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Ryan Samuels Email: Rsamuels@Fas.Harvard.Edu Office Hours: by Appointment Location: Sever 112 Meeting Time: T Classics 98 (Junior Tutorial): City and Country in Greek and Roman Literature Fall 2011 Instructor: Ryan Samuels Email: [email protected] Office Hours: by appointment Location: Sever 112 Meeting Time: T. 2:00-4:00 p.m. Description & Aims: Rarely in Greek and Roman literature may city and country be considered in isolation, as one is generally defined against the other (or, in the language of modern theory, “Other”). The countryside is alternately a place of toil and of rest, of backwardness and of purity, while the city on the other hand may represent in turn refinement or excess, high culture or degeneracy. As we trace its ambivalent development across Tale of the town mouse and the country mouse time, space, and genre, the binary discourse of city Woodcut by Giovanni Maria Verdizotti, 1577 and country will serve as a lens through which we The Warburg Institute will also consider such related discursive pairs as page 166 agriculture and commerce, free and slave, male and female,Work Type wealth and illustration poverty, public and private, work and leisure, the active and the contemplativeDate 1577 life , the competing philosophies of Stoicism and Epicureanism, capital and province, indigenous and foreign, past and present, old and young/new, progress and decline. Emphasis will be on the development of familiarity with theoretical approaches to Greek and Latin texts and of practical research skills. Expectations and Policies: Students will give weekly presentations on individual assignments and actively contribute to discussion. Assigned readings and presentations represent a minimum, and students are expected to bring the results of additional primary and secondary research to each class. Attendance at every meeting is mandatory. It is the student’s responsibility to have absences excused with a doctor’s or resident dean’s note in advance or as soon as possible after the missed class in the event of unforeseen circumstances. Unexcused absences will negatively affect the component of the student’s grade allotted to attendance, preparation, and Portrait head of a man in rustic hat late 2nd c. BC performance and chronic unexcused lateness or absence may Villa Albani (Rome, Italy) be grounds for exclusion from the course. Unexcused absences will negatively affect the component of the student’s grade 1 Classics 98 (Junior Tutorial): City and Country in Greek and Roman Literature Fall 2011 allotted to attendance, preparation, and performance by 1/3 of a letter grade (e.g., A to A-) for each instance. 1/3 of a letter grade will be deducted on assignments for each day late. Required Texts: None. Readings will be circulated in paper form, posted to the course website, or placed on reserve. Some primary sources in English translation may be accessed online. Grading: Attendance, Preparation, & Performance 20% Weekly Presentations (15-20 mins) 20% Essay (4-6 pages, due 10/21) 15% Final Paper Prospectus (abstract and annotated bibliography, due 11/18) 5% Final Paper (20 pages, due 12/11) 40% Schedule: Week 1 (09/06) Introduction Shared Readings: Edwards, A. T. 1993. “Homer's ethical geography: country and city in the Odyssey.” Transactions of the American Philological Association 123: 27-78. ———. 2004. Chapter 6. “Persuading Perses.” In Hesiod’s Ascra. Berkeley: University of California Press. 176-84. Fowler, D. 1997. “On the Shoulders of Giants: Intertextuality and Classical Studies.” Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici 39, Memoria, arte allusiva, intertestualità. 13-34. Harrison, S. J. 2008. “Laudes Italiae (Georgics 2.136-175): Virgil as a Caesarian Hesiod.” In Urso, G., ed. Patria diversis gentibus una ?: unità politica e identità etniche nell'Italia antica: atti del convegno internazionale: Cividale del Friuli, 20-22 settembre 2007. Pisa: ETS. 231-242. Week 2 (09/13) Living Spaces Shared Readings: Cullyer, H. 2006. “Agroikia and Pleasure in Aristotle.” In Rosen, R. M. and Sluiter, I., edd. City, countryside, and the spatial organization of value in classical antiquity. Leiden and Boston: Brill. 181-217. Dalby, A. 2000. Chapter 7. “Saeva urbs.” Empire of Pleasures: Luxury and Indulgence in the Roman World. London and New York: Routledge. 208-42. Ramage, E. S. Chapter 4. “The Ciceronian Period.” In Urbanitas: ancient sophistication and refinement. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma for the University of Cincinnati. 52-76. Vernant, J. P. 2006. “Hesiod's Myth of the Races: An Essay in Structural Analysis.” In Myth and thought among the Greeks. New York: Zone Books; Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 25-52. 2 Classics 98 (Junior Tutorial): City and Country in Greek and Roman Literature Fall 2011 Individual Presentations: 1. Urban and Rural Housing 2. Urban and Rural Religion 3. Attic Demes and Roman Suburbs 4. Public and Private Space Week 3 (09/20) Working Spaces Shared Readings: Murnaghan, S. 2006. “Farming, Authority, and Truth-Telling in the Greek Tradition.” In Rosen, R. M. and Sluiter, I., edd. City, countryside, and the spatial organization of value in classical antiquity. Leiden and Boston: Brill. 