Undergraduate Course: Latin Satire (LATI10004)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Satire is an entertaining, provocative, and powerful literary genre that the Romans claimed as their own invention. Horace (65 BC-AD 8), Persius (AD 34-62), Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC - AD 65), and Juvenal (ca. AD 60-130s) will be read in Latin with due consideration to genre, literary technique, and ideology. Themes of satire, and so of this course, include society, morality, class, politics, authority, freedom of speech, patronage, literature, food, sex, and obscenity. |
| Course description |
The satiric texts studied in this course will include selections (usually complete books) from Horace, Persius, Seneca (Apocolocyntosis) and Juvenal. The teaching programme is broadly divided into two phases: the first will introduce the satirists in chronological order, examining in each case what and when they wrote, and looking at what the satirists themselves say about their genre; the second part of the course will focus on a number of themes common to each of the satirists. Within this structure, through lectures and seminars, students will (i) focus on satiric language and style, convention and literary technique; (ii) practise literary-critical methodologies of use in the study of satire; (iii) combine close analysis of the texts with discussion of wider themes and contexts. The following eleven-week schedule (which may change according to the interests of the lecturer) will give an indication of the shape of the course in any given year:
Week 1: Introduction: the origins of Roman Satire; approaches to satire ancient and modern
Week 2: Horace: text & context; programmatic satire
Week 3: Persius: text & context; programmatic satire
Week 4: Seneca: text & context; programmatic satire
Week 5: Juvenal: text & context; programmatic satire
Week 6: Satiric themes: class and patronage
Week 7: Satiric themes: gender and sexuality
Week 8: Satiric themes: town and country
Week 9: Satiric themes: philosophy and food
Week 10: Satiric themes: epic parody
Week 11: Conclusion and overview
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
Students MUST have passed:
Latin 2A (LATI08011) AND
Latin 2B (LATI08012)
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | Copy of the prescribed text/s. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Advanced-level ability in Latin language and literature, equivalent to two years' study at the University of Edinburgh (if uncertain, consult the course organiser). |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- demonstrate through written coursework assignments, oral presentation and tutorial discussion, and written examination knowledge of the principal features of Latin Satire (specifically its authors and texts; language and style; origins and development; conventions and themes; generic identity; literary, philosophical and historical contexts)
- demonstrate through written coursework assignments, oral presentation and tutorial discussion, and written examination the ability to translate and comment critically on passages selected with a degree of unpredictability, and to relate these to the wider literary and historical framework
- demonstrate through written coursework assignments, oral presentation and tutorial discussion, and written examination command of the principal approaches to Latin Satire, and understanding of how these have developed over time (e.g., literary-critical, 'new historical', gendered, intertextual
- demonstrate through written coursework assignments, oral presentation and tutorial discussion, and written examination detailed knowledge of how Latin Satire reflects the contexts (especially literary, philosophical, social and political) in which it was produced
- demonstrate through written coursework assignments, oral presentation and tutorial discussion, and written examination the ability to apply suitable specialist methodologies to reading Latin Satire, and to evolve coherent and well-researched written and oral interpretations of the text on topics chosen with a degree of unpredictability.
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Reading List
Braund, S.H. (1996) The Roman Satirists and their Masks. Bristol.
Braund, S.H. (1996) Juvenal Satires Book I. Cambridge.
Coffey, M. (1976) Roman Satire. London, NY.
Freudenburg, K. (2001) Satires of Rome: Threatening Poses from Lucilius to Juvenal. Cambridge.
Freudenburg, K. (ed.) (2005) The Cambridge Companion to Roman Satire. Cambridge.
Gowers, E. (2012) Horace. Satires. Book 1. Cambridge.
Hutchinson, G.O. (1993) Latin Literature from Seneca to Juvenal: a Critical Study. Oxford.
Keane, C. (2006) Figuring Genre in Roman Satire. Oxford.
Morgan, Ll. (2005) 'Satire' in S.J. Harrison (ed.) A Companion to Latin Literature. Blackwell. 174-88.
Quintero, R. (2007) (ed.) A Companion to Satire Ancient and Modern. Blackwell: Malden & Oxford.
Richlin, A. (1992) The Garden of Priapus. NY, Oxford.
Rosen, R.M. (2007) Making Mockery: The Poetics of Ancient Satire. Oxford.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Special Arrangements |
In order for a student from outwith Classics to be enrolled on this course, contact must be made with a Course Secretary on 50 3580 in order for approval to be obtained. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Donncha O'Rourke
Tel: (0131 6)50 3771
Email: |
Course secretary | Mrs Toni Wigglesworth
Tel: (0131 6)50 3580
Email: |
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