|
12192 |
CLAS / LIT 2038 Ethical
Life in Ancient Greek Literature and Philosophy |
Thomas
Bartscherer |
. T . Th . |
10:10 - 11:30 am |
OLIN 203 |
HUM |
Cross-listed:
Literature, Philosophy Ethical life as
presented and analyzed in ancient Greek texts will be the object of inquiry in
this course. Our goal will be to decipher, examine, and evaluate the ethics
manifest both implicitly and explicitly in the philosophical and literary texts
of Greek antiquity from the archaic age through to the twilight of the
classical period. Particular attention will be paid to Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, which we will study
carefully and in its entirety, the epics (Homer and Hesiod), tragedy and
comedy, and Plato. While our reading will focus on the primary sources, we will
also consult scholars such as Bernard Williams and Martha Nussbaum, who draw
liberally from the whole spectrum of classical genres to argue for the urgent
contemporary significance of ancient ethics. Class size: 22
|
12100 |
CLAS / HIST 2191 Gender and
Sexuality in
the Ancient World |
Carolyn
Dewald |
M . W . . |
1:30 -2:50 pm |
OLIN 203 |
HIST / DIFF |
Cross-listed: Classical Studies, Gender and Sexuality
Studies The course
explores the gendered relations of men and women in the ancient Greco-Roman
world. We concentrate on literary and
historical sources, in order to understand both the social history of ancient
sexuality and the literary documents that show its most complex manifestations.
Topics include: early Greek sources; women's lives in classical Athens; Greek
homoerotic relationships; sexuality as part of Greek drama, religion and
mythology; women in Roman myth, literature, and history; differences in Greek
and Roman sexual/social bonds. Class size: 22
|
12072 |
CLAS 250 Rhetoric
and Public Speaking |
William
Mullen |
. T . Th . |
3:10 -4:30 pm |
OLIN 201 |
PART |
A
course in the theory and practice of public speaking, with equal emphasis on
both aspects and with one meeting per week devoted to each. As practice the
course will ask students to give weekly speeches in various genres, from
presentation of information before small groups, to formal addresses
recommending courses of action to deliberative assemblies, to actual speeches
addressed to the invited Bard community. Videos of the speeches given will be
used by each student in the process of self-critiquing. As theory the course
will study the texts of actual speeches by ancient and modern orators, such as
Demosthenes, Cicero, Lincoln, Churchill, King and Obama. It will also turn to ancient Greek and Roman
texts on the nature of rhetoric to see how many of their techniques and
analytical terms are still useful today.
The emphasis will be on rhetoric as embodied not in written documents
but in the spoken word itself. Some time will be spent with tapes and videos of
important speeches of the last century.
Class size: 15
|
12074 |
CLAS 265 Carthage
and Rome |
William
Mullen |
M . W . . |
3:10 -4:30 pm |
OLIN 204 |
FLLC |
Cross-listed: Environmental & Urban Studies A study of two
great rival cities and empires, from a range of disciplinary points of
view. Historiography will be our
fundamental discipline, as encountered in the detailed narrations of the “Punic
Wars” between Rome and Carthage, first by a Greek historian, Polybius (ca.
200-118 BCE), writing for Romans in the 2nd century BCE, and then by a Roman
historian, Livy (59BCE-17CE), writing for Romans under the conditions of a
transition from republic to one-man-rule under Augustus Caesar. For literature we turn to both ancient and
modern masterpieces, Vergil’s Aeneid Books 1 and 4
and Flaubert’s Salammbô. Archaeology and urban studies (excavations
in strata of the two cities covering the period of their rivalry,
reconstructions of the complete cityscapes and surrounding environments) should
make this course of special interest to those for whom Environmental and Urban
Studies is an important part of their chosen curriculum. The subject also turns out to be one with
which film-makers have remained obsessed for virtually the entire history of
cinema, from Pastrone’s 1914 silent film Cabiria, to Gallone’s 1937 Scipio
Africano (“Fascist Italy’s 1937 Spectacular
Epic”), through his remake to suit the mood of America in 1960, Carthage in Flames, down to Vin Diesel’s
Hannibal the Conqueror, scheduled for
release during the semester this course will be given. These fictional cinematic reconstructions
will be viewed next to the sober high-tech reconstruction of key battles by the
History Channel’s Decisive Battles of the Ancient World and similar exercises
in that genre, using the latest video-game technology to recreate ancient
battles with unprecedented accuracy and liveliness. Finally, the genre of recent historical
fiction will enliven our discourse, through Ross Leckie’s
recent trilogy Hannibal (1995, the
basis of the Vin Diesel film), Scipio Africanus (1998), and Carthage (2001).
