Introductory description

This module brings together several authors from archaic and classical Greece, surveyed chronologically but also thematically. It considers how we might think about the politics of literary production in the ancient world – not just in terms of content, but also and perhaps especially in terms of form.
But what might we mean by ‘a politics of form’? How do texts do political work in the world? How do we investigate the nature of social structures in ancient Greek texts, and what sense do we make of them?
How do we negotiate the nature of politics as an historical / historiographical / theoretical / literary-theoretical phenomenon?
How do we negotiate the relation between the politics of form and the politics of context, and how might we understand the relation between these frames of reference?
This module is also available to undergraduates from other departments, subject to the agreement of the Classics Department and their home department.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Illustrative Syllabus (subject to minor modifications):
Set texts in translation:
Homer, Iliad 1, 7, 9, 19; selections from Alcaeus; Pindar, Pythian 1; Bacchylides 17;
Euripides, Supplices; Aristophanes, Knights; Herodotus 3; Gorgias, Encomium of Helen; Thucydides 3.82–3

Set texts for Q800 students:

• Homer, Iliad IX, ed. Jasper Griffin (Oxford)
• Pindar, Pythian 1, ed. Snell-Maehler, Teubner (supplied as a course extract)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• demonstrate a broad knowledge of a variety of texts in a range of genres in which power is figured, mediated, and discussed;
• demonstrate an appreciation of the contributions of literary form to cultures of power and their assessment;
• demonstrate the ability, in detail, to situate literary texts in relation to broader cultural and ideological contexts.
• demonstrate skills in close reading of literary texts, whether in translation, or in the original Greek (for Q800/Q801 students);
• Additionally, final-year students will: develop the ability to set their findings into a wider comparative context, drawing in other aspects of the study of the ancient world;
• engage creatively with a wider range of secondary literature that includes discussion of classical literature within broader comparative, including critical-theoretical, frames.

Indicative reading list

Reading lists can be found in Talis

Subject specific skills

By the end of this module all students should expect to have:
acquired a broad knowledge of a variety of texts in a range of genres in which power is figured, mediated, and discussed;
gained an appreciation of the contributions of literary form to cultures of power and their assessment;
gained the ability, in detail, to situate literary texts in relation to broader cultural and ideological contexts;
developed skills in close reading of literary texts, whether in translation, or in the original Greek (for Q800/Q801 students);

• developed the ability to set their findings into a wider comparative context, drawing in other aspects of the study of the ancient world;
• engaged creatively with a wider range of secondary literature that includes discussion of classical literature within broader comparative, including critical-theoretical, frames.

Transferable skills

• Communication
• Information Literacy
• Critical Thinking