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Cas Cl 230: the Golden Age of Latin Literature CAS CL 230: THE GOLDEN AGE OF LATIN LITERATURE In Workflow 1. CASCL Chair ([email protected]; [email protected]) 2. CAS Dean ([email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; jessmroh; lcherch; [email protected]; [email protected]) 3. GEC SubCommittees ([email protected]) 4. University Gen Ed Committee Chair ([email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]) 5. Final Approval ([email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]) Approval Path 1. Mon, 30 Oct 2017 14:00:40 GMT MEGHAN ELIZABETH KELLY (mekel): Approved for CASCL Chair New Proposal Date Submitted: Mon, 30 Oct 2017 12:21:14 GMT Viewing: The Golden Age of Latin Literature Last edit: Mon, 30 Oct 2017 12:21:14 GMT Changes proposed by: mekel Section One – Provenance of Proposal Proposer Information Name Title Email School/College Department Name Leah Kronenberg Assoc. Prof. [email protected] CAS Classical Studies Section Two – Course or Co-Curricular Activity Identifiers What are you proposing? Course College College of Arts & Sciences Department CLASSICAL STUDIES Subject Code CAS CL - Classical Studies Course Number 230 Course/Co-curricular Title The Golden Age of Latin Literature Short Title Gold Latin Lit This is: A New Course Did you participate in a CTL workshop for the development of this activity? No Bulletin (40-word) Course Description An in-depth exploration in English of some of the greatest poets from Ancient Rome, including Catullus, Virgil, and Ovid. Examines the Romans' engagement with Greek literature and the development of their own "Classics," from personal love poetry to profound epic. Prerequisites, if any: None Co-requisites, if any: None Courses, if any, for which this course will be a prerequisite: N/A Courses, if any, for which this course will be a co-requisite: N/A Cross-Listing Course Type (for Scheduling Purposes): Lecture/Discussion where course does not require separate discussion registration Delivery Type Face-to-Face Credits 4 Please justify this number of credits, with reference to BU’s Policy on Credit Assignment and to the combination of required contact hours and student effort detailed in your proposed course syllabus. This course involves three contact hours / week and extensive reading and writing assignments. While at times the actual pages assigned may seem small, the poetry assigned is so dense and complex that it requires reading and re-reading for full comprehension. Frequent writing assignments and presentations will ensure that the readings are being carefully done, and success in the class will demand 9 hours of independent work/ week. Is this course repeatable for additional credit? No Section Three – Scheduling and Enrollment Information Proposed first (or for existing course) next semester to be offered Fall 2018 Proposed Last semester to be offered: Offer Indefinitely Full semester course/activity? Yes Course/Activity Location Charles River Campus Course/Activity offering pattern Every Fall What is your projected minimum capacity across all semesters and sections in an academic year? 20 What is your projected maximum capacity across all semesters and sections in an academic year? 50 Please explain the basis for anticipating this enrollment total While this is a new course, I have studied enrollments in similar courses at the 200 level to form this estimate. Provide full detail if enrollment is expected to vary, for example, between Fall and Spring semesters Does this course have capacity for more students to enroll? Yes Do you propose to reserve seats for specific student populations? No Section Four - General Education Are you proposing (only for freshmen entering BU before September 2018 and transfer students entering before September 2020) that this course/ activity fulfill current general education requirements? Yes Which Requirements? Humanities Divisional Requirement Are you proposing this course/activity for inclusion in the BU Hub program of general education for all freshman who enter BU in or after September 2018? Yes 1. Philosophical, Aesthetic, and Historical Interpretation Aesthetic Exploration Historical Consciousness Aesthetic Outcome 1 Students will read, analyze and discuss some of the most famous works of literature for the 1st century BC Rome, including the poetry of Catullus, the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid of Virgil, and selections from the Amores and Metamorphoses of Ovid. Lectures and discussions will be interactive and focused on teaching students to become interpreters of literature and to reflect on why these works of literature continue to have meaning for us today. Since these works of literature all come from a period of about 60 years, we will also aim to investigate in some detail the historical context of their production and to think about what conditions led to the great flowering of Latin literature in this period, such that we still refer to it as the "Golden Age of Latin Literature" today. In addition to assessing their knowledge through discussions and short in-class presentations in wihch a student takes the lead in