the most interesting minds ever to consider the problem of state and individual, Power Politics, and the place of morality in human affairs. Each speaks in a unique prose voice.

I. Attic Orators: Lysias and Demosthenes

The preserved speeches of Greek oratory introduce the rhetorical, legal, social, and political world of Classical Athens. Current reading includes courtroom speeches over the murder of an adulterer, quarrel over the “custody” of a lover, and a case of verbal and physical assault.

J. Plato and Aristotle: Greek Philosophy

Plato: Apology, Crito. The defense speech Socrates ought to have given and an illegal attempt to spring him from jail. Plato recreates the vivid world of Socrates and his friends. Read how the accused defend a life devoted to critical thinking in Apology. After his conviction, be a fly on the wall as Socrates explains to Crito why he won’t escape from prison, and considers whether retaliation is ever justified. Learn about Socrates’ interests from his student, and study the master of prose-style.

K. Hellenistic Poetry: Callimachus, Theocritus, and Apollonius

Apollonius’ Argonautica
A chance to study one of the masterpieces of later Greek epic, the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes. Close study of the unforgettable relationship between Jason and Medea, the main inspiration for Virgil’s Dido and Aeneas. Consideration of the nature of Hellenistic poetry, with particular attention to the historical background of the changing Greek world. Attention will be paid to Apollonius’ contemporaries, especially his rival Callimachus. An opportunity to spend a semester with a magical account of an early heroic age, all in the dress of the marvels of Hellenistic poetry.

L. New Testament, Plutarch, and other Hellenistic Prose

The Christian Bible was written in Greek and the Hebrew Bible was translated into the common language of the Mediterranean. We shall read one of the Evangels or Acts of the Apostles, and selections from the Letters as well as from the Septuagint. Comparisons will be made between Christian and contemporary Pagan and Jewish texts in Greek to discuss their special spirit worlds.

M. Greek Novel: Longus and Heliodorus

Novelistic fiction was among the last of the genres that ancient Greeks invented. Some tell of innocent love and others of travel, pirates, rape, disembowelment, and abduction marriage. The magpie genre borrows from every previous form of Greek literature and we shall laugh and cry while we study later Greek literature.

110–111. Introduction to Latin (Fratantuono, Lateiner)

Latin Basics of grammar, and then, readings in original texts of moderate difficulty such as short poems of Catullus and passages of Cicero’s prose. Oral and written exercises, also consideration of the culture and archaeology of the areas in which Latin was spoken. Consideration of the debt of our language to Latin. Useful for students in any field.

225. Continuing Latin (Fratantuono, Lateiner)

Intensive review of essential vocabulary, grammar, and syntax leading to readings in poetry and prose. Roman culture, history, and archaeology supplement uncensored readings in the original. Literature of the republic and empire are studied. Prerequisite: 111 or its equivalent. F.

A. Roman Comedy: Plautus and Terence

These forefathers of Shakespeare are themselves heirs to the comic traditions of Greece and Italy. Learn about these playwrights’ common stock of characters, observe how they wring new life from well-worn plots. Cheer the unsinkable cunning slave in Plautus’ Pseudolus, or reflect on the education of children with Terence’s Adelphoe (Brothers).

B. Lucretius

A comprehensive look at the masterpiece of early Latin epic, Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura. Consideration of the nature of didactic poetry as we study Lucretius’ Epicurean gospel in light of his poetic and philosophical predecessors and the nascent splendor of Latin verse. Extensive passages of the epic will be read in the original Latin, with some consideration of the secondary scholarship (especially the commentary tradition) and outside reading in the surviving work of Epicurus (in translation).

C. Cicero: Speeches and Philosophical Works. F.

Cicero is the best-known man of the ancient world and one of the most influential. He shaped Latin and the prose of many authors of prose in Latin, in the continental languages of the Renaissance, and in English. His statements are lucid and his style clear if complex. A brilliant lawyer who rose through the ranks, his reasoning is sometimes partial and partisan, sometimes simple narrative. We read some of his personal mail—warts and all, a legal brief, and selections from his philosophical works. This term we shall examine in detail his anti-terrorism speeches against Catiline, a clever and well-born enemy who (allegedly) roused armed revolution against the Roman state. Sometime friend of Caesar, Cicero died for the Republic he loved. Fulfills a humanities distribution and upper-level requirement, as well as many HMCL and AMRS options.

