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Ancient Texts and their Interpretation

Module description

Greece and Rome were literary cultures. They privileged, examined, questioned, and parodied a remarkably diverse and sophisticated range of literary outputs. This module aims to extend and enhance your previous study of ancient literature, further developing your skills in literary criticism. It entails the close analysis and interpretation of ancient texts in translation, chosen to reflect the specialisms and expertise of academic staff. Alongside developing your analytical skills, you will be introduced to a range of different critical approaches, concepts and theories and you will be guided in your application of these to your own interpretations.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The module aims to:

• Enrich and extend your knowledge and understanding of ancient literature through sustained focus on the works of a specific author or a particular set of ancient texts, with an emphasis on discussion and debate;
• Develop your skills in literary criticism through close analysis and critical engagement with ancient texts in translation;
• Introduce you to some key critical concepts and theories of literary criticism;
• Guide you in applying critical approaches to the analysis of ancient literature, and thus enable you to experiment with different interpretations of the same text(s).

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate a detailed knowledge of the prescribed text(s), and evaluate and discuss their significance
• 2. Identify and explain relevant theoretical approaches to ancient literature, and demonstrate how they may be appropriately applied
• 3. Demonstrate awareness of the extent to which interpretations of ancient literature are shaped by changing modern concerns

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Demonstrate sophisticated critical and analytical skills which can be applied to the analysis of texts from any culture
• 5. Demonstrate appreciation of the issues involved in using ancient texts as historical source material and relate texts to their socio-historical context

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 6. Through research for seminars and written assignments demonstrate advanced independent and group study skills in research, critical analysis, and presentation of findings
• 7. Through writing essays, delivering informal presentations, and preparing for seminars, demonstrate advanced ability to select and organise relevant material to produce an argument
• 8. Through written assignments, informal seminar presentations and discussion, demonstrate advanced ability to present a strong, coherent argument in both oral and written forms
• 9. Through online forums demonstrate ability to respond to the ideas and suggestions of others in a critical, constructive, and academically grounded way

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• The module will take the form of week-by-week readings of selections from the set texts (to be decided by the module leaders). The emphasis will be on close reading, with consideration of different critical and interpretative approaches, which may include historicism and new historicism, reader-response criticism, feminist theory, new materialism, postcolonialism, etc.
• Set texts will vary from year to year, but will focus on key literature not otherwise taught on undergraduate programmes in the Department of Classics and Ancient History (e.g. Horace’s Odes), supplemented by selections from other ancient literature.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 50%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of referral will be capped at 50%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Indicative reading includes:

• L. Dubreuil, ‘What Is Literature’s Now?’ New Literary History, Vol. 38 No. 1, 2007, pp. 43-70.
• C. S. Kraus and C. Stray, eds. Classical Commentaries: Explorations in a Scholarly Genre. Oxford, 2015.
• D. Schaps, Handbook for Classical Research. Routledge, 2010.
• T. Schmitz, Modern Literary Theory and Ancient Texts: An Introduction. Wiley-Blackwell, 2007.
• J. P. Sullivan and I. J. F. de Jong, Modern Critical Theory and Classical Literature. Brill, 2018.

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=11153

Key words search

Classics, literature, literary criticism, theory