Class size: 20
|
12193 |
CLAS/THTR 310 A Survey of Drama: The Birth of Tragedy and The Death of Tragedy |
Thomas
Bartscherer |
. . W . . |
10:10 - 12:30 pm |
FISHER PAC |
AART |
Cross-listed:
Literature, Theater Two pivotal works
in the history of the interpretation of tragic drama—The Birth of Tragedy
by Friedrich Nietzsche and The Death of Tragedy by George Steiner—will
set the agenda for our inquiry into the origins of western theater in the
dramas of classical antiquity and the fate of tragedy as an art form in the
modern world. In addition to assiduous study of Nietzsche and Steiner, we shall
be reading a broad selection of the tragedies these authors discuss, including
plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Shakespeare, Racine, Büchner, and Beckett. We shall also watch film adaptations
of selected tragedies and, schedule permitting, attend a staged performance.
The course will integrate close reading, literary and philosophical analysis,
and practical scene work. All readings will be in English. Class
size: 15
|
12474 |
CLAS 324 Odysseys
from Homer to Joyce |
Daniel
Mendelsohn |
. T . . . |
3:10 -5:30 pm |
HEG 308 |
|
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 20th-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.) Class
size: 15
GREEK
|
12101 |
GRE 102 Basic Greek
II |
James
Romm |
M T W Th . |
10:30 - 11:30 am |
OLIN 310 |
FLLC |
A continuation of Greek 101. Students will
master advanced grammar and syntax and begin preliminary readings in Plato, Demosthenes,
Sophocles, Euripides, and other Classical authors. Class size: 18
|
12102 |
GRE 202 Aeschylus'
Persians |
James
Romm |
M T . Th . |
11:50 -1:10 pm |
OLIN 310 |
FLLC |
An
intensive reading of Aeschylus’ Persians
with full discussion of all the issues it raises: Historical, dramatic, and
poetic. Class will meet together with
Greek 302 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but also will devote separate sessions in
the Monday slot to grammatical work. Class size: 12
|
12103 |
GRE 302 Aeschylus’
Persians and Prometheus Bound |
James
Romm |
M T . Th . |
11:50 -1:10 pm |
OLIN 310 |
FLLC |
An
intensive reading of Aeschylus’ Persians
and Prometheus Bound with full discussion
of all the issues they raise: Historical, dramatic, and poetic. Class will meet together with Greek 202 for Persians readings on Tuesdays and
Thursdays, but will hold separate sessions in the Monday slot to read and
discuss the second play.
Class
size: 10
LATIN
|
12002 |
LAT 107 Accelerated
Elementary Latin |
Benjamin
Stevens |
M T W Th . |
10:10 – 11:30 am |
HEG 201 |
FLLC |
A rapid introduction to the classical Latin
language.
We seek to master morphology, syntax, and essential vocabulary so as to
achieve sufficient fluency for continuous readings in unedited prose and
poetry. We also consider Latin literary history, focusing on the Late Republic
and the Augustan Age. No prerequisite,
but some preference will be given to students who have successfully completed
the survey of the literature in Lat 207. This course prepares students for Lat
201 in fall 2012. Class size: 16
|
12118 |
LAT 202 Intermediate
Latin II |
Carolyn
Dewald |
M . W . . |
11:50 -1:10 pm |
OLIN 306 |
FLLC |
We
will read Livy Book I and chunks of Sallust and perhaps Cicero, and we’ll use
the opportunity also to consolidate our command of Latin grammar. We will
consider the nature of Roman historiography – what constituted ancient history,
for the Romans, as well. Class size: 15
|
12168 |
LAT 302 Livy &
the Augustan Age |
William
Mullen |
. T . Th . |
1:30 -2:50 pm |
RKC 200 |
FLLC |
Most
of the course will be spent reading in two chronological areas of Livy’s vast
history of Rome. The first will consist
of passages from the opening books about the first kings, and here we will have
an opportunity to take the measure of Georges Dumézil’s
controversial theory that the legends out of which Livy’s fashioned his
rationalized chronicles of the first kings were in fact drawn from
Proto-Indo-European “tripartite” mythology.
The second chronological area will be high points of the Punic Wars, and
with respect to this part it is recommended that students also consider taking
CLAS 265, “Carthage and Rome”, course this semester (all in English). In order to give ourselves breaks from a
single historian’s prose style, we will pause periodically to read a few of the
odes of Horace most in resonance with Livy’s themes, and also the Res Gestae Divi Augusti,
fascinating mainly for the choice of deceptive political titles which prompted
Gibbon’s comment: “The system of the Imperial government, as it was instituted
by Augustus… may be defined as an absolute monarchy disguised by the forms of a
commonwealth.” Students are free to
make other suggestions for short readings from the Augustan age as breaks
between our longer stretches of Livy. Class size: 10
|
12169 |
LAT 404 Livy &
the Augustan Age |
William
Mullen |
. T . Th . |
1:30 -2:50 pm |
RKC 200 |
FLLC |
See
above. Class size: 10
|
12214 |
ARTH 128 Art of the
Ancient Near East |
Julia Rosenbaum |
M . W . . |
1:30 -2:50 pm |
FISHER ANNEX |
AART |
|
12182 |
ARTH 210 Roman Art
and Architecture |
Diana Minsky |
. T . Th . |
3:10 -4:30 pm |
WEIS CINEMA |
AART |