Using Classical Reception to Develop Students' Engagement with Classical

Using classical reception to develop students’ engagement with classical literature in translation by Shane Forde

text to respond to it personally, but in a a ‘literary’ subject (i.e. English or a Motivation for the Study way supported by evidence. modern foreign language). Student A has an excellent facility for extemporisation While observing A-level students at my and contributes willingly and intelligently PP2 school, I noticed that their responses to class discussions but is less articulate in to classical texts largely consisted of the Classroom Context his written work. Student C, dissimilarly, is identification of stylistic tropes. The very reticent in discussions; however, this students could identify a text’s stylistic I made my year 12 Classical Civilisation reticence is more a sign of thoughtfulness features but they struggled to articulate class the subject of this study. Since the and intellectual fastidiousness than and develop their own personal reactions beginning of the current academic year, ignorance or ill-preparedness. Student A to the text. They had been well-trained in this class been working on the AS level mostly does not read classical texts this sort of ‘feature-spotting’ and module The World of the Hero which outside of class; Student C has read therefore their reading experience was requires the students to read abridged widely within classical literature and has narrowly mechanical rather than versions of classical epic. I took over the read the Odyssey in translation several genuinely exploratory. Every passage they class at the beginning of the second term times. Student B occupies a middle encountered was put through the same (January 2018) and read the remaining ground between the two, both in terms of analytical process with the unsurprising prescribed section of the Odyssey with her expressiveness and the extent of her result that every classical author ended up them. Over the course of the term the prior reading. sounding much the same. This seemed to students had acquired an excellent me to be fundamentally passive way of knowledge of the plot of the poem and engaging with literature. I was struck by could readily recall the sequence of events Muir’s contention that ‘the pupil should for each book. However, their Whole School Context not be a passive recipient in the study of interpretations of the characters often This study took place at an independent, literature’ (!974, p.515). Hence, I wanted tended to be simplistic and two- co-educational day and boarding school to devise a teaching strategy that would dimensional i.e. Odysseus is courageous; where, in 2017, 87% of the students enable my students to be more active in Penelope is faithful; the Suitors are evil. A achieved A* to C grades at A-level and the formulation of a personal response to consensus had developed in the class more than 34% of all results were at A* the text. whereby the elements of the poem that or A grade. On the one hand, I wanted the did not fit into these narrow categories students to develop a more sophisticated were overlooked. and nuanced appreciation of the ambiguities and ambivalences of the Literature Review poem. On the other, I did not wish the The Students students to merely regurgitate my Reader Response Theory interpretation of the poem or that of This study focuses on a top set class another scholar. I thought it important consisting of three pupils, each of whom One of the challenges of this research that each student feel sufficiently has a target grade of A. None of the project was to extend my students’ confident in their own reactions to the students study another classical subject or perception of what constitutes a valid

The Journal of Classics Teaching 20 (39) p.14-23 © The Classical Association 2019. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and Downloaded14 from https://www.cambridge.org/corereproduction in any medium,. IP providedaddress: 170.106.33.42 the original ,work on 24 is Sep properly 2021 at 03:16:05cited. , subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2058631019000035 form of reading and interpretation. Two rather than reacting to the text in a reactions to literature as vital to literary theoretical approaches implicitly personal or individual way. interpreting the meaning of the text. dominated my students’ attitude to An alternative theoretical framework Murfin suggests that it ‘focuses on what reading: historicism and new criticism (the is found within so-called new criticism, texts do to - or in - the mind of the reader, latter is often known as ‘formalism’). which takes a strictly formalist approach rather than regarding a text as something Historicism is a style of literary to literature, arguing that it exists in a with properties exclusively its own’ (1991, criticism that attempts to locate the domain that transcends history. One of p.253). Furthermore, Tucker has argued meaning of a text in its context. A the chief proponents of this approach, that this approach involves students in ‘an historicist interpretation essentially treats Cleanth Brooks, argues that ‘form is active, not passive, encounter with the the text as a historical document. So, for meaning’ and that one should not appeal literature…[and] validates them as critical example, reading the Odyssey in a to information outside of the text to readers who are capable of determining historicist manner yields information on interpret the text (1951). New critics view meaning in texts’ (2000, p.199). Both the cultural practices of eighth-century the text as an autonomous, artistic Murfin and Tucker argue for what could Greece such as guest-friendship, ritual construction rather than as a historical be termed hermeneutics of ambiguity. sacrifice and slavery and can tell us how product. In other words, if the meaning of a the Greeks of Homer’s day lived in From this perspective a poem is text is latent and opaque until activated religious, civic and military terms. In this considered to be a formal verbal object anew by each successive reader, this mode, Kahane argues that ‘poetry is never whose meaning is construed through implies that students are free to make detached from its historical surroundings ‘close reading’. In other words, the text interpretive suggestions. The coherence and Homer’s poetry, which tells the story rather than its context is treated as rather than the correctness of the of heroes and war, standard topics of primary rather than secondary. Reading suggestions is what matters. Students who historical writing, must also be seen through the lens of new criticism involves read under the rubric of reader-response against the background of historical, identifying a text’s stylistic features. theory do not need to master a body of social and material contexts’ (2012, p.18). Brooks suggests that a literary text is a knowledge in order to read the text. Reading in this manner, my three Classical ‘pattern of resolutions and balances and Putting the case extremely, Harold Bloom Civilisation students frequently tried to harmonisations’ (1947, p.203) Under this has argued, ‘the individual self is the only find examples in the text of where the model, the students’ task becomes a method…for apprehending aesthetic Ancient Greek laws of xenia (‘guest- matter of acquiring the knowledge value’ (1994, p.23). As long as they can friendship’) were violated or upheld. This necessary to discern this unity. render their viewpoint in the form of a had become the dominant concern of Fundamental to the new critical approach coherent, internally consistent argument, their reading. Van Nortwick suggests that is the notion that a text has a unified the interpretation of the student is valid a historicist pedagogy inculcates in meaning. Tyson argues that a new critical and admissible. Woodruff and Griffin students a sensitivity to anachronism reading must, by definition, identify the argue that this method enhances the (1997, p.188). Similarly, Said argues that formal features of a text and describe direct engagement of students with the works of Homer are best interpreted how they contribute to its ‘organic unity literature (2017, p.113). Moreover, my as manifestations of historical reality and theme of universal significance’ A-level Classical Civilisation students, (2011, p.77). In