Greek Tragedy in the 21st Century

 

Professor: Lauren Curtis  

 

Course Number: CLAS 119

CRN Number: 10107

Class cap: 22

Credits: 4

 

Schedule/Location:

 Tue  Thurs    11:50 AM - 1:10 PM Olin 204

 

Distributional Area:

FL  Foreign Languages and Lit   

 

Crosslists: Human Rights; Theater and Performance

In ancient Athens, citizens gathered each year to use the spectacle and storytelling of Greek tragedy to explore urgent contemporary questions. How do we make good moral decisions? How do we deal with the aftermath of war and displacement?  Should we still put our faith in traditional institutions? Centuries later, artists still adapt classical tragedies in response to the issues of our own world. What makes Greek tragedy such a resonant medium today? How have artists from the contemporary USA, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa reimagined and reinvigorated it? In this course, we will read a series of ancient Greek tragedies in dialogue with modern adaptations by writers and producers such as Luis Alfaro, Yaël Farber, Sara Uribe Sánchez and Itab Azzam, and collectives including the Trojan Women Project, Aquila Theater, and Theater of War. In addition to their critical work, students will attend public performances of Greek tragedy and have the opportunity to create their own adaptation. This course is part of Bard's Center for Ethics and Writing. All readings are English, and no background knowledge is required.

 

The Roman World: An Introduction

 

Professor: David Ungvary  

 

Course Number: CLAS 122

CRN Number: 10108

Class cap: 22

Credits: 4

 

Schedule/Location:

Mon  Wed     11:50 AM - 1:10 PM Reem Kayden Center 103

 

Distributional Area:

HA  Historical Analysis   

 

Crosslists: Historical Studies

How did a small village in Italy become the center of one of the largest empires in the ancient world? What did it mean to be “Roman” in a multicultural empire that stretched, at its height, from the Atlantic coast of Europe and north Africa to Albania, Egypt and Iraq? This course will give you a broad overview of Roman history. It will also use a series of focused case studies, based on close analysis of ancient evidence such as coins, visual culture, and literary documents, to explore how Romans from all walks of life shaped and were shaped by the society they lived in. This course is open to all students and has no prerequisites. Assignments will involve short writing responses, quizzes, and a final project.

 

Ancient Egypt: From the Pyramids to the Ptolemies and Beyond

 

Professor: Robert Cioffi  

 

Course Number: CLAS 206

CRN Number: 10690

Class cap: 22

Credits: 4

 

Schedule/Location:

 Tue  Thurs    1:30 PM - 2:50 PM Olin Language Center 115

 

Distributional Area:

HA  Historical Analysis   

 

Crosslists: Historical Studies; Middle Eastern Studies

For more than three millennia, the Nile River Valley supported one of the oldest, richest, and most venerable ancient civilizations in the Mediterranean basin. A land of pharaohs and priests, sphinxes and pyramids, Egypt was a source of gold and grain, the inventor of one the world’s oldest writing systems, and home to a proud ideology of self-governance and independence. In this course, we will discover ancient Egyptian history, literature, religion, culture, and archaeology from its origins to the pyramid builders of the Old Kingdom to the so-called classical period of the Middle Kingdom to the pharaohs Akhenaten and Tutankhaten of the New Kingdom to the Assyrians, Persians, Macedonian Greeks, and, finally, Romans who ruled Egypt from the middle of the first millennium BCE until the Byzantine period in the fourth century CE. The course will also investigate how Egyptian history has been, is being, and will be written—from Manetho, a bilingual priest working in the third century BCE, to the role of (largely) European archaeologists and philologists in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as the current state of excavation and scholarship in the twenty-first century. Readings and materials to study will include: The Shipwrecked Sailor, the Book of the Dead, Setne, Herodotus, Manetho, Egyptian Apocalyptic Literature, and documentary texts; the sites of Memphis, Giza, Amarna, Alexandria, and Hemopolis Magna. Course will be conducted in English; no prior experience required.