93-118. Nelson, S. 1998. Chapter 3. “The Composition of the Georgics: Vergil’s Farm.” In God and the land: the metaphysics of farming in Hesiod and Vergil. New York: Oxford University Press. 82-97. Riikonen, H. 1976. “The attitude of Roman poets and orators to the countryside as a place for creative work.” Arctos 10: 75-85. Vernant, J. P. 2006. “Work and Nature in Ancient Greece.” In Myth and thought among the Greeks. New York: Zone Books; Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 275-92. Individual Presentations: 1. Slavery 2. Manual Labor 3. Trade 4. Marx, Weber, the “Consumer Model” Week 4 (09/27) The Gentleman Farmer Shared Readings: Astin, A. E. 1978. Chapter 9. “The De agricultura and Other Writings.” In Cato the Censor. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 182-210. Johnstone, S. 1994. “Virtuous Toil, Vicious Work: Xenophon on Aristocratic Style.” Classical Philology 89: 219-240. Reay, B. 2005. “Agriculture, Writing, and Cato's Aristocratic Self-Fashioning.” Classical Antiquity 24: 331- 361. Individual Presentations: 1. Cicero 2. Varro 3. L. Strauss and “Straussianism” 4. Foucault, Gender, and Sexuality 3 Classics 98 (Junior Tutorial): City and Country in Greek and Roman Literature Fall 2011 Week 5 (10/04) The other Other: the Sea and Seafaring Shared Readings: D’Arms, J. H. 1970. “Luxuria and the Bay of Naples” and “Baiae.” In Romans on the Bay of Naples. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 40-43. Huxley, H. H. 1951. “The perils and penalties of seafaring. A stock theme in Latin poetry.” Proceedings of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, Literary and Historical Section 6: 576-582. Rauh, N. K., Dillon, M. J., and McClain, T. D. 2008. “Ochlos nautikos: leisure culture and underclass discontent in the Roman maritime world.” In Hohlfelder, R. L. ed. The maritime world of ancient Rome: proceedings of “The Maritime World of Ancient Rome” conference held at the American Academy in Rome 27-29 March 2003. Anne Arbor: University of Michigan Press for the American Academy in Rome. 197-242. Reed, C. M. 2003. Chapter 6. “Unofficial attitudes toward maritime traders.” In Maritime Traders in the Ancient Greek World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 54-61. Rosen, R. M. 1990. “Poetry and sailing in Hesiod's Works and Days.” Classical Antiquity 9: 99-113. Individual Presentations: 1. Nautical Metaphor 2. The Propempticon 3. Seafood and Gastronomy 4. Piracy Week 6 (10/11) Attic Tragedy Primary Text: Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus. In Lloyd-Jones, H., ed. and trans. Sophocles. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994-96. [Smyth Classical G 8.635 v. 2] Shared Readings: Blundell, M. W. "The ideal of Athens in Oedipus at Colonus.” In Sommerstein, A. H. [et al.], edd. Tragedy, comedy and the polis: papers from the Greek drama conference. Nottingham, 18-20 July 1990. Bari: Levante. 287-306. Krummen, E. 1993. “Athens and Attica: polis and countryside in Greek tragedy.” In Sommerstein, A. H. [et al.], edd. Tragedy, comedy and the polis: papers from the Greek drama conference. Nottingham, 18-20 July 1990. Bari: Levante. 191-217. Segal, C. P. 1999. Chapter 2. “A Structural Approach to Greek Myth and Tragedy.” In Tragedy and Civilization: an Interpretation of Sophocles. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. 13-42. Individual Presentations: 1. Athenian Dramatic Festivals 2. Satyr Play 3. The Scapegoat 4. Euripides’ Bacchae 4 Classics 98 (Junior Tutorial): City and Country in Greek and Roman Literature Fall 2011 Week 7 (10/18) Old Comedy Primary Text: Aristophanes, Acharnians. In Henderson, J., ed. and trans. Aristophanes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998-2007. [Smyth Classical G 8.157 v. 1] Shared Readings: Compton-Engle, G. L. 1998-99. “From country to city: the persona of Dicaeopolis in Aristophanes' Acharnians.” The Classical Journal 94: 359-373. Fisher, N. R. E. 1993. “Multiple personalities and Dionysiac festivals: Dicaeopolis in Aristophanes' Acharnians.” Greece & Rome 2nd series 40: 31-47. Slater, N. W. 1993. “Space, character, and ἀπάτη: transformation and transvaluation in the Acharnians.” In Sommerstein, A. H. [et al.], edd. Tragedy, comedy and the polis: papers from the Greek drama conference. Nottingham, 18-20 July 1990. Bari: Levante, 397-415. Individual Presentations: 1. Aristophanes and Old Comedy 2. Origins of Comedy 3. Agroikia 4. Bakhtin and Carnival Essay due F. 10/21 Week 8 (10/25) New Comedy Primary Text: Menander, Dyskolos. In Arnott, W. G. Menander. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979-2000. [Smyth Classical G 8.466.5 v. 1] Shared Readings: Leigh, M. 2004. Chapter 4. “City, Land, and Sea: New Comedy and the Discourse of Economies.” In Comedy and the Rise of Rome. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 98-157. Lowe, N. J. 1987. "Tragic Space and Comic Timing in Menander's Dyskolos." Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 34: 126-38.
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