Module CLAS1601: INTRODUCTION TO THE GREEK WORLD

Department: Classics and Ancient History

CLAS1601: INTRODUCTION TO THE GREEK WORLD

Prerequisites

• None.

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• This module is designed as an interdisciplinary introduction to ancient Greek history, society, and thought, by focussing on how the classical Athenians engaged with their past.
• It is a companion module to the plenary Monuments and memory in the Age of Augustus (CLAS1301).
• It introduces all students in the department to the central themes, topics and terminology in the study of Archaic and Classical Greece, and equips them to use the basic intellectual resources available to assist that study.

Content

• The module consists of the study of ancient Greek society, with a particular focus on Athens and its public discourses, especially those pertaining to civic and military ideals.
• The subject-matter includes a wide variety of different types of source material and evidence, including selected passages from ancient Greek poets, historians, orators, dramatists and philosophers, together with selected inscriptions, vase-paintings, sculptures, and buildings.

Learning Outcomes

• The student should have a knowledge of the basic topography and chronology of fifth-century Greece, be familiar with the sources for the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars, and have an understanding of the fundamental issues in scholarship in the field.

• The student should be able to access, discuss, and evaluate critically the different types of source material, and use basic reference tools and bibliography. They should have acquired some understanding of the different scholarly methodologies that have been developed for understanding evidence, and a basic grasp of the problems inherent in handling translated texts.

• The student should be able to appreciate the problems associated with evaluating evidence from other cultures, develop the ability to think independently, and acquire the skills needed to analyse, evaluate, and synthesise into a coherent argument a wide range of evidence. They should have acquired an ability to organise their workload and timetable in an efficient manner and to fulfil assignments promptly and efficiently.
• The student should be able to research topics using the library catalogue and databases and to organise, structure and present academic work in a professional manner.

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

• Most of the teaching will be done in plenary lectures, to ensure a wide basis of shared knowledge, supplemented by four seminars in which the students will be encouraged to explore contrasting views and evidence.
• A formative scholarly exercise in the first term, a formative essay in the second, and oral contributions in the seminars, will introduce the students to the different modes of academic discourse.
• Writing essays enables the assembling and evaluation of material and the formulation of logical and coherent argument, as well as skills in writing coherent, comprehensible and grammatically correct English. An initial essay provides formative practice in developing these skills, while a second essay tests the attainment of such skills and forms part of the summative assessment of the module.
• Since the course involves to a large degree the acquisition of basic information, a written examination will constitute 70% of the assessment.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

1 scholarly skills exercise in Michaelmas term; 1 formative essay in Epiphany Term; seminar participations throughout the year. 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