other words, the student is (1998, p.448). Franzak has argued that the when unburdened by the strictures of reading Homer in order to find out about new critical focus on unity and resolution historicism or formalism, seemed more Homeric Greece. has resulted in the dissemination of the readily able to comment on the text and A consequence of this approach is notion that there is ‘a single correct way to offer even tendentious opinions, though that students need a substantial amount the text’ (2008, p. 331). In a diametric always supported by textual evidence. of historical knowledge in order to be contrast to the historicist approach, However, reader-response theory able to engage with the text in the first students practising new criticism must be does have a significant potential place. This historicist approach to the text able to analyse the text on a formal level shortcoming. As Johnston has argued ‘it erects a barrier between the student and without appealing to contextual can ensnare us in our own values, the the text. One may accept Finley’s thesis information. values of our culture, rather than giving that the Homeric poems are narratives Franzak argues that both of these us a perspective from which we can that describe a concrete, historical reality approaches have been profoundly examine and criticize these values’ (2000). (1954, p.15) but, when teaching my small influential on literary pedagogy (2008, This is a salient critique of reader- group of Classical Civilisation students p.331) and both arguably inhibit students response theory. Both Bloom and for this research project, I found it from developing a personal response to Hammond argue that one of the necessary to take into account the the text. Among my own students, there fundamental features of classical potential for this view to inhibit, at least was a tendency to focus either exclusively literature is its strangeness, the extent to initially, the students’ engagement with on historical or stylistic matters. A third which it is not like our own lived the text. Within this pedagogical literary theoretical approach with a experience and therefore needs to be approach, students are not encouraged to different and perhaps more pedagogically translated in myriad ways in order to be derive a meaning from the poems in the efficacious emphasis is reader-response fully understood (Bloom 2011, p.16-24; absence of historical information. theory which argues that a text has no Hammond 2009, p.1-13). With my own Effectively, the students’ task becomes meaning before a reader experiences it. A-level students, I have found that assessing the text for its historical insight Reader-response criticism views readers’ encouraging them to develop a personal

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/coreUsing. IP classical address: reception170.106.33.42 to develop, on 24 Sepstudents’ 2021 at engagement 03:16:05, subject with classicalto the Cambridge literature Core in translation terms of use, available at 15 https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2058631019000035 response makes the text appear more text which responds in some way to the and sparred against, not merely replicated accessible. Nonetheless, I was conscious primary text. and mouthed’ (2013, p.3). This creative, of the fact that an interpretation Hardwick and Stray define classical pugnacious means of reading the classics predicated upon reader-response theory reception study as the analysis of ‘the way is codified with the tradition of classical could result in the students only in which Greek and Roman material has reception. Deacy has argued that once highlighting the parts of the text that been transmitted, translated, excerpted, students see the diversity of possible were familiar, relatable and ‘modern’. To interpreted, rewritten, re-imagined and interpretations of a given classical text, counteract this problem, I guided the re-presented’ (2008, p.1). Crucially, this they are generally more liable to venture students to react to some passages that I definition can include any literary an interpretation of their own (2015, p.4). considered to be ostensibly unfamiliar and composition that responds to a text. By engaging with the classics in this way, decidedly uncontemporary. Hardwick has also said that ‘reception my own students become part of the However, Seranis implicitly studies…focuses critical attention back chain of responses to seminal classical addressed Johnston’s critique, when he towards the ancient source and sometimes texts. argues that ‘naive interpretations need to frames new questions or retrieves aspects be taken as the starting point for helping of the source which have been Pedagogical Approaches to Fostering a Personal students strengthen their enjoyment and marginalized or forgotten’ (2003, p.4). Response to Classical Literature understanding of literature and become Though Hardwick is referring to the use aware of the reading activity as a process made by the scholarly community of In the classical pedagogical literature of that they have to engage with in order to classical reception material, this remark the 1960s and 1970s which I have further their aesthetic schemata’. (2004, can be given a pedagogical application. consulted, there is significant p.77). A reader-response pedagogy invites When reading a classical text, the reader disagreement about what the desired goal interpretations that are potentially may fail to observe crucial elements of of literary study is and how this goal, wrong-headed in order to get the students the composition. Being relatively new to however conceived, is best brought about. engaged by the matter of the text. Once classical studies, my A-level students had Both Doughty and Muir (Doughty the students’ have become engaged, other not yet necessarily developed the critical 1966; Muir 1974)) argue in favour of the critical faculties can be honed. capacity to know what to look for or what central importance for the teacher of One problem I find with Seranis’ to comment on. Telling the students what fostering a personal response to classical work and that of reader-response to look for was counter-productive in that literature in their students. Though theorists more generally is their these students merely sought out what neither offers a full definition of what arguments are predicated on the they have been instructed to find. They constitutes a personal response they each presumption that the students will indeed were then not forming their own opinion outline approaches that inhibit its have a personal reaction once presented but were merely substantiating that of development. On the one hand, Muir with a text. Muir suggests that ‘most their teacher. Reading an ancient source suggests that it is ‘neither the repetition ancient literature does not awaken an through the prism of a reception text of received authority nor the mechanical immediate response in pupils…there are meant that that students were implicitly application of a procedure; the pupil must barriers of remoteness, sophistication guided in their reading rather than play an active role in discovery and [and] means of expression’ (1974, p.515). instructed in what to think. explanation’ (1974, p.522). In essence, I have found that my A-level students In other words, the modus operandi Muir contends that a personal response needed a catalyst of provocation beyond of this way of reading is to investigate does not merely involve teaching students the text in order to be able to identify and how responses to a source can yield how to recount the argument of another articulate their responses. I thought that insight into the source itself. One of the scholar in their own words or to reiterate classical reception material might provide chief concerns within classical reception some or other technique of literary the necessary provocation. study is the response of the imagination analysis. In other words, he has observed to the classical past; an imaginative the problematic effects of historicist and Classical Reception Theory response is deemed as valid a mode of new critical pedagogies. Doughty, on the engagement as a scholarly one. Martindale other hand, defines the barrier to Though a pedagogy predicated upon neatly sums up the aesthetic fostering a personal response as ‘an reader-response theory may make it easier