Module CLAS3501: CLOTHING THE BODY, GARBING THE PAST

Department: Classics and Ancient History

CLAS3501: CLOTHING THE BODY, GARBING THE PAST

Prerequisites

• CLAS1301 or CLAS1601 or CLAS1741 or modules of equivalent relevance offered by this or other Boards of Studies.

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• To equip students with an understanding of the reality and the reception of ancient clothing and to enable them to form independent conclusions relating to the material studied.
• To develop further students' critical faculties, especially their ability to use and compare different types of evidence and their ability to understand and criticise complex texts, arguments, and a variety of visual and artefactual material.
• To encourage the application of students' conceptual, manual and design skills to the study of antiquity.
• To encourage students to reflect upon (i) the nature of historical understanding; and (ii) the learning process itself.

Content

• The module, intended for students with a good previous knowledge of ancient society, approaches the study of ancient clothing in terms of (1) actuality (2) social role and (3) reception.
• 1. ACTUALITY. (a) experience of evaluating different types of evidence for ancient clothing (e.g. surviving artefacts, works of art, literary sources). (b) a grounding in the basics of production and use of ancient textiles for clothing, founded upon ancient sources, archaeological data, and practical reconstruction. The element of practical work casts a clearer light on the written / visual evidence through an increased understanding of ancient crafts, technologies and materials, their capabilities and their limitations.
• 2. Hand in hand with the actuality of clothing, and based to a large extent upon the same visual and written ancient sources is an understanding of SOCIAL ROLE of clothing (a) as a marker of civic status, gender, and economic class; (b) as a patent but not unambiguous element within cultural discourse.
• 3. The RECEPTION aspect of the topic is founded on the twin bases of (a) an understanding of the realities of ancient clothing and (b) an awareness of the way in which the various sources for ancient clothing available to later artists were exploited by them, sometimes to realistic, sometimes to fantastic ends.

Learning Outcomes

• A knowledge of the chief types of ancient clothing, and the means whereby clothing was produced, based on an acquaintance with the varied range of evidence (visual, artefactual and written) which pertains to it.

• An ability to handle the methodologies appropriate for a sophisticated understanding of the diverse range of evidence that exists regarding clothing in antiquity and its later reception: in particular artefacts, written texts (literary and otherwise), and visual culture; an ability to appreciate the usefulness and limitations of reconstruction; the ability to synthesise these different forms of evidence in reconstructing a coherent and plausible picture of the culture of the ancient world and that culture's reception; the capacity to apply manual and design skills to the study of antiquity; the ability to present ideas and arguments in written form according to the conventions of academic writing. An understanding of the social role of clothing in its ancient context; an insight into the perception of ancient clothing in later art; a sophisticated ability to handle issues of scholarly debate in the areas studied.

• The skills needed to analyse, evaluate, and synthesise a wide range of evidence, and to select and apply the methodologies appropriate in different cases; the application of practical (manual and design) skills to academic study; the capacity to sustain a clear, well-structured, and well-defended argument in written form; the ability to conceive, design and carry out a specific project; the ability to apply achieved insights and experience to the setting of future aims; the ability and self-discipline to work autonomously; and the capacity for organisation required to meet deadlines and to negotiate competing claims on finite resources; facility with key IT resources: in particular, the ability to use word-processors and online databases; also the ability to make fruitful use of library and internet resources.

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

• Classes (of one-and-a-half to two hours in length) will combine (to varying degrees, depending on topic) elements of lecture, of examination of evidence and of practical work (including demonstrations), and of discussion.
• Lecture-type presentation is appropriate to the imparting of information and of methods of interpretation, of both ancient evidence of all kinds, and modern scholarship and theoretical approaches.
• Detailed examination of examples or samples of specific categories of evidence, especially visual material (e.g. vases, wall-paintings, and sculpture), will enable students to develop experience and confidence in evaluating e.g. how realistic (or otherwise) an artwork is in its depiction of an item of dress. Relevant texts will also be studied closely, with a particular awareness of the way in which genre should inform our understanding of them.
• Practical work will facilitate students' understanding of the capabilities and the limitations of materials and tools available in the ancient world and of the level of skill needed to produce the textiles themselves and to employ them in clothing.
• Demonstrations of (at least) spinning and weaving will be given, and all students will be expected to acquire the rudiments.
• Seminars (where students make a short presentation on a specific aspect related to the seminar's general theme) contribute to the critical handling of evidence and facility of discussion. Written and illustrated versions of the seminar contributions will be uploaded to a module wiki; comment will be encouraged and formative feedback will be given.
• Consultation sessions (one-to-one) with the module coordinator or a member of the teaching team will provide guidance in the design and implementation of the project.
• The examination will assess both through essay questions and by means of material for comment (written sources and visual items) the students' knowledge and understanding of the sources for ancient clothing; the historical development of ancient clothing; its social role; and its reception in the visual arts of later periods. (New para) Each student will have to devise a practical project (for example, recreate an ancient garment known from art; build a model or a replica of an artefact involved in textile production; spin and weave a piece of textile or a border; carry out some dyeing; investigate use of tools e.g. the use of shears to cut textiles). This should give rise to a wide variety of projects with diverse end-products: assessment will be based on the process of planning and implementation. Students will therefore keep a process portfolio throughout the project : it should cover conception, feasibility, budget and resources, timescaling and targets; as well as including the various ancient sources and modern studies upon which they have drawn; further, there will be samples, pictures and notes from all stages of the project. As a process portfolio (rather than a showcase portfolio) it will document failures and dead-ends as well as successful outcomes, since learning from these will be an important part of the actual implementation and development of a project following upon its original conception. Therefore an element in the project portfolio is a reflective journal in which the student tracks the stages and outcomes of the learning process. It is emphasised that it is not the quality of the final tangible end product which is being assessed, but the concept as a whole, its appropriate use of sources and resources, the process of implementation, and the student's ability to reflect upon and learn from the process. A presentation to the rest of the class (on which there will be informal individual feedback, but which will not constitute part of the summative assessment) will conclude each project.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

One seminar contribution (compulsory); one formative essay (optional)

■ 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