D. Horace’s Odes

An in-depth study of one of the outstanding examples of Latin lyric poetry, a work that has been rightly compared to Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier: the three books of Horace’s Odes. Close reading in the original Latin of many odes from the collection, with attention to the critical response to Horatian lyric. Students will also be introduced to the mysterious fourth book of Odes, the Carmen Saeculare, and (in translation where necessary) Horace’s Greek antecedents and the lyric poetry of his predecessor Catullus.

E. Earlier Roman Historians: Caesar, Sallust, and Livy

The Roman Republic had a lot of explaining to do, particularly to itself. These three authors describe where Rome is and where it came from. Sallust views Catiline’s War and the War with Jugurtha through the power politics of Caesar; Livy, in the Restored Republic of Augustus, considers the virtues and vices that caused the Rise and Fall of the Great State; Tacitus witnessed the horror of untrammeled Imperial power, but was sufficiently devoted to Empire and Family to immortalize his father-in-law, Agricola, governor of Britain.

 

F. Virgil’s Aeneid

A detailed examination for advanced Latin students of the great epic of Rome’s founding, the Aeneid of Virgil. Extensive selections are read in Latin from key passages of the poem, with special attention to sometimes underappreciated and understudied books (III, V, VII, XI). An introduction to the critical literature that has surrounded the Aeneid, as well as examination in survey of Virgil’s other works and consideration of his poetic (and prose) antecedents. S.

G. Propertius

Close study of one of the most difficult of Latin poets, the elegist Propertius. Several poems from each of the books will be read in the original Latin, along with appropriate criticism from both the commentary and monograph tradition. Introduction to the genre of Roman elegy and consideration of the works of both Tibullus and (as far as possible) the enigmatic Gallus. A careful consideration of a most rewarding exemplar of the Latin verse tradition.

H. Ovid: Metamorphoses and Love Poetry

Man about town, exile, lover, and poet of the human universe, Ovid offers many genres and boundless invention. His great epic describes the pain of existence and erasure for men and women, and even gods. Read in Latin the greatest stories ever told. See what the cutting edge of Augustan literature did to make new past Greek and Roman traditions.

I. Roman Satire: Horace, Martial, and Juvenal

Satire is a Roman invention. These three writers, in stunning Latin verse, portray with razor-sharp and sometimes bitter wit people that lived in the apartment upstairs, accosted them in the forum, and paraded through the streets. Their always vivid accounts of everyday life brings home their comic and satiric message.

J. Lucan

An overview of the poet Lucan’s magnum opus, the Pharsalia or Bellum Civile. Extensive selections in the original Latin from each of the nine books, with consideration of both the context in which Lucan was writing (i.e., Nero’s Rome) and the theme (the civil war between Caesar and Pompey). Appropriate historical background and outside reading, along with critical responses to Lucan, especially the work of Frederick Ahl and Shadi Bartsch. Some brief attention to Lucan’s contemporary Neronian writers.

K. Tacitus

An advanced Latin course that will focus on Tacitus’ Annales, with particular consideration of purple passages from his accounts of the principates of Tiberius and Nero. Students will be introduced to the other Tacitean works in translation along with some introduction to the monumental work of Sir Ronald Syme. Detailed study of the peculiarities of Tacitus’ Latin and the changing hues of what we have come to call Silver Latin. Additional outside reading in other historians of the periods in question.

L. Roman Letter Writers: Cicero, Seneca, and Pliny

These three writers open extraordinary windows into the literary, political, and cultural world of Rome during three tumultuous periods of Roman history. Cicero’s letters peek into the actual private and public correspondence of a man central to late Republican Rome. Seneca, the famous Stoic tutor and advisor to Nero, and Pliny, the friend of Tacitus and Trajan, describe for us fascinating details of ancient life.

M. Roman Novel: Petronius and Apuleius

Roman Novels. Petronius Satyricon, Apuleius Metamorphoses. Saucy, racy, weird, funny, and wonders-ful, these texts break all the Ciceronian rules of how to write respectable Roman prose. Examine the underbelly of a rich and sometimes grotesque society as you improve your Latin vocabulary with two geniuses of Latin prose. These two successful but persecuted authors help you to dive into down and out locales and sink into the arms of randy gods.

N. Medieval Latin Literature (300-1300)

Students studying Medieval history, literature, philosophy, art, etc. should know the varieties of Latin that followed the break-up of the Roman empire. Reading annotated selections, we examine authors from Jerome to Francis Bacon. We look at prose and poetry, theology and history, secular and sacred texts. Essential for an understanding of the later history of the Latin language and literature.