 

Roman Religions: Paganism and Christianity

 

Professor: David Ungvary  

 

Course Number: CLAS 328

CRN Number: 10109

Class cap: 15

Credits: 4

 

Schedule/Location:

  Wed     3:30 PM - 5:50 PM Olin 310

 

Distributional Area:

MBV  Meaning, Being, Value   

 

Crosslists: Latin; Medieval Studies; Study of Religions

In the minds of ancient Romans, what separated Tartarus from Hell, or Olympus from Heaven? What difference was there between a Vestal Virgin and a Christian nun? What overlap existed between the power of Jupiter and Jesus Christ? And how did belief in the latter eventually win out in the Roman Empire? This is a course for students who want to explore the history of ancient Roman religion, and to understand how its traditions, practices, and structures were transformed by the rise of Christianity in the Mediterranean world. At the center of our inquiry is the problem of “the pagan”: a contested category of religious identity that was innovated upon by early Christian thinkers. A focus on the construction of the pagan as a “religious other” in antiquity will lead us to pursue broader questions about the nature of cultural “conversion,” the creative possibilities of merging distinct systems of faith, and the relationship between individual spirituality and institutional religion. Readings from authors such as Lucretius, Virgil, St. Paul, Marcus Aurelius, and Augustine will inform our study. All texts will be available in English translation. The course is open to all interested students. *Note: For students with advanced Latin, this seminar will involve an additional weekly meeting (1 hour, time TBD) devoted to reading texts in the original language. Students in the Latin reading section will get credit for translation work in lieu of certain writing requirements in the seminar.*

 

Ancient Literary Criticism

 

Professor: Daniel Mendelsohn  

 

Course Number: CLAS 329

CRN Number: 10110

Class cap: 15

Credits: 4

 

Schedule/Location:

 Tue      12:30 PM - 2:50 PM Olin 305

 

Distributional Area:

FL  Foreign Languages and Lit   

 

Crosslists: Greek; Literature; Written Arts

From the Italian Renaissance on, classical scholars have devoted themselves to understanding the literature of ancient Greece and Rome. But what did the ancients have to say about their own literature? Quite a lot, as it turns out—both indirectly and directly. Homer’s Odyssey quotes, responds to, and often challenges his Iliad; Euripides’ Elektra parodies Aeschylus’ Oresteia; Aristophanes wrote two comedies poking fun at Euripides. Later, the terms of literary criticism as the genre we recognize today were established by Plato, who focused on issues of the ethics of representation and the role of the arts in culture and politics, and Aristotle, whose Poetics examined formal elements such as plot, structure, and characterization. Under the Romans, literary criticism written in both Greek and Latin flourished: Demetrius’ On Style, Horace’s Art of Poetry, Longinus’ On the Sublime examined both technical and aesthetic elements of writing. This course will introduce students to a wide variety of readings from these and other Greek and Latin authors. All readings will be available in English translation. *Note: for students with advanced Greek, this seminar will involve an additional weekly meeting devoted to reading texts in the original language. Students who participate in the Greek reading section will be exempted from certain writing requirements for the seminar, and may count the course toward the Philology track of the Classical Studies major.* 

 

Cross-listed Courses:

 

Archaeology and Colonial Entanglements

 

Course Number: ARTH 264

CRN Number: 10089

Class cap: 22

Credits: 4

 

Professor:

Anne Chen

 

Schedule/Location:

 Tue  Thurs    11:50 AM - 1:10 PM Olin 102

 

Distributional Area:

AA  Analysis of Art   

 

Crosslists:

Anthropology; Classical Studies; Human Rights; Middle Eastern Studies

 

Dura-Europos and the Problems of Archaeological Archives

 

Course Number: ARTH 318

CRN Number: 10098

Class cap: 15

Credits: 4

 

Professor:

Anne Chen

 

Schedule/Location:

  Wed     9:10 AM - 11:30 AM Fisher Studio Arts ANNEX

 

Distributional Area:

AA  Analysis of Art   

 

Crosslists:

Classical Studies; Experimental Humanities; Human Rights; Middle Eastern Studies

 

Does Might Make Right?