preoccupations of this approach when he aesthetic approach that is consistently for students to respond to texts by declares that ‘we need artists from the emotive [which]…can do no more than obviating the need for a mastery of a past as well as the present to help us see’ point to ‘beauties’ in the text, and develop prerequisite body of knowledge, the (2013, p.181). By reading a classical a language of elevated sentiment’ (1966, problem remains that students may still reception text, the readers’ vision is p.32). This often is no more than a find the text inaccessible and opaque. One sharpened. However, the reception text variation on the feature-spotting possible approach to ameliorating this merely aids this process; it does not previously mentioned: ‘I like it when problem may be the use of classical govern it. The reader is free to accept or Homer uses X feature to depict character reception material to provoke a student reject or qualify the interpretation Y’. The student puts forth no argument; response. Rather than requiring the provided by the classical text. In the they do not use their critical faculties. students to form an opinion of the process, they may start to develop their They merely identify a poetic technique primary text, they are asked to respond to own. As Beard has argued ‘the classical and praise it. This pedagogical approach a potentially more accessible secondary tradition is something to be engaged with, fosters anodyne veneration of the poet

Downloaded16 from https://www.cambridge.org/coreUsing. IP address: classical 170.106.33.42 reception to, on develop 24 Sep students’ 2021 at 03:16:05 engagement, subject with to theclassical Cambridge literature Core in terms translation of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2058631019000035 rather than critically-informed personal argues that a ‘detailed comparison of without the teacher first equipping the experience of the poem. Muir emphasises [ancient and modern] poems’ (1963, students with a basic knowledge of the the shortcomings of an oppressive p.100) enables his students to develop a text. A consequence of this view is that if insistence on objective fact; Doughty better response to ancient texts. a student finds the text impenetrable, condemns it as an excessively subjective imaginative empathy is difficult to interpretive free-for-all. Though it may be Pedagogical Approaches to Fostering a Personal accomplish. Implicit in Wood’s argument legitimate to say that the relative difficulty Response to English Literature is the notion that a student must be able of classical texts makes it difficult to to orientate themselves in the world of respond to them personally, neither Muir Even a brief perusal of some of the the text as a precondition of any kind of nor Doughty offer any clear strategies on scholarly literature concerning the fostering more personal response. how to overcome such a hurdle. of a personal response to English literature All of the scholars I have referred to Addressing this lacuna, Smith has reveals a distinct variety of approaches. agree that a teacher should provide some argued that students can engage with a Zabka has argued that it is lamentable manner of context for the text to be literary text most effectively when they do ‘aesthetic experience has been displaced by comprehensible. Nonetheless, this begs so imaginatively rather than critically an emphasis on supposedly more scientific the question which Wood does not (1973, p.297). He describes a student who or analytical approaches to literature’ (2016, address; namely what is the optimum wrote an essay on the character of p.230) as it prevents the students from amount of contextual material? I have Odysseus in which the student did not developing interpretations that are observed lessons at both my PP1 and PP2 recount the story of Odysseus’ returning ‘personally meaningful’ (2016, p.230) to schools where context was emphasised to home, but rather described how he them. Similarly, Vischer Bruns argues that such an extent that it displaced the text himself would have felt in the imaginary ‘an experience capable of facilitating and inhibited the latent capacities of situation of returning home to a houseful self-formation or carrying…personal those particular students to respond of unknown men trying to persuade his significance’ (2011, p.65) is denied students imaginatively, personally and ultimately mother to run off with them. Smith says when teachers adopt an excessively with understanding. that the student ‘probably got further into analytical approach to literary engagement. Odysseus’s situation than many other Both Zabka and Vischer Bruns argue for Conclusion pupils who appeared firmly located in the importance of allowing the students to Ithaca’ (1973, p.298). Smith argues that become swept up and engrossed by the text. While observing my A-level Classical this particular student’s sympathetic The emphasis each place on the concept of Civilisation students at my PP2 school, I understanding of Odysseus was enhanced ‘experience’ is analogous to the importance found that the historicist and formalist by being given the freedom to respond Smith attaches to ‘imagination’. All three methods to literary interpretation were imaginatively rather than by being writers put forward a pedagogical approach dominant. These approaches had what I required to take account of more founded on a view of literature as a trigger deemed to be an inhibiting effect on the empirical matters. In this respect, he is a for subjective experience rather than a students’ willingness to develop a reader-response theorist avant la lettre. domain for objective analysis. I agree with personal response to what they were Though his article is merely the anecdotal this judgement as I noticed that the three reading. Reader-response theory offered evidence of an individual case, rather than students whom I taught for this research an approach that was not only more a more fully-substantiated case study, it project needed to have a personal adaptable to the needs of my individual nonetheless suggests a potentially fruitful experience of the text in order for it to students but also allows for a multiplicity means by which a personal response engage them imaginatively. This appeared to of diverse responses Nonetheless, even could be prompted. be a necessary precondition for them to with such barriers removed, the students Kenney and Balme also suggest generate a more cogent response to the text. still struggled to identify and develop the additional ways in which a student’s Nevertheless, Wood adopts a more responses they were having to texts. This imagination could be stimulated and their critical attitude towards approaches that made me want to investigate the critical faculties engaged (Balme, 1963; initially emphasise a creative and personal hypothesis that reading poems about the Kenney, 1964). Both suggest that reading response to texts (2017). When observing Odyssey (i.e. classical reception material) classically-influenced English literature a group of Y9 students being taught would enable them to better articulate can enable the student to better Shakespeare, she found that requiring their own personal responses to the understand classical literature. In effect, them to engage in creative activities ‘as a poem. they are both advocates, albeit unwittingly, means of exploring an unfamiliar text… of classical reception theory. Kenney can lead to resistance and disengagement’ recommends his classics students to (2017, p.308). She noticed that students spend as much time as they can reading who were encouraged to dramatise certain Research Questions English literature while Balme argues that Shakespearean scenes or respond to the ‘parallels in English poetry often throw text in imaginative ways floundered My research questions are as follows: light on what the ancient writer really because they had not been given thorough means’ (1963, p.100). Both writers agree instruction in the intricacies of 1) How do students respond in class to that reading later literature enables Shakespearean language, plot and cultural the use of classical reception to help students to reach a superior context. Wood argues that a personal them develop a personal response to understanding of ancient literature. Balme response cannot effectively be fostered the Odyssey?

