Ancient Greek historians associated the ruins of Bronze Age cities with the legends of the Trojan War, the lost city of Atlantis, and the labyrinth of the Minotaur. This course takes a more archaeological approach, combing the ruins for evidence that allow us to reconstruct complex societies that integrated contributions from diverse participants, including enslaved people and foreigners, as well as heroic adventurers. We will investigate the role of African and Asian cultures in early Greek state formation and collapse, technologies of art and writing, and religious traditions featuring a mother goddess. The course requires no background and offers an introduction to archaeological analysis as well as the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Crosslisted Courses: ANTH 215
Prerequisites: None
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis; HS - Historical Studies
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
Antigone in Ferguson, Medea from Mexico, Trojan Women in Syria – why do contemporary playwrights and filmmakers keep returning to ancient Greek tragedy? This class will combine discussion of plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides in their original fifth-century BCE context with analysis of their afterlife on the contemporary stage and screen. How do contemporary, cross-cultural re-imaginings of ancient Greek plays like Antigone, Medea and the Trojan Women, unsettle our familiar readings of Athenian drama? How do these age-old plays create a productive space for questions about politics, community and power that continue to preoccupy us today?
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Crosslisted Courses: CPLT 211
Prerequisites: None. Not open to students who have taken CLCV 310.
Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature; ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes: This course is also offered at the 300-level as CLCV 310.
Every story is a travel story, and this class introduces students to the theme of travel as it appears in a range of literary texts from Homer's Odyssey to Cormac McCarthy's The Road and Toni Morrison's novel Home. We will focus on the ways that mobility, transience, and unsettledness function in these works both to confirm and challenge our ideas of home, identity (both personal and cultural), and the possibilities of return.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Crosslisted Courses: CPLT 212
Prerequisites:
Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
We tend to place epic and lyric poetry at opposite ends of the spectrum: epic poetry is musty, monumental, and masculine while lyric poems are fresh, exquisite, and feminine. This class will read and discuss the works of those contemporary lyric poets who reach across this divide to embrace Homeric epic -- revising these ancient poems for modern times, for different audiences, in new forms. The class will read the Iliad and Odyssey together with the works of contemporary poets (e.g., Anne Carson, Louise Gluck, Alice Oswald, Adrienne Rich, Derek Walcott) to explore the nature of this contrapuntal conversation about poetic form across time and genre. All readings will be in English.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 20
Crosslisted Courses: CPLT 221
Prerequisites: None.
Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature
Typical Periods Offered: Every other year
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. Open to juniors and seniors.
Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring
Units: 0.5
Max Enrollment: 10
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.
Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: Permission of the department.
Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring
Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.Does not count toward the minimum major in Classics or Classical Civilization.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: CLST 360 and permission of the department.
Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring
Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. Does not count toward the minimum major in Classics or Classical Civilization.