 

Professor: Thomas Bartscherer  

 

Course Number: HR 346 OSU

CRN Number: 10636

Class cap: 15

Credits: 4

 

Schedule/Location:

 Tue      9:10 AM - 11:30 AM OSUN Course

 

Distributional Area:

MBV  Meaning, Being, Value   

 

Crosslists: Classical Studies; Literature

 

Introduction to Philosophy: Slavery

 

Course Number: PHIL 129

CRN Number: 10208

Class cap: 22

Credits: 4

 

Professor:

Jay Elliott

 

Schedule/Location:

Mon  Wed     8:30 AM - 9:50 AM Olin 203

 

Distributional Area:

MBV  Meaning, Being, Value  D+J Difference and Justice

 

Crosslists:

Africana Studies; Classical Studies; Human Rights

 

Classical Languages: Greek

Interested in beginning Latin or Ancient Greek from scratch? Latin 101 and Greek 101 are offered every fall. Please contact program director Lauren Curtis, lcurtis@bard.edu with any questions!

 

Beginning Greek II

 

Professor: Tyler Archer  

 

Course Number: GRE 102

CRN Number: 10118

Class cap: 22

Credits: 4

 

Schedule/Location:

Mon Tue Wed Thurs    10:10 AM - 11:10 AM Hegeman 200

 

Distributional Area:

FL  Foreign Languages and Lit   

 

Crosslists: Classical Studies

This course, the second semester of the introductory Ancient Greek sequence, is designed to build on the foundations of Greek 101. Regular grammatical exercises and drills will be combined with an emphasis on developing skills for translating, reading, and interpreting Greek literature, with longer passages from classical authors as the semester continues. Prerequisite: Greek 101 or equivalent with the permission of the instructor (tarcher@bard.edu).

 

Readings in Greek Literature

 

Professor: Lauren Curtis  

 

Course Number: GRE 202

CRN Number: 10119

Class cap: 22

Credits: 4

 

Schedule/Location:

        -  

 

Distributional Area:

FL  Foreign Languages and Lit   

 

 

We will immerse ourselves in reading original Greek texts (selection to be determined closer to the time based on student interest and experience) while continuing to solidify grammar, vocabulary, and reading skills. This course is a continuation of Greek 201.  Twice-weekly time to be arranged with the instructor.

 

Ancient Literary Criticism

 

Professor: Daniel Mendelsohn  

 

Course Number: CLAS 329

CRN Number: 10110

Class cap: 15

Credits: 4

 

Schedule/Location:

 Tue      12:30 PM - 2:50 PM Olin 305

 

Distributional Area:

FL  Foreign Languages and Lit   

 

Crosslists: Greek; Literature; Written Arts

From the Italian Renaissance on, classical scholars have devoted themselves to understanding the literature of ancient Greece and Rome. But what did the ancients have to say about their own literature? Quite a lot, as it turns out—both indirectly and directly. Homer’s Odyssey quotes, responds to, and often challenges his Iliad; Euripides’ Elektra parodies Aeschylus’ Oresteia; Aristophanes wrote two comedies poking fun at Euripides. Later, the terms of literary criticism as the genre we recognize today were established by Plato, who focused on issues of the ethics of representation and the role of the arts in culture and politics, and Aristotle, whose Poetics examined formal elements such as plot, structure, and characterization. Under the Romans, literary criticism written in both Greek and Latin flourished: Demetrius’ On Style, Horace’s Art of Poetry, Longinus’ On the Sublime examined both technical and aesthetic elements of writing. This course will introduce students to a wide variety of readings from these and other Greek and Latin authors. All readings will be available in English translation. *Note: for students with advanced Greek, this seminar will involve an additional weekly meeting devoted to reading texts in the original language. Students who participate in the Greek reading section will be exempted from certain writing requirements for the seminar, and may count the course toward the Philology track of the Classical Studies major.* 

 

Classical Languages: Latin

Interested in beginning Latin or Ancient Greek from scratch? Latin 101 and Greek 101 are offered every fall. Please contact program director Lauren Curtis, lcurtis@bard.edu with any questions!