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/coreUsing. IP classical address: reception170.106.33.42 to develop, on 24 Sepstudents’ 2021 at engagement 03:16:05, subject with classicalto the Cambridge literature Core in translation terms of use, available at 17 https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2058631019000035 2) To what extent does the students’ Lesson 4 nonetheless, I was not as objective as an writing show the deepening of their Circe by A.D. Hope impartial observer would have been response to the Odyssey? Circe’s Power by Louise Gluck because I was, in effect, a participant Calypso by Derek Mahon observer. Therefore, any of my 3) How do the students say they value the Love of Odysseus and Athena by anonymous conclusions must necessarily be tentative. way in which classical reception This research project also displays material helped them develop a Each of the lessons involved interpreting others features of a case study in that it is personal response to the Odyssey? the views manifested in the various poems idiographic, naturalistic and interpretivist. and trying to see to what extent they Broadly speaking, educational research My data collection methods for the first differed or accorded with what the can be conducted according to two broad research question were the observations I students deemed to be the Homeric paradigms, namely nomothetic research made of the students’ responses after I had presentation. and idiographic research. Nomothetic conducted the classes. To answer the research is concerned with ‘general second research question, I primarily relied patterns and rules that once discovered on two essays written by the students for Methodology will be expected to be widely applicable’ homework in response to the material (Taber 2013, p.45). My class consisted of covered in class. I address the final research This research project contains elements three students so it was not possible to question by interviewing the students of two research methods, namely case extrapolate patterns or formulate rules about their experiences of and reactions to study and action research. During this based on such a small sample size. the classical reception material. research project I asked the students to However, even this group of three reflect on different elements of the presented significant differences from Odyssey by using poems inspired by the one another in terms of their command Teaching Sequence text to sharpen or question their of and interest in the Odyssey. Despite perceptions. In essence, I wanted to see being small in number, they nonetheless whether reflecting on poems inspired by resisted a homogenous characterisation. I taught two pairs of lessons over the the Odyssey would enable the students to Hence, idiographic research (which course of two weeks. The overall theme of better understand the Odyssey. Yin defines ‘recognises value in exploring the the first pair of lessons was the character of the case study research method ‘as an idiosyncrasies of the unique individual Odysseus while the theme of the second empirical inquiry that investigates a case’ (Taber 2013, p.45)) seemed like the pair was the role of female characters in the contemporary phenomenon within its research paradigm most likely to produce Odyssey. By this stage, the students had real life context; when the boundaries a worthwhile result. finished their first complete reading of the between phenomenon and context are I have been teaching this particular prescribed sections of the Odyssey. The first not clearly evident; and in which multiple class since the beginning of the term and lesson focused on determining what the sources of evidence are used’ (1984, p.23). began my case study in the last two weeks image of the oar in Book XXIII indicates Given that I was trying to determine the of the term. I was trying to preserve a about the character of Odysseus; the qualities of the students’ responses rather sense of continuity with the previous second focused on the life of Odysseus than the quantity of their recall, I classes, save for the fact that we were now after the action of the poem; the third determined that a case study was the most trying to reflect on classical reception focused on the character of Penelope; the potentially efficacious methodological materials in order to develop an last focused on major female characters in approach. understanding of the text, as opposed to the poem, in particular those of Circe, However, Verma and Mallick suggest conducting a close reading of the text. My Calypso and Athene. In order to gain that one of the defining features of action case study was naturalistic insofar as it insight into each of these themes, the research is that ‘the desired outcome is an rejected ‘the technology of manipulation students read later poetic interpretations of improvement in the teaching/learning (i.e. randomisation, matching and them. They read the following poems: situation’ (1999, p.93). Given I was also replication) that is the defining attribute Lesson 1 trying to effect a change/improvement in of experimental social research’ Wolfe Tone by Seamus Heaney the quality of the students’ response to (Hamilton 1980, p.78). I wanted to Oar by Moya Cannon the text, this research project is classifiable explore the impact of classical reception The Oar by Michael Longley as action research. In addition, Verma and material on the students’ thinking as Mallick argue that action research is unobtrusively as possible in the usual Lesson 2 undertaken by someone who ‘is normally classroom context. My case study is also, Ulysses by Alfred, Lord Tennyson both the researcher and practitioner’ by definition, a form of interpretivist Inferno XXVI by Dante Alighieri [trans. (1999, p.93). For this project, I not only research in that it ‘relies upon the Clive James] observed the students’ responses but was (inevitably somewhat subjective) also partly responsible for prompting interpretation of a particular human Lesson 3 them. My knowledge of the students’ being who will necessarily bring his or her Reunion by Louise Gluck interests and abilities enabled me to ask own idiosyncratic experiences and Penelope’s Despair by Yannis Ritsos them questions in such a way as to understanding to the interpretations An Ancient Gesture by Edna St. Vincent maximise the likelihood of a response made’ (Taber 2013, p.45). In other words, Millay that would be fruitful for the student; my determination as to the success or

