Undergraduate Course: Amor and Roma: Latin love-elegy (LATI10035)
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 | To read Roman love-elegy is to experience one of the liveliest, most socially-engaged, and provocative literary genres of the Augustan Age written by some of its most celebrated poets: Propertius (c. 50 - 10 BC), Tibullus (c. 55 - 18 BC), and Ovid (43 BC - AD 17). This course aims to equip students to become effective readers of elegy, cognizant of the origins, style and conventions of the genre, of its individual authors and texts, and of the social and political contexts of the early Empire of which it is the product, but which it also constructs and interrogates. In this way, alongside guided reading of the primary texts and secondary scholarship, students will be encouraged to explore how, and with what implications, the elegiac genre experiments and innovates, in particular by expanding its thematic confines outwards from the private world of 'amor' to the public world of 'Roma'.
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| Course description |
The elegiac texts studied in this course will include selections (usually complete books) from Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid. The teaching programme is arranged thematically, so that the elegists' handling of the genre and their views on a range issues can be compared and contrasted. Within this structure, lectures and workshops will aim to practise select critical methodologies of use in the study of elegy, with close analysis of the text and tutorial-style discussion of wider themes and contexts. The following eleven-week schedule (which may change according to the interests of the lecturer) will indicate the shape of the course in any given year:
1. Introduction: elegy and its origins
2. Elegiac tropes, conventions and generic composition
3. Poetics: the recusatio and generic identity
4. The mistress as metaphor
5. Amor and mors
6. Elegy and the Law
7. Elegiac narratives
8. Elegiac intertextuality and intratextuality
9.Elegy and empire
10. Aetiological elegy
11. Canonicity and the elegiac poetry-book
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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 | A pass in Latin 2A and Latin 2B, with an average of 50% or above in the two courses combined. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should usually have at least 3 courses in Classics related subject matter (at least 2 of which should be in Latin) at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this) for entry to this course. We will only consider University/College level courses but Elementary or Intermediate Latin courses will not count.
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| 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 Roman elegy (specifically its authors and texts, language and style, origins and development, conventions and themes)
- demonstrate, through written coursework assignments, oral presentation and tutorial discussion, and written examination the ability to translate elegy confidently, to comment critically and incisively on passages selected with a degree of unpredictability, and to relate these to the wider generic framework
- demonstrate, through written coursework assignments, oral presentation and tutorial discussion, and written examination command of the principal approaches to elegy, and understanding of how these have developed over time (e.g., philological, literary-critical, 'new historical', gendered, intertextual)
- demonstrate, through written coursework assignments, oral presentation and tutorial discussion, and written examination detailed knowledge of how elegy reflects the contexts (especially literary and sociopolitical) 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 elegy, 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
Allen, A.W. (1950) '"Sincerity" and the Roman Elegists.' Classical Philology 45: 145-60.
Boyd, B.W. (1997) Ovid's Literary Loves: Influence and Innovation in the Amores. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Cairns, F. (1972) Generic Composition in Greek and Roman Poetry. Edinburgh.
Caston, R. R. (2012) The Elegiac Passion: Jealousy in Roman Love Elegy. Oxford.
DeBrohun, J.B. (2002) Roman Propertius and the Reinvention of Elegy. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Gibson, R.K. (2005) 'Roman Love Elegy.' In S.J. Harrison (ed.) The Blackwell Companion to Latin Literature. Malden, MA and Oxford. 159-73.
Gold, B.K. (ed.). (2012) A Companion to Roman Love Elegy (Blackwell Companions to the Ancient |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
- the ability to review critically and to consolidate knowledge and skills in a given area
- the ability to identify, define and analyse complex concepts
- written and verbal communication skills
- the ability to digest large quantities of textual material
- time-management skills
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| Keywords | Latin Love-Elegy |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Donncha O'Rourke
Tel: (0131 6)50 3771
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Stephanie Blakey
Tel: (0131 6)50 3580
Email: |
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