Module CLAS3341: LOVE AND SEX IN ANCIENT POETRY

Department: CLASSICS AND ANCIENT HISTORY

CLAS3341: LOVE AND SEX IN ANCIENT POETRY

Prerequisites

• Prior study of Literature at University.

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• Final year students should: Develop a sophisticated understanding of issues of love and sexuality as expressed in an important and challenging corpus of ancient literature.
• In the context of departmental degree programmes, the module will allow students to hone further the skills at interpreting literature developed in the first and second year.

Content

• Will explore the origins of Western love poetry in the ancient genres of lyric, elegy and epigram.
• We will begin with Archaic Greece (Mimnermus, Sappho, Anacreon, Theognis) before moving to study some poets of the Hellenistic period (Asclepiades, Callimachus, Meleager).
• We will also examine the ancient analysis of desire (Plato's Symposium) and its practice (magic spells).
• The subsequent focus of the module will be the extraordinarily rich Latin tradition of love poetry that built upon their Greek models: Catullus, Properties, Tibullus, Sulpicia, Horace, Ovid, Martial.
• All texts will be read in translation.

Learning Outcomes

• A detailed knowledge of key texts and genres in the corpus of Greek and Latin erotic poetry and other relevant material (such as Plato's Symposium), of the main approaches to and interpretations of ancient love and sexuality both in general and in particular with reference to the set texts, and of the literary, socio-historical, political and methodological issues raised by the set texts and the history of their reception.

• An ability to handle a group of diverse and complex texts in such a way as to reach a coherent picture of ancient attitudes towards and ways of representing love and sex and to appreciate the importance of these representations in shaping modern thought on the subject of the erotic; and an ability to combine literary and cultural analysis of the texts in question, whether separately or as a group.

• An ability to comprehend and evaluate alien cultural starting-points; an ability to handle a wide range of written materials at a sophisticated level; a capacity to construct a clear and well-structured argument in written form, displaying some awareness of different approaches; the skills to analyse, evaluate and synthesise a wide range of evidence and to select and apply the appropriate methodologies; oral presentation skills; the ability to articulate nuanced and independent interpretations of the texts studied.

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

• Lectures will provide context and a theoretical framework for the primary works studied and will demonstrate techniques of close reading.
• this provision will be enhanced by required readings in the secondary literature keyed to each lecture.
• Students will gain practice at close reading in the seminars, and will exercise the ability to articulate nuanced interpretations in the required oral seminar presentations.
• The exam will assess the students' familierarity with the texts studied and the sophistication of their analyses.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

One formative essay. 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