Downloaded18 from https://www.cambridge.org/coreUsing. IP address: classical 170.106.33.42 reception to, on develop 24 Sep students’ 2021 at 03:16:05 engagement, subject with to theclassical Cambridge literature Core in terms translation of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2058631019000035 otherwise of this research is based on articulate in conversation and in his which there is a right answer which the qualitative rather than quantitative classroom contributions than in his teacher will provide. It is the students’ analysis. written work so an interview seemed the task to divine what this right answer is and best method of capturing his reactions to faithfully reproduce it in an exam. This the project. Student B showed an equal led to a staid consensus developing in Research Methods facility with both speaking and writing. their responses where the students were reluctant to pursue or develop any nascent In order to answer each of my research feelings of dissent. Prior to delivering the questions I adopted three distinct Qualitative Data and Findings lessons for this research project, I tried to approaches to gathering the necessary address this problem by giving the research data. Students’ Initial Attitudes to Homer students some provocative comments In respect of my first research from the scholarly literature to reflect question, I have relied primarily on my My primary aim during these lessons was upon. The students wholly adopted these own observations of the students’ to facilitate the students’ development of views rather than subjecting them to responses in class. These observations are an appreciation of the ambivalence of the critical scrutiny. Admittedly this is made based on notes taken by me on the same poem. The students associated the all the more challenging by the fact that day I conducted the classes and on my apparent clarity and directness of the scholarly literature is written in a subsequent reflections on these notes. Homeric style with two-dimensional persuasive register that is designed to be One of the chief problems associated simplicity. A discussion with the students unassailable. The students lacked the with this method of data-collection is that during the first lesson of their confidence in their own knowledge to it is based on my own admittedly understanding of oral composition mount any sort of refutation. As student subjective impressions of the students’ revealed that they associated orality with a C said ‘it’s hard to remember what I responses. There were no audio or visual kind of crude primitivism. As student B thought beforehand after reading the recordings of the class nor did a third put it, ‘Didn’t he [Homer] just use the scholarship’. Reading the scholarship party formally observe the lessons. I did same language over and over again to fill inhibited the students’ responsiveness not take notes of the students’ responses in the metre when he was singing the rather than enriching it. Nonetheless, I during the lesson but I did record as much poem on the spot?’. Their wanted them to begin to engage with the as I could remember immediately misunderstanding of the role of epithets responses of others in a way that caused afterwards. I did not wish to disrupt the resulted in the students reading with the them to reflect on their own views rather flow of the lesson by note-taking or to latent assumption that the complexity of than adopting the views they were inhibit the students’ responsiveness by Homer’s characters was no deeper than reading. Therefore, I suspected it may be recording them. their most common epithet i.e. Odysseus easier for the students to engage with To address my second research is intelligent, Penelope is faithful and so poetry inspired by the text rather than question, I required the students to write on. The students did not view even the scholarship analysing the text. A an essay in response to each pair of main characters of the poem as having comment made by student A at the end lessons. The questions were as follows: depth. As student A said, ‘They’re all fairly of our sequence of lessons was indicative Lessons 1 & 2 ‘Odysseus is a selfish straightforward’. The difficulty of the of the previously reductive attitude of the liar who has neither compassion for poem, as far as my students were students: ‘Sir, there is much more going human life nor the capacity for real concerned, lay at the level of diction on in this poem than you might think at change. Though he may return to Ithaca, rather than meaning. The needed to be first reading. Homer is cleverer than I he has no real desire to stay there.’ told what a brazier or a winnowing-fan is; thought!’. Similarly, student B commented Lessons 3 & 4 ‘The female characters why Odysseus, Penelope and the rest ‘So, most things in this poem could be of the Odyssey are little understood, behave as they do is self-evident. This interpreted in a few ways?’. The class had especially by Odysseus’. attitude extended towards all of the begun to understand the artifice, nuance, For each essay, they were asked to say poems’ characters: the suitors are ‘just sophistication and hermeneutic to what extent they agreed or disagreed evil’ (in the words of student B); Circe, indeterminacy of a text they had with the statement. They were also asked Calypso and Polyphemus are ‘savage previously thought of as an engaging but to substantiate their points with close monsters’ (in the words of student C). In nonetheless straightforward story. reference to the text and to subsequent effect, the students considered the poem creative interpretations of it. This method to be a clear, dualistic allegory of good The Image of the Oar and the Character of of data-collection is more tangible than versus evil. As a consequence, the Odysseus for the first research question. Student C students often neglected the more opaque in particular expresses himself much or symbolic parts of the poem. I wanted I began the sequence of lessons by asking more confidently in writing than orally so to problematise this reductive the students to reflect on the symbol of it allowed me to capture his reactions in a interpretation and consequently enrich the oar in Odyssey 23. They found it to be a format than was more amenable to him. their own response. deeply inscrutable image and could not To investigate my third research Allied to this viewpoint was the understand the significance of its question, I interviewed the students presupposition that there can be only one inclusion in the poem. As student B put it, within a week of the final lesson about valid interpretation. The students ‘I can see what Homer’s doing with their experiences. Student A is much more implicitly viewed the poem as a puzzle for Penelope and the bed – he’s saying that

