MA in Classics modules 2008-09
Semester 1
GRC40080 The Augustan City of Rome
This seminar module investigates the ‘urban image’ of Augustan Rome. The Augustan period represents an extremely important chