Module Catalogue 2024/25

Pre Requisite Comment

No previous knowledge of Latin or of the ancient world is needed.

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

The aim of this module is to introduce students to the main works of Latin elegy. The students will learn about the background of these texts and about methods of textual analysis. They will have ample opportunity to practise these methods for themselves. The students will also practise their writing skills in different contexts (close reading; essay).

Outline Of Syllabus

Latin elegiac literature is surrounded by a fundamental paradox: on the one hand, hardly any other genre seems to be governed by such a clear-cut list of themes that are supposed to be characteristic of the genre, such as the motif of the excluded lover (paraclausithyron), of the lover as soldier (militia amoris) or love as slavery (servitium amoris). On the other hand, hardly any other genre shows such a wide variety of works, ranging from love poetry, over instructions on how to fall in and out of love, love letters, and a didactic work on the Roman calendar, to the poetry of exile full of grief and longing – not for the beloved girl, but for the city of Rome.
In this module, we will examine the works that together constitute the genre of Latin elegy and discuss the questions raised by them individually and collectively: how do these works represent love, the beloved, and the process of writing about both? What do they have to say about the city of Rome, its origins and history, and the place of love in it? How do they convey the feeling of distance and longing? Throughout these discussions, we will have occasion to think about the heuristic value of genre as an analytical category, but also about the period of time when the vast majority of Roman elegies were written – the Augustan and early post-Augustan age –and its influence on literary production.

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

Students will learn about the wide variety of Latin elegiac texts and their political and cultural background. They will acquire knowledge on the key authors of Latin elegy (especially Tibullus, Propertius, and Ovid), on the main themes of their works, on their intertextual relationship with previous and contemporary works of literature, as well as of how these poems relate to their contemporary cultural and political context. The students will learn about key themes and topics of elegiac literature, but also about the flexibility of the genre and the many different types of literary discourse that can be expressed even within what looks like the tight constraints of the elegiac genre.

Intended Skill Outcomes

Students will learn, and have ample opportunity to practise for themselves, how to critically analyse Latin elegiac texts (in translation), both in terms of the close reading of individual words and themes and in terms of the analysis of a poem's broader structure and argumentative strategies, as well as its intertextual relationship with other poems. The students will discuss their interpretation of a passage orally as well as in writing.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

The lectures will introduce the relevant texts, their background and some of the secondary literature and demonstrate the kind of literary analysis of these texts, which the students will be expected to carry out in their close reading and essay. 2 hours of recorded lecture materials will provide essential information on how to prepare for assessments as well as key study skills. Seminar sessions will help us work toward that goal by providing a context for the discussion of selected passages of texts and secondary literature, as well as training students' skillls in orally presenting their thoughts. Drop-in sessions provide a space for the individual discussion of essay topic, essays and other questions relating to the lecture material.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The students will demonstrate their ability to think critically about and develop an interpretation of a text by writing a short (1000 words) close reading of a set passage. They will sketch out the main argument that they are planning to present in their oral presentation in a short (500 words) formative written piece. The students will demonstrate their ability to think critically about and develop an interpretation of a text by a 10-minute oral presentation, to be followed by 5 minutes of questions. The seminar sessions will allow the students to develop their skills in orally presenting their thoughts, and the formative assignment will help them develop their argument on the poem that they are planning to discuss for their presentation.

General Notes

N/A