presenting a short passage of poetry for analysis by the class, they will be assessed on a mid-term and final exam, which will require them to identify passages of literature and analyze them, as well as answer questions abotu historial context. They will also be assessed on a more formal written paper, about which I comment more below. Aesthetic Outcome 2 My main goal in the class is precisely this: to teach students to perform themselves the sort of analysis of Latin literature that I model in my lectures and discussion questions posed to the class. We will discuss issues pertaining to authorial intent and the problems of interpretation, and I will introduce them to some of the key vocabulary terms used frequently in analysis of Latin literature, such as the concepts of intertextuality and literary allusion, metaphor, simile, imagery, ekphrasis, genre, and meter. Aesthetic Outcome 3 The midterm and final exams will require students to analyze passages of literature, and the final exam will also include a creative option (one of my favorites: write the start of the thirteenth book of the Aeneid-- a work that finishes with a famously abrupt and bleak ending in Book 12!). The final paper will also require students to master the analytical style of writing about literature. Historical Outcome 1 One of the reasons that I choose to focus the class on authors such as Catullus, Virgil, and Ovid is not just because they have an interesting literary dialogue with each other, but because they all participate in an interesting political dialogue and are useful for examining the dynamic political events of their time, including the dictatorship and assassination of Julius Caesar, and the resulting civil wars and rise of Augustus. In particular with Virgil and Ovid, almost all literary interpretations of their poems will be forced to confront the question of their attitude towards Augustus and the events that led to his rise-- so these are truly authors for which historical and literary exploration go hand in hand. I will present historical information in my lectures and evaluate student's understanding of the historical background on mditerm and final exam questions. Historical Outcome 2 Several of the passages on their midterms and final exams will require the students to comment on the historical context of the passage-- particularly passages from Catullus that reference Julius Caesar, or passages from Virgil or Ovid that reference Augustus, whether explicitly or obliquely. Students will be introduced to the "pro-" and "anti-" Augustan schools of thought on interpretting Virgil and Ovid (as well as the possible shortcomings of such a simplistic dichotomy) and urged to take a position in that scholarly debate. Historical Outcome 3 The first century BC is a tremendously exciting historical time period for students to study and an excellent way to introduce students to the basic principles of Roman government, Roman values, and intellectual traditions---all of which are crucial background to making sense of the literature of this time period. I will in particular focus on the breakdown of the Roman Republic and what it mean to transition to an "empire" (and we'll discuss the different meanings of the word empire, as well as whether it is appropriate to refer to Augustus as the "first Roman emperor", as he is somestimes labeled by modern historians). We will also learn about Roman religion, how it differs from many modern religions, and how Roman philosophical traditions fit in. 2. Scientific and Social Inquiry 3. Quantitative Reasoning 4. Diversity, Civic Engagement, and Global Citizenship 5. Communication Intellectual Toolkit Research and Information Literacy Research Outcome 1 For a discipline that studies some of the most ancient texts, we have long been at the forefront of digital humanities and BU in particular offers students access to some phenomenal research resources for the Classics. In this course, the final paper will require students to learn to use sources such as the online Loeb Classical Library, the New Pauly (Classics encyclopedia), the Oxford Classical Dictionary, L'Année Philologique (bibliographica database), and journal collections such as JSTOR and Project Muse to find appropriate primary and secondary sources to incorporate into their papers. They will also be encouraged to use a library the "old-fashioned" way and track down at least one print source for their bibliographies that was not available online. We will also discuss the differences between a source like the New Pauly or the Oxford Classical Dictionary and a source like Wikipedia, and particularly what the pros and cons are of freely available information on the internet. Research Outcome 2 In the second half of the course, we will start figuring out not just how to analyze works of literature ourselves, but how to fit our own analysis of a work of literature into a scholarly dialogue on the topic-- in other words, how to write a research paper and what it means to do literary research-- something which is probably not readily apparent to students in the course who haven't taken a humanities course yet.
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