CLA 101-8 First-Year Writing Seminar: What Makes a Classic?
How does a work of literature become a “classic?” What separates a classic from all the other good books that exist? What belongs in our educational curriculum or “What to Watch” lists, and who decides? Most importantly, what do a society’s answers to these questions tell us about its values and cultural identity?
To answer “What Makes a Classic?,” we’ll divide our attention between the literature that constitutes the canon and the critical apparatus that maintains this special status for certain works while excluding others. In the first half of the quarter, we take Vergil’s Aeneid and its reception as our focus. Later we’ll turn to classics from other premodern cultures, such as the Icelandic Sagas and the 11th century Japanese novel The Tale of Genji. Our writing projects will focus on developing students' own ideas about how classicism works and what recent cultural products have the potential to become classics.
F 9a - 9:50a F 10a - 10:50a F 11a - 11:50a F 12p - 12:50p F 1p - 1:50p F 2p - 2:50p
CLA 212 Rome: Culture and Empire
The course is a general history survey, starting with Rome’s humble beginnings and ending with the collapse of the Roman Empire. It will trace the story of how a small city state in central Italy, on the periphery of the older civilizations of the Near East and Greece, established military and political dominance over Italy; how it built a Mediterranean empire and administered it for centuries; how a long period of crisis led to its decline and partition into an eastern and western half; and finally how the western half collapsed. In addition to this chronological narrative, the course will treat several key themes and concepts in Roman culture. The Roman military will receive attention, as will gender relations and public spectacles. Roman religion and the role of slavery will also be discussed.
CLA 250 / CLS 201 Literatures of the Ancient World: Epic and Epochs
This class introduces students to the genre of epic poetry and the most influential movements in their composition and their interpretation. No prior knowledge of Greek and Roman culture is required. In fact, this class is designed to offer the foundational knowledge (and then some!) that is often assumed of epics like the Odyssey or the Aeneid and the societies that produced them. In the style of a survey course, students will read widely in translation at home. In class, lectures will supply the historical context and interpretive lenses that help us understand the poems. Our goal is to trace broad trends and themes, define their limits, and push beyond “the big three” (the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid) into a fuller appreciation of the Greek and Roman epic tradition. To this end, we’ll cover the young love of Medea and Jason in Apollonius’ Argonautica, the godless conflict between Julius Caesar and Pompey in Lucan’s Civil War, and the tantalizing contradictions of Statius’ young Achilles in the Achilleid.
CLA 310 Archaeology of the Ancient Mediterranean: The Archaeology of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae
The cities buried by Mount Vesuvius hold an undying place in the modern imagination. Tourists marvel at the size of the sites and empathize with the plight of the towns’ inhabitants. But Campania’s destroyed cities have more to offer than the story of the 79 AD earthquake. Rather than present a static picture of Campania’s towns as “frozen in time,” this course takes a diachronic approach to the rich archaeological material. Campania was not originally Roman territory and was conquered by force of arms. Pompeii, often seen as an archetypal Roman town, was not Roman at all for most of its ancient existence. Still, at the time of the eruption Campania’s cities were thoroughly Romanized; they are now famous for the evidence they provide for Roman daily life. This course will survey key aspects of the evidence, as well as current archaeological techniques and fieldwork. The course will also discuss the 18th and 19th century uncovering of Campania’s cities, which is a story in its own right.
CLA 314 Topics in Ancient Science and Technology: Ancient Astronomy
This course will explore the history of European and Near Eastern astronomy from the 7th century BCE to the 6th century CE. Students will learn the fundamentals of the geocentric model, ancient methods of observation, and traditions of cosmology. We will study the history of time-reckoning and calendar-making, as well as portrayals of astronomy and celestial phenomena in myth and literature. In addition to reading ancient texts, students will also make their own observations using models of ancient instruments and the methods of ancient astronomers.
CLA 350 Greek and Latin Literature: Love Scripts: From Sappho to the Beatles
Romantic love, although a personal and intimate experience, unfolds amidst a system of social norms that guide or regulate many of its aspects, from the identification of a desirable partner to expectations about the outcome of the relationship. The “scripts” to be studied in this course refer both to the material traces of love songs transmitted to us from antiquity to the present, and to the social protocols implied in and through those texts. As we read poems originating from ancient Egypt, Israel, Greece, and Rome, we will draw on the resources of comparative literary analysis to explore the stories and metaphors through which love has been re-imagined over time in order to de-familiarize contemporary views. Special attention will be given to constructions of the role of each partner, the interplay of love, sex, and reproduction, and the rhetoric and poetic images associated with love.