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/coreUsing. IP classical address: reception170.106.33.42 to develop, on 24 Sepstudents’ 2021 at engagement 03:16:05, subject with classicalto the Cambridge literature Core in translation terms of use, available at 19 https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2058631019000035 Penelope is cunning like Odysseus – I poems on a similar theme manged to concepts like xenia (guest-friendship) or have no idea what’s going on in the oar engender two wholly different, but dike (justice). While these are crucial bit. What’s the point of it?’. Students A nonetheless legitimate, responses in the concepts for understanding the world of and C were similarly baffled by the image. students. Though each student was the poem, the students ‘intellectualised’ It seemed to strike them as a non- initially confused by the language of the mode of reading the poem stymied the sequitur. I asked the students what they poetry (as they confirmed to me in development of their own responses to thought Odysseus would do after interview), their views of Odysseus’ the situations of the characters. returning to Ithaca. Would he be content character were ultimately challenged. The students tended not to consider to remain there? All the students Student B changed her view by virtue of the often-unstated psychological motives responded in the affirmative. Student B reading Cannon; student C clarified his of the characters. Homeric silences were summed up the view of the class by own convictions about Odysseus by left unexplored. In order to prompt the saying ‘That’s all Odysseus has wanted for reading, understanding and finally students to reflect on what Odysseus’ the whole poem – to get home’. We read rejecting the view espoused by Ni ultimate motives are, I asked them to read together Cannon’s brief lyric poem on The Chuilleanain. The students defended their Tennyson’s Ulysses and the Ulysses section Oar. Initially the students were quite differing views in discussion, with student from Dante’s Inferno. In the former poem, confused by the poem. Its brevity seemed B representing Odysseus as a dauntless, Odysseus is depicted as a romantic to be the chief obstacle the students had romantic voyager and adventure-seeker voyager who becomes restless upon his in engaging with it. While I read the oar while student C viewed Odysseus as return to Ithaca and therefore resolves to section of Odyssey 23 aloud, I instructed courageously striving to be reunited with set sail for the edge of the known world; them to read Cannon’s poem and to look his family and take up the responsibilities in the latter, Odysseus is condemned to for any similarities to or differences from of home once again. Reading the poetry hell for enticing Ithacans to join him on the Odyssey. Student B quickly cited the had a significant impact on how the an adventure that he knows will bring passage which shows that Odysseus is students responded to the poem and led about their deaths. Neither Tennyson nor commanded to return home, whereupon to the class having nuanced debates with Dante think that Odysseus will be content she became quite dismissive of the poem one another rather than merely lapsing merely to remain on Ithaca. The saying that ‘It gets the details wrong’. I into incurious consensus. interpretations suggested by these poems asked the student to consider how the Each of the students noticed that genuinely seemed to come as a revelation poet might be offering an interpretation Heaney’s Wolfe Tone and Longley’s The Oar to students A and B. Prompted by of Homer’s character and not merely used the similar images but drew entirely Tennyson’s Ulysses student A wrote: committing an error which prompted her different conclusions about Odysseus’ ‘Odysseus will not be content when he to write, following reflection: ‘When he character. Student C found this difference comes back to Ithaca because he is goes to plant the oar, he will build his very difficult to justify: ‘How can they someone who craves and lives for house showing his resistance for [sic] even be reading the same poem? They adventures and guests. ‘How dull it is to going home. But also, how the oar can’t surely can’t both be right?’. I then asked pause, to make an end.’ Odysseus is saying be planted because the sea/world is the students to collaborate in creating a how we would not enjoy settling in Ithaca incapable of being fully explored – so spider-diagram of Odysseus’ character and I agree with this because just after he much to see. Planting the oar symbolises traits. Their suggestions ran the gamut reveals himself and kills all the suitors, he the end of a journey and his voyaging life. from ‘courageous’ to ‘sneaky’. At this is back out leaving Ithaca with Athene by I agree with the view of Cannon. He point, student C said, ‘Maybe the fact that his side on a new adventure’. Reading [Odysseus] is constantly wanting to go so many people think so many different Tennyson made student A look at away’. This reflection shows that reading a things about Odysseus tells us something Odysseus in a new way and crucially made classical reception text brought about not about Odysseus’. By reading mutually him go back to the poem to find evidence only a transformation in student B’s contradictory classical reception texts, to verify this new insight. Student A does thinking. It also gave her the platform student C had arrived at a deeper not merely regurgitate Tennyson’s upon which to construct a nuanced and appreciation of the nature of Odysseus’ argument. He deciphers the meaning of personal response to the text. polyvalent identity. He ceased to think of Tennyson’s poem and goes back to A poem with a similar theme to that Odysseus as a kind of cartoon figure and Homer to test this newfound of Cannon is Ni Chuilleanain’s The Second was able to think of him in a more interpretation. This is the process by Voyage where Odysseus’ oar ultimately profound way. which student A is able to make this connotes his restlessness and interpretation his own. Deconstructing dissatisfaction with remaining on Ithaca. the meaning of a poetic response to the Student C understood how to interpret Odysseus after the Odyssey Odyssey meant that the student felt in the poem but was not convinced of its greater possession of the insight it interpretation of Odysseus. He wrote in One of the difficulties the students had in yielded. reply: ‘Odysseus may have a yearning for deepening their engagement with the text Student B responded to Tennyson by new voyages but I think he is more is that they often thought about the story writing as follows: ‘Life on Ithaca is interested in heaping up his kleos and in quite abstract terms. For example, an boring and somewhere Odysseus will going back to organise his house’. In abiding concern for all three students never be happy. In comparison to the particular, student C mentions Odysseus’ when I took over the class was whether or adventures, journeys he goes on and the yearning for home in Odyssey I. These two not various characters upheld or violated infinite sea there is to explore. I agree with

