Module CLAS3591: Ovid Through The Ages

Department: Classics and Ancient History

CLAS3591: Ovid Through The Ages

Prerequisites

• CLAS1301 or ENGL1031 or FREN2031 or HIST1401 or HIST2721 or ITAL2041.

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• To provide students with an overall sense of why Classics matters beyond the chronological remits of antiquity.
• To enable students to engage closely with the reception of Ovid's Metamorphoses in the context of the classical tradition
• To enable students to enhance their awareness of the theoretical and methodological issues involved in studying the phenomena of 'the reception of the classical world' across different times, media, and cultures
• To extend student's breadth of knowledge and depth of analytical skills by engaging with unfamiliar material, sophisticated concepts and theories in reception studies, broad chronological horizons, and cutting edge research findings and lines of enquiry

Content

• This module examines the reception of Ovid's Metamorphoses, one of the most influential texts in the western cultural tradition, from antiquity to the present day, across a wide range of different media. It will thereby also introduce students to the theoretical and methodological challenges involved in studying particular instances of reception as well as the classical tradition as a whole. The course is structured in part chronologically, in part thematically: after introductory lectures on Ovid and the Metamorphoses, the course considers reactions to Ovid's poetry in antiquity (Seneca, Quintilian) and then moves on to the medieval mythographic tradition to explore how pagan myth in general and Ovid's Metamorphoses in particular survived within a culture dominated by Christianity. The bulk of the course will be devoted to outstanding artists and writers from the late medieval ages and the Renaissance onwards and their engagement with Ovid's Metamorphoses: authors considered include Dante, Petrarch, Shakespeare, Milton, Kafka and Ransmayr; artists Titian, Bernini and Cornelius van Haarlem.

Learning Outcomes

• Students who successfully complete the module will be acquainted with the reception of one of the most influential classical texts and themes in the reception of classical antiquity in later centuries across a wide range of authors and artists. They will be able to relate their knowledge of Ovid's Metamorphoses and the history of its reception to other similar or related phenomena in the classical tradition and Western culture.

• Students will have the facility to think critically and methodically about cross-cultural engagement in a variety of media and have developed some understanding of the theoretical issues involved in studying the reception of the classical world across two millennia of cultural history.

• Students will have developed their ability to use their knowledge of the ancient world as a basis to branch out and grapple with unfamiliar material (a key transferable skill): this involves the related skills of (a) vetting unfamiliar bodies of data for pertinent information; (b) synthesizing large amounts of material; (c) constructing complex and sophisticated arguments. All this exercises the ability and self-discipline to work autonomously, and the capacity for organisation required to meet deadlines and negotiate competing claims on finite resources.

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

• Lectures will introduce historical context, primary sources (literary and visual), and critical perspectives; small group work will be used to deepen the discussion of specific text and artefacts and enable students to develop their own views in interaction with one another; essays will test students' ability to develop an independent argument with reference to primary and secondary sources.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

One essay of 1,500 words; one seminar contribution.

■ 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