This module is not currently running in 2024 to 2025.
This module offers students a wide-ranging grounding in classical literature as a basis for the further study of Western literature within a comparative framework. Major works of ancient Greek and Roman literature are studied in order to enable students to appreciate the literary engagement with the following in the classical world: myth (including the stories of the Trojan War, Oedipus, Jason and Medea, and the founding of Rome); the relationship between human beings and the gods, between the sexes, and between the human and the animal; and the journey motif. Themes explored included sexuality, violence, conceptions of justice, metamorphosis, and madness.
The module introduces students to some of the major genres of Western literature (tragedy, comedy, the epic), and considers how these were theorised by Aristotle. It also encourages students to reflect on questions of cultural transmission, and on why the myths represented in classical literature should have proved to be such a rich source for the literature of the West.
Total Contact Hours: 20
Essay 1 (1000 words) - 40%
Essay 2 (2000 words) – 60%
Any edition:
Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Aesop, Fables
Apollonius of Rhodes, The Voyage of the Argo/Jason and the Golden Fleece
Aristotle, Poetics
Aristophanes, Lysistrata
Catullus, Selected Poems
Euripides, The Bacchae
Homer, The Iliad and The Odyssey (extracts)
Ovid, Metamorphoses (extracts)
Seneca, Medea
Sophocles, Oedipus the King and Antigone
Virgil, The Aeneid (extracts)
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
Demonstrate an understanding of ancient Greek and Roman literature, with particular emphasis on its recurring thematic preoccupations and its cultural context;
Show familiarity with some of the major classical myths and mythical figures, and their significance (including the Trojan War; Odysseus' return from Troy; Prometheus; Oedipus; Jason and Medea; Aeneas and the founding of Rome);
Demonstrate a sense of the origins of some of the major genres in Western literature, including tragedy, comedy, and the epic, and how these were theorised by Aristotle in the light of Greek literature;
Engage critically with classical literature through close readings of works in different genres (poetry, drama, narrative);
Demonstrate a sense of key motifs in classical literature that prove important for Western literature thereafter;
Demonstrate an appreciation of the similarities and differences between ancient Greek and Roman literature and, in doing so demonstrate a sense of cultural transmission.
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