Downloaded20 from https://www.cambridge.org/coreUsing. IP address: classical 170.106.33.42 reception to, on develop 24 Sep students’ 2021 at 03:16:05 engagement, subject with to theclassical Cambridge literature Core in terms translation of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2058631019000035 Tennyson, throughout his journey he has C’s previous certainty about the argue that Penelope is little understood, changed and wants the thrill and faithfulness of Penelope was brought into especially by Odysseus, as she is seen as adrenaline’. Student B’s view of the poem doubt by reading Ritsos’ poem. More the epitome of a perfect wife; when it is changed decisively by reading Tennyson importantly, however, is the fact that this clear some of her actions lead to us and her readings of Odysseus’ motives doubt sends the student back to the text, questioning this’. Having previously have since been filtered through the with the result being that his view of thought of Penelope as a paragon of Tennysonian perspective. Penelope has become more nuanced. uncomplicated fidelity, student A’s reading Student C responded to Dante’s Student B was initially quite insistent of a classical reception text has made him Ulysses by observing as follows: ‘Inferno that Penelope never wavers in her love for see more subtlety and ambiguity in the XXVI shows Odysseus is a foolish, Odysseus and her loathing for the suitors. source text. Student A’s opinions have manipulative, selfish liar. Indeed, in Book She regularly cited the views of Daniel become less conventional and, as a 9, he insisted to stay in Polyphemus’ cave Mendelsohn that the relationship of consequence more personalised. and let many of his men lose their lives. Penelope and Odysseus is marked by At last, he revealed his real name and got homophrosyne (like-mindedness). However, cursed by the Cyclops, risking his whole in the lesson following our discussion of Reinterpreting Other Female crew’s safety’. Student C had previously Ritsos’ poem, she drew attention to the described Odysseus is class as ‘virtuous’. significance of Penelope’s dream in Characters in the Odyssey Engaging with Dante’s ideas changed his Odyssey 19 where she grieves at the view of Odysseus; however, he did not slaughter of geese (representing the The students took a view of unalloyed merely assimilate Dante’s views untested. suitors) by an eagle (representing negativity towards many of the female He went back to the poem to find the Odysseus). She suggested that ‘maybe this characters in the poem, in particular Circe. evidence that would lend credence to is what Ritsos is getting at? Maybe When I asked the students to come up Dante’s viewpoint, by examining episodes Penelope liked the suitors on some level’. with words to describe her before reading from earlier in the epic. The interpretive adventurousness of some classical reception material they The difficulty of Dante and Ritsos encouraged the student to be more suggested ‘witch’, ‘evil’, ‘monstrous’ and Tennyson’s language presented a adventurous in her reading of the poem. ‘destructive’. Hope and Gluck in their significant challenge for the students. At She was willing to countenance the Circe poems each take a rather different least a third of the lesson had to be spent possibility that the relationship is view, with Hope depicting Circe as glossing unfamiliar vocabulary items and represented as being ambivalent in certain lovelorn and pitiably woebegone while turns of syntax. In future this problem respects. A similar development of Gluck depicts her as an admirably mighty could be mitigated by the provision of a student B’s views was observable in her agent of justice. simple glossary with the poems. reading of Gluck’s poem, Reunion when Student B once again changed her she suggests that ‘Penelope is little view on Circe after engaging with Hope Reinterpreting Penelope understood by Odysseus because she and Gluck. She writes that Circe ‘doesn’t knows what he has been doing over the keep Odysseus on Aeaea against his will, By requiring the students to read poetry past years he’s been away. This is shown unlike Calypso, as she volunteers to let inspired by the figure of Penelope, I when they met and all night they were them free – which is also emphasised in aimed to move the students’ responses to talking about small things, suggesting they Gluck’s poem. Circe is hugely Penelope beyond the simplistic. Each were talking about nothing. Odysseus misunderstood throughout the epic’. student asserted prior to these lessons leaves out information about his affairs Student C, in his interview with me, that they believed that Penelope did not but because of their homophrosyne [like- took the view that both Hope and Gluck recognise Odysseus until book 23 and mindedness] and her cunning she knows offer a distorted interpretation of the that there is no evidence that she does not what went on. Penelope is a character that character of Circe that is unsupported by love him without reservation. is misunderstood by…Odysseus as he Homer. In his essay, he wrote that ‘Homer Ritsos’ poem Penelope’s Despair implies doesn’t tell her the truth or his plan’. In didn’t mention if she really fell in love that Penelope immediately recognises other words, student B has reinterpreted with Odysseus’. Student C here Odysseus despite his disguise and is homophrosyne as an emblem not of the demonstrates a capacity to subject the disappointed by her husband. Ritsos goes strength of the characters’ marriage but as views of others to critical scrutiny. on to suggest that Penelope may have had the explanation for Penelope’s capacity to Student A adopts yet another view of a subconscious affection for the suitors. see through her husband’s deception. Circe when he suggests that ‘it is in fact Student C wrote in response that Student B re-evaluated the Odyssey in the Circe who is in control and has all the ‘Penelope has to show loyalty to her light of her reading of the poems inspired power… Odysseus has very little husband although she had aspirations in by it and recalibrated her own views understanding of female characters those suitors who Odysseus had just accordingly. Her opinions of the text as a because he generally believes he has killed… It is hard to interpret her true consequence became more personalised outsmarted a female demigod and feelings with the book not showing her and better argued. sorceress when, in reality, Circe has just let reactions. Penelope used to call Student A also wrote in response to him think that that is the case’. Each Amphinomus the ‘man of principle’, but Ritsos’ poem that Penelope’s dream student has taken something slightly expressed her hatred to the insolent ‘would suggest that she has developed a different from the poems. They have suitors like Antinous many times’. Student bond and feelings for the suitors which come to think of Circe in a new way or, in

