Courses
Fall 2006
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- Login to Blackboard. Instructional materials are available on a course-by-course basis.
- 011. Shame, Honor, and Responsibility in Ancient Greece and Rome
- Jennifer Kosak M 1:00 - 2:25, W 1:00 - 2:25
- This course examines Greek and Roman notions of responsibility to family, state and self, and the social ideals and pressures that shaped ancient attitudes towards duty. Readings include works by Homer, Sophocles, Euripides, Vergil, Ovid and Petronius.
- 241. The Transformations of Ovid
- Barbara Boyd T 8:30 - 9:55, TH 8:30 - 9:55
- Like the works of Ovid, the title of this course lends itself to several interpretations. "Transformations" is first of all a translation of the title of Ovid's greatest work, the Metamorphoses, whose theme is mythical transformation. The term "transformations" can be aptly applied as well to the life and work of Ovid, whose wildly successful social and literary career was radically transformed in AD 8 by Augustus’ decree of exile, from which Ovid was never to return. The word "transformations" also captures the essence of Ovid's literary afterlife, during which his work has taken on new incarnations, albeit in changed forms, in the creative responses of many novelists, poets, dramatists, artists, and composers. This course will begin with an overview of Ovid's poetry, culminating in a careful reading and discussion of the formal elements and central themes of the Metamorphoses. The remainder of the semester will be devoted to Ovid's afterlife, with special attention paid to his intertextual presence in the works of Shakespeare, Franz Kafka, Joseph Brodsky, Ted Hughes, Cristoph Ransmayr, Antonio Tabucchi, David Malouf, and Mary Zimmerman.
- 311. Ancient Greek Tyranny: Image and History
- Irene Polinskaya M 1:00 - 2:25, W 1:00 - 2:25
- This course will focus on the history of ancient Greek tyranny, as a form of government and as an ideological concept. We will study the fragmented and largely legendary accounts of the rule of tyrants in the Archaic period; the construction and use of the image of a tyrant in the Classical period; and the new flourishing of tyranny in the 4th century BC, in the Greek colonies of Sicily. The course will cover the following aspects of ancient Greek tyranny: tyranny as a form of political organization against the background of other contemporary forms of government, such as democracy and oligarchy; the Classical image of tyranny as a negative form of monarchy in contrast to kingship; the paradoxical role of tyrants as patrons of the arts, and friends of philosophers. We will draw on the literary and historical sources of evidence, as well as the visual arts and archaeology.