GREEK 115-2 Accelerated Elementary Ancient and Biblical Greek
This course is the second in a two-term accelerated series designed to teach students to read ancient Greek, making accessible much of the world’s most influential literature, from the biblical New Testament to Homeric poetry and Platonic philosophy. In this course we will complete our study of the fundamentals of Greek grammar, making students ready to transition into second-year courses in the New Testament, classical Greek oratory, and Homeric epic. Thereafter students will be able to progress to a wide range of genres from the classical and post-classical periods, including ancient Greek history, poetry, philosophy, drama, and more.
GREEK 201-3 Introduction to Greek Literature: The Iliad
This course is the third and final element of the second-year Greek series. In this course we will read significant sections of Homer’s Iliad in the original language. Students will develop an ability to read the Homeric dialect and gain an understanding of the conventions of ancient epic poetry. As we explore the earliest European literary work we will also survey several important scholarly issues regarding the nature and history of the poem, including the nature of its composition and its place in ancient Greek society.
GREEK 301 Readings in Greek Literature: Helen of Troy on Trial
This course will focus on the controversial figure of Helen of Troy. Her terrifying beauty and her union with the Trojan prince Alexander made Helen into nearly as reviled a figure in Greek literature as she was admired. In the classical era, some authors expressed this contradiction through literary court speeches, prosecuting or defending her case. We shall read excerpts from three of these authors: Euripides, Gorgias, and Isocrates. In addition, we shall survey in translation and secondary scholarship several other ancient attempts to vilify, vindicate, or sympathize with Helen. Throughout the course, we will discuss the cultural significance and development of her story in matters of politics, gender, mythology, and Greek identity. Students will complete a short final project on the reception of Helen in later literature—up to and including contemporary film, television, or digital media.
Latin 101-3 is the third quarter of the year-long elementary Latin sequence designed to introduce students to the fundamentals of classical Latin. Alongside the grammatical material in this class, students will work on expanding their Latin vocabulary and developing the basic skills for reading Latin texts that are necessary to continue successfully in the second year. During the first few weeks of the quarter, class meetings will be devoted to grammar review and completing Chapters 34-40 of "Wheelock's Latin". For the rest of the term, primary readings from Latin prose writers such as Cicero and Pliny the Younger will be assigned on a daily basis. Students will be expected to develop reading, translation, and literary analysis skills in prepared passages from the original Latin text.
LATIN 201-3-1 Introduction to Latin Literature: Catullus
The third quarter of second-year Latin combines literary analysis with mastery of grammar and syntax at the intermediate level. This is mainly a workshop course, with discussion focusing on questions to and from students enrolled in the class. Though translation will be a component in evaluation, it will be a relatively small criterion of success. The main topics of discussion will be how meaning and emphasis are communicated in the poetry of Catullus.Though Latin 201-3 concentrates on language skills, it also develops skills of analysis that are foundational for the future study of literature in any language.
Students will learn how to a) approach ancient texts in the original language; b) analyze Latin grammar and syntax; c) use a variety of tools (dictionaries, grammars) while reading Latin; and d) evaluate our source materials and different interpretations of Latin texts and their composition.
A grade of C- or better in this course satisfies the Weinberg language proficiency requirement.
LATIN 201-3-2 Introduction to Latin Literature: Catullus
The third quarter of second-year Latin combines literary analysis with mastery of grammar and syntax at the intermediate level. This is mainly a workshop course, with discussion focusing on questions to and from students enrolled in the class. Though translation will be a component in evaluation, it will be a relatively small criterion of success. The main topics of discussion will be how meaning and emphasis are communicated in the poetry of Catullus.Though Latin 201-3 concentrates on language skills, it also develops skills of analysis that are foundational for the future study of literature in any language.
Students will learn how to a) approach ancient texts in the original language; b) analyze Latin grammar and syntax; c) use a variety of tools (dictionaries, grammars) while reading Latin; and d) evaluate our source materials and different interpretations of Latin texts and their composition.
A grade of C- or better in this course satisfies the Weinberg language proficiency requirement.
LATIN 310 Readings in Latin Literature: Women's Latin: Willetrudis' de Susanna
In this course, we will do a close reading of a medieval Latin poem written by Willetrudis, a German nun, addressed to her fellow nuns, her sorores. This poem tackles the troubling biblical story of Susanna, a married woman who is assaulted by two men of standing in her community, falsely accused of adultery, and forced to stand trial (Daniel 13). This story of violence against a woman and others structurally like it (e.g., The Rape of Lucretia) were commonly told in Latin literature throughout and beyond antiquity, but Willetrudis allows us to view them anew from the perspective of a female author writing for a female audience. In addition to reading and translating Willetrudis’ de Susanna, we will collaborate as a class to create an open-access commentary that will encourage further reading of this little known and poorly studied text.
