Module CLAS2341: GREEK AND ROMAN TRAGEDY

Department: CLASSICS AND ANCIENT HISTORY

CLAS2341: GREEK AND ROMAN TRAGEDY

Type	Open	Level	2	Credits	20	Availability	Available in 2005/06 and alternate years thereafter	Module Cap	None.	Location	Durham

Prerequisites

• The Speaking Voice (CLAS1021), or Remembering Athens (CLAS1601).

Corequisites

• For students in the Classics Department, please refer to the Regulations for your degree programme. For students from other departments, there are no corequisites.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To trace the development of Tragedy from the Greek world of the 5th Century BC to the Roman world of the 1st century AD.
• Three authors will be studied, and attention will focus on the differences between the three as individuals, on the differences between the Greek approach and the Roman, and on the underlying continuity.

Content

• The module covers five plays of Aeschylus, four plays of Sophocles and a play of Seneca.
• Some of the plays will be covered in considerable detail in lectures (eg Agamemnon), others will be covered in essays and tutorials (eg the rest of the Oresteia) and others again will be covered in seminars.
• It is intended in this way to combine breadth and depth of coverage.

Learning Outcomes

• Knowledge of the translated texts of ten tragedies, five of them in detail; of the chronological, literary and cultural relationship of the plays to each other; and of the issues of interpretation raised by the plays.

• Ability to understand and interpret, on a broad and on a detailed level, the genre of Ancient Tragedy; also to compare one text or author with another and draw appropriate conclusions.

• Ability to use both primary and secondary sources to interpret texts; to use texts as a means of understanding their broader cultural background; to evaluate the arguments of others and to produce arguments of one's own in support of a given case.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Lectures will provide detailed analysis of five of the plays, while seminars will enable students to cover a wider range of plays and a broader range of issues.
• Formative essays will enable students to engage critically with the plays and the issues covered in the lectures, while tutorials will provide feedback on this process.
• The examination will assess students' familiarity with the text of the plays covered in the lectures, and will test the sophistication of their analysis in general..

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Activity	Number	Frequency	Duration	Total/Hours
Lectures	22	1 Per Week	1 Hour	22
Tutorials	2	1 in Michaelmas Term, 1 in Epiphany Term	1 Hour	2
Seminars	5	2 in Michaelmas Term, 2 in Epiphany Term, 1 in Easter Term	1 Hour	5
Preparation and Reading				171
Total				200

Summative Assessment

Examination 100% (three-hour written examination 100%)

Formative Assessment:

2 essays of c.1500 words each. No collections.

---

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University