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/coreUsing. IP classical address: reception170.106.33.42 to develop, on 24 Sepstudents’ 2021 at engagement 03:16:05, subject with classicalto the Cambridge literature Core in translation terms of use, available at 21 https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2058631019000035 the case of student C, have had their more inclined to risk introducing Hammond, P. (2009). The Strangeness of views challenged and had to respond with elements that would challenge the Tragedy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. a substantiated refutation. students and encourage them to develop a nuanced personal response. Hardwick, L. (2003). Reception Studies. Greece and Rome New Surveys in the Classics, No. 33. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Conclusion and Implications for Winner of the 2018 Roman Society Future Teaching PGCE Prize for The University of Hardwick, L., & Stray, C. (Eds.) (2008). A Cambridge. Shane Forde is a Companion to Classical Receptions. Oxford: Blackwell. Firstly, these three students responded teacher in the East Midlands well to reading poetry inspired by the [email protected] Johnston, A. (2000). Objectifying Sensibilities: Odyssey. They each agreed that they found Reader Response and its Discontents. Radical it a useful way to revise the primary text Pedagogy, 2(1). and said they would willingly do the Works Cited activity again. Most of the poems my Kahane, A. (2012). Homer. A Guide for the A-level students read are written from a Balme, M. (1963). Sixth Form Studies: Perplexed. London: Bloomsbury Academic. character’s perspective. In their interviews Classical Literature I. Didaskalos, 1(1), pp.96-106. Kenney, E. (1964). A theory of classical with me, each student said that they found education – II. Didaskalos, 1(2), pp.3-17. this element ‘very appealing’ and Barrow, R. (1963). Sixth Form Studies: engaging. The sheer oddity of some of Classical Literature II. Didaskalos, 1(1), Kossman, N. (Ed.) (2001). Gods and Mortals: these interpretations encouraged the pp.107-118. Modern Poems on Classical Myths. Oxford: students to think about the characters in Oxford University Press. ways they would have otherwise been Beard, M. (2013). Confronting the Classics. unlikely to. Great Britain: Profile Books. Knights, S. (2017). OCR Classical Civilisation AS and A Level Component 11: The World of Secondly the vividness of poetry the Hero. London: Bloomsbury Academic. makes it potentially more easily engaged Bloom, H. (1994). The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages. London and with than scholarship which is persuasive New York: Harcourt Brace. Martindale, C. (2013). Reception – a new in intent and logical in argument. Though humanism? Receptivity, pedagogy, the the language of some poetry can be Bloom, H. (2011). The Anatomy of Influence: transhistorical. Classical Receptions Journal, unfamiliar, this ultimately proved to be a Literature as a Way of Life. USA: Yale 5(1), 169-183. relatively superficial obstacle for this University Press. group of students. While the exam Mendelsohn, D. (2017). An Odyssey: A Father, a specification requires that students be Brooks, C. (1947). The Well Wrought Urn. Son and an Epic. Great Britain: William Collins. New York: Harcourt Brace. able to cite scholarly argument, my Muir, J. (1974). The study of ancient literature. students said they found it easier to Brooks, C. (1951). The Formalist Critics. The Didaskalos, 4(3), pp.513-522. engage with a poem rather than a Kenyon Review, 13(1). scholarly article. Admittedly, the small size Murfin, R. (1991). Reader-Response Criticism of the class makes it difficult to Deacy, S. (2015). Embedding equality and and ‘The Scarlet Letter’. In R. Murfin (Ed.), extrapolate generalities from this research diversity in the curriculum: a classics ‘The Scarlet Letter’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne: project. Nonetheless, in future I will practitioner’s guide. York: The Higher Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism. (pp. consider getting my students to read Education Academy. 252-261). Boston: Bedford. poetic/artistic interpretations of a text Said, S. (2011). Homer and the Odyssey. before they engage with scholarship. They Doughty, P. (1966). Aestimanda and the study of humane. Didaskalos, 2(1), 2139. Oxford: Oxford University Press. seemed more willing to debate the apparently tendentious argument of a Finley, M. (1954). The World of Odysseus. Seranis, P. (2004). Reader Response and poem rather than the seemingly New York: Viking Press. Classical Pedagogy: Teaching the ‘Odyssey’. The unassailable logic of a scholar. Classical World, 98(1), pp.61-77. Before I undertook this research Franzak, J. (2008). Language Arts: Reading and project all three students had a very Literacy in Adolescence and Young Smith, H. (1973). Some thoughts on the link simplistic, almost cartoonish view of the Adulthood. In T. Good (Ed.), 21st Century between research into pupils’ language and the teaching of classical studies. Didaskalos, 4(2), poem’s characters. They nearly always Education: A Reference Handbook (pp. pp.291-298. ignored the moments of ambiguity in the 325-335). London: Sage Publications. original text which serve to subvert their Hamilton, D. (1980). Some contrasting Taber, K. (2013). Classroom-based Research straightforward assumptions. However, assumptions about case study research and and Evidence-based Practice: An introduction much of the poetry we read survey analysis. In H. Simons (Ed.), Towards a (2nd ed.). London: Sage Publications. problematised the students’ previously Science of the Singular: Essays about Case superficial assessment of the poem. Study in Educational Research and Evaluation Tucker, L. (2000). Liberating students through Before this project I would have been (78-92). Norwich: Centre for Applied reader-response pedagogy in the introductory reluctant to emphasise ambiguity so as to Research in Education, University of East literature course. Teaching English in the Two-Year College, 28(2), pp.199-206. avoid confusing my students. I am now Anglia.

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