 

Beginning Latin II

 

Professor: Robert Cioffi  

 

Course Number: LAT 102

CRN Number: 10128

Class cap: 22

Credits: 4

 

Schedule/Location:

Mon Tue Wed Thurs    10:10 AM - 11:10 AM Olin 303

 

Distributional Area:

FL  Foreign Languages and Lit   

 

 

This is the continuation of Latin 101, an introduction to the Latin language. Spoken and written for many centuries, first at Rome and then across the Roman Empire from Britain to Syria, Latin has shaped the history of English and many other living languages today. In this second semester of a two-semester sequence, you will learn classical Latin using new course materials specially designed by Bard faculty. They combine engaging introductory texts with selections of original Latin written by a diverse array of Romans, including women, enslaved people, and literary authors such as Cicero, Ovid, and St Augustine. A focus on reading comprehension and grammar is combined with an emphasis on understanding the Latin language within its cultural and historical contexts. By the end of the full-year sequence, you will have learned the fundamentals of Latin and will be ready to read original texts in full. This course is for students who have taken Latin 101 in the Fall. Latin 101 is offered every Fall. If you have questions about beginning Latin, please contact Prof. Curtis, lcurtis@bard.edu.

 

Intermediate Latin: Writing the World in the Roman Empire

 

Professor: Lauren Curtis  

 

Course Number: LAT 202

CRN Number: 10129

Class cap: 22

Credits: 4

 

Schedule/Location:

 Tue  Thurs    10:10 AM - 11:30 AM Olin 302

 

Distributional Area:

FL  Foreign Languages and Lit   

 

 

This course, designed for students reading original Latin at the intermediate level (i.e. who have taken Latin 101-102 or equivalent elsewhere), is an introduction to the literature of the Roman empire. As Rome’s power grew in the Mediterranean world and beyond, so did knowledge and curiosity about that world – its origins and natural wonders, as well as the place of humans. Reading selections from two very different works – Ovid’s epic poem, Metamorphoses, and Pliny the Elder’s Natural History, a landmark in the history of science – the course will combine Latin grammar review with an emphasis on developing reading fluency in both poetry and prose, and on situating these works in their cultural, artistic, and historical contexts. Students with high-school Latin are welcome to enroll and should consult with Prof. Curtis, lcurtis@bard.edu.

 

Roman Religions: Paganism and Christianity

 

Professor: David Ungvary  

 

Course Number: CLAS 328

CRN Number: 10109

Class cap: 15

Credits: 4

 

Schedule/Location:

  Wed     3:30 PM - 5:50 PM Olin 310

 

Distributional Area:

MBV  Meaning, Being, Value   

 

Crosslists: Latin; Medieval Studies; Study of Religions

In the minds of ancient Romans, what separated Tartarus from Hell, or Olympus from Heaven? What difference was there between a Vestal Virgin and a Christian nun? What overlap existed between the power of Jupiter and Jesus Christ? And how did belief in the latter eventually win out in the Roman Empire? This is a course for students who want to explore the history of ancient Roman religion, and to understand how its traditions, practices, and structures were transformed by the rise of Christianity in the Mediterranean world. At the center of our inquiry is the problem of “the pagan”: a contested category of religious identity that was innovated upon by early Christian thinkers. A focus on the construction of the pagan as a “religious other” in antiquity will lead us to pursue broader questions about the nature of cultural “conversion,” the creative possibilities of merging distinct systems of faith, and the relationship between individual spirituality and institutional religion. Readings from authors such as Lucretius, Virgil, St. Paul, Marcus Aurelius, and Augustine will inform our study. All texts will be available in English translation. The course is open to all interested students. *Note: For students with advanced Latin, this seminar will involve an additional weekly meeting (1 hour, time TBD) devoted to reading texts in the original language. Students in the Latin reading section will get credit for translation work in lieu of certain writing requirements in the seminar.*