Introductory description

Can we ever get a window onto what made the Romans laugh? Is such a question naïve? Studying how the comic operates in Latin texts is a slippery exercise that seems to connect us (physically, emotionally, intellectually) with Roman experience while at the same time revealing the strangeness and unknowability of the Roman world. In this honours module, we will read a range of Latin texts that perform or have something to say about wit and humour – whether puerile, grotesque, bitter, farcical, subtle, philosophical, aggressive or abusive – and cover genres and forms from epigram to satire, theatre to oratory, from the second century BCE to the early second century CE. We will also juxtapose ancient thinking about humour with both the latest classical scholarship on Roman laughter and selected modern texts on the sociology, psychoanalysis and philosophy of joking (e.g. Freud, Bakhtin, Bergson). Investigating what and who gets laughed at (and why) in Latin literature will make us giggle, balk, and scratch our heads: it will also take us straight to the heart of questions to do with literary history, cultural identity, gender, politics and power in ancient Rome.

A wide range of texts and genres will be considered, but individual lectures and seminars will be devoted to single authors and texts, and you will be able to narrow your focus in the termly coursework. Everyone should read the full list of core texts in English as soon as possible. In preparation for this course, it would also be useful to read over the summer the relevant chapters of G.B.Conte’s Latin Literature: A History (1994, Johns Hopkins), on the authors Terence, Cicero, Virgil, Ovid, Seneca the Younger, Petronius, Martial, Quintilian, Pliny the Elder and Suetonius.

Module web page

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.

Can we ever get a window onto what made the Romans laugh? Is such a question naïve? Studying how the comic operates in Latin texts is a slippery exercise that seems to connect us (physically, emotionally, intellectually) with Roman experience while at the same time revealing the strangeness and unknowability of the Roman world. In this honours module, we will read a range of Latin texts that perform or have something to say about wit and humour – whether puerile, grotesque, bitter, farcical, subtle, philosophical, aggressive or abusive – and cover genres and forms from epigram to satire, theatre to oratory, from the second century BCE to the early second century CE. We will also juxtapose ancient thinking about humour with both the latest classical scholarship on Roman laughter and selected modern texts on the sociology, psychoanalysis and philosophy of joking (e.g. Freud, Bakhtin, Bergson). Investigating what and who gets laughed at (and why) in Latin literature will make us giggle, balk, and scratch our heads: it will also take us straight to the heart of questions to do with literary history, cultural identity, gender, politics and power in ancient Rome.

Proposed set texts (in English translation):
[Note that set texts may change over time]

Terence The Eunuch
Cicero, On the Orator 2.216-90
Virgil, Eclogue 4
Ovid, The Art of Love, selected passages
Seneca Apocolocyntosis
Petronius, Satyricon 48-65
Seneca Letters, 56, 57
Martial Epigrams Book 1, and further selected epigrams
Juvenal, Satires 1 and 4
Quintilian, Handbook on Oratory 6.3
Pliny the Elder, Natural History, selected passages
Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars, selected passages.

Set texts in Latin for Q800/Q802/QQ36 students:

• Terence, The Eunuch (with Barsby’s 1999 Green and Yellow), 1097 lines.
• Virgil Eclogue 4 (with Mynors’ 1994 Oxford commentary), 111 lines.
• Seneca Apocolocyntosis (with Eden’s 1984 Green and Yellow), 15 paragraphs.
• Seneca Letters 56 (with Costa’s 1988 17 Letters, Liverpool Classical Press), 15 paragraphs.

Learning outcomes

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

• By the end of this module students should expect to have acquired a broad understanding of the various ways in which wit and humour function in a range of different Latin texts.
• By the end of this module students should expect to have learnt to appreciate how the content, form and poetics of the texts under consideration relate to broader questions about cultural identity, gender, politics and power in 2nd century BCE-1st century CE Rome.
• By the end of this module students should expect to have developed their skills in the close reading of literary texts.
• By the end of this module students should expect to have developed their skills in the critical analysis of classical scholarship.
• By the end of this module students should expect to have awareness of the comparative dimensions of studying Roman literature and thought.

Indicative reading list

Bakhtin, M. (1968) Rabelais and His World. Trans. H.Iswolsky. Cambridge, MA.
Beard, M. (2014) Laughter in Ancient Rome. Berkeley and Los Angeles.
Bergson, H. (1911) Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic. Trans. C.Brereton and
F.Rothwell, London.
Bernstein, M.A. (1992) Bitter Carnival. Ressentiment and the Abject Hero. Princeton, NJ.
Billig, M. (2005) Laughter and Ridicule: Towards a Social Critique of Humour. London.
Bremmer, J. and Roodenburg, H. (eds.) (1997) A Cultural History of Humour. Cambridge.
Clark, J. R. (2007) Looking at Laughter. Humor, Power and Transgression in Roman Visual
Culture, 100BC-AD250. Berkeley and Los Angeles.
Corbeill, A. (1996) Controlling Laughter: Political Humour in the Late Republic. Princeton,
NJ.
Critchley, S. (2002) On Humour. London and New York.
Dominik, W. and Hall, J. (eds.) A Companion to Roman Rhetoric. Malden, MA and Oxford.
Feeney, D. (2016) Beyond Greek: The Beginnings of Latin Literature. Harvard.
Freud, S. (1960) Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious. Trans. J.Strachey, London.
Foka, A and Liliequist, J. (eds.) Laughter, Humor and the (un)Making of Gender: Historical
and Cultural Perspectives. New York.
Gunderson, E. (2000) Staging Masculinity. The Rhetoric of Performance in the Roman World.
Ann Arbor, MI.
Halliwell, S. (2008) Greek Laughter. A Study in Cultural Psychology from Homer to Early
Christianity. Cambridge.
Kidd, S.E. (2014) Nonsense and Meaning in Ancient Greek Comedy. Cambridge.
Laurence, R. and Paterson, J. (1999) ‘Power and Laughter: Imperial dicta’ PBSR 67: 183-97.
Leigh, M. (2004) Comedy and the Rise of Rome. Oxford.
Plaza, M. (2000) Laughter and Derision in Petronius’ Satyrica: A Literary Study. Stockholm.
Richlin, A. (1992) The Garden of Priapus. Sexuality and Aggression in Roman Humour.
Oxford.
Ruffell, I. (2011) Politics and Anti-Realism in Athenian Old Comedy. Oxford.
Sharrock, A. (2009) Reading Roman Comedy. Poetics and Playfulness in Plautus and
Terence. Cambridge.
Stallybrass, P. and White, A. (1986) The Politics and Poetics of Transgression. London.

Subject specific skills

Acquire a broad understanding of the various ways in which wit and humour are understood and performed in Latin literature.
Appreciate how the form, content and poetics of the texts under consideration relate to broader questions about identity, gender, politics and ethics in 1st century BCE-1st century CE Rome.
Develop skills in the close reading of literary texts.
Develop skills in the critical analysis of classical scholarship.
Gain awareness of comparative dimensions in the study of Latin literature, Roman culture, and thought

Transferable skills

critical thinking
problem solving
active lifelong learning
communication
information literacy
ICT literacy
Citizenship