Courses listed at CLASSICS (CLAS) are entirely in English and require no knowledge of an ancient language. Greek and Latin involve the study of the language itself.

Course	HIST / CLAS 157 The Athenian Century
Professor	James Romm
CRN	90058
Schedule	Mon Wed 12:00 -1:20 pm OLIN 204
Distribution	OLD: C	NEW: History

Cross-listed: History

In the fifth century BCE, Athens dramatically developed from a small, relatively unimportant city-state into a dominant power in the Aegean basin. Athenian political, artistic, literary, and intellectual traditions continue to reverberate through the world today: democracy, tragedy and comedy, rhetoric, philosophy, and history itself, as well as the classical style of sculpture and architecture stem from this remarkable culture. The course will confront some of the ambiguities and tensions (slavery, exclusion of women and non-citizens from political power), as well as the glories, of Athenian art, literature, and history during this period. We will read selections from the histories of Herodotus and Thucydides, many of the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, the comedies of Aristophanes, and one or two dialogues of Plato.

Course	CLAS 160 Confucius and Socrates
Professor	William Mullen
CRN	90126
Schedule	Tu Th 1:00 -2:20 pm OLIN 201
Distribution	OLD: D	NEW: Foreign Language, Literature, Culture

Cross-listed: Asian Studies, Philosophy

Confucius (551–469 BC) and Socrates (470-399 BC) stand at the head of the Chinese and the Greek philosophical traditions, above all in the realm of ethical and political inquiry. The accounts left of their activity, and the schools of thought which rose around them during their lives and in the first centuries after their deaths, in both cases give evidence of two real historical figures whose time was consumed in passionate striving to find out what is the best life for a human being and the best form of government for human flourishing. And there is both a Confucian and a Socratic “problem”: we cannot be sure that any words attributed to either were actually theirs, and see growing differences among the subsequent thinkers and schools which pursued their work in either’s name. In search of Confucius we will read the complete Analects and selections from Mencius and Xunzi; of Socrates, dialogues by Plato and Xenophon and key passages in Aristotle and the Cynics. We will read the two sets of texts concurrently and sometimes pause to ask comparative questions. What differences can be seen in the accounts given of the virtues each thinker put forward as most essential to fulfilling one's humanity? Why is neither an advocate of democracy? Could Confucius and Socrates be friends? (Mostly for First Year Students; a few places will be saved for non-First Year Students who wish to take it.)

Course	CLAS / LIT 201 Survey of Linguistics
Professor	Benjamin Stevens
CRN	90191
Schedule	Tu Th 2:30 – 3:50 pm OLIN 202
Distribution	OLD: B/C	NEW: Humanities

A survey of linguistics, the formal study of language. Our goals are (1) to learn how linguistics analyzes language into various parts; (2) to acquire methods and techniques appropriate to the study of those parts, their patterns, and their interconnections; and (3) to explore the discipline’s conceptual bases, its history, and some competing or alternative approaches to language study. Our ultimate and underlying questions are: “What is ‘language’?” and “Has ‘linguistics’ got it right?” Topics include: (1 and 2) phonetics and phonology (the study of sound-patterns in language), morphology (word-formation and grammaticalization), and syntax (the arrangement of elements into meaningful utterance); sociolinguistics (the covariation of language with social and cultural factors); and comparative and historical linguistics (linguistic patterns across space and time, including syntactic typology and language ‘death’). We also survey (3) key trends, moments, and thinkers in the history of linguistic thought, both Western and non-Western.

Prerequisite: completed or concurrent coursework in a foreign language, or consent of instructor.

Course	CLAS / LIT 324 Odysseys from Homer to Joyce
Professor	Daniel Mendelsohn
CRN	90454
Schedule	Fri 10:30 – 12:50 am OLIN 310
Distribution	OLD: B	NEW: Literature in English

This course seeks to explore the nature and cultural uses of the figure of the wandering hero, from its first major treatment in Homer’s Odyssey to its adaptation in the 20^th-century by both Nikos Kazantzakis (The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel) and James Joyce (Ulysses). Particular attention will be paid not only to the moral ambiguities that seem to inhere in the West’s representation of this prototypical wanderer (e.g., the destructive effect of cultural exploration, the moral compromises necessary to being the “trickster”), but also to the aesthetic and generic usefulness of representing such a figure. (What does Odysseus and his subsequent incarnations “do” for epic, for drama, for the novel? How does the wanderer extend the boundaries of those genres?) Readings will include: Homer, The Odyssey; Vergil, Aeneid; Sophocles Ajax and Philoctetes, Euripides Hecuba; Dante, Inferno; Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida; Fenelon, Télémaque; selections from the poetry of Tennyson, Cavafy, Louise Gluck, and others; Joyce, Ulysses; Kazantzakis, The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel; and Walcott, Omeros. There will also be readings for each session in the secondary literature (e. g., E. Auerbach, “The Scar of Odysseus,”; W. B. Stanford, The Odysseus Theme; H. Bloom, Odysseus/Ulysses, etc.)

Course	CLAS / LIT 366 Unflinching Prose
Professor	William Mullen
CRN	90125
Schedule	Mon Wed 1:30 -2:50 pm OLIN 309
Distribution	OLD: D	NEW: Foreign Language, Literature, Culture

This course will explore qualities common to some of the greatest writers of non-fiction writers in a range of Western cultures: Thucydides in Greece, Tacitus in Rome, Machiavelli in Italy, Voltaire in France, Gibbon in England, the authors of The Federalist Papers in America (Hamilton, Madison, Jay), Nietzsche in Germany. All of these authors have high ideals and find humanity for the most part notably wanting in its abilities to attain them. They evince a candor and a courage we admire in the way they lay bare the crimes and follies of our species without lapsing into cynicism. Nietzsche, summing up this tradition, spoke of it as “The Great Style”. We will study, often in more than one translation, principal passages of each author, with an eye both to historical context and to the workings of the prose itself on the linguistic level. Though the entire course will be in English, preference will be given to students capable of reading one or more of these authors in the original Greek, Latin, Italian, French or German. You will write pastiches of each author as well as analytical essays about them, and towards the end of the course you will be asked to write some “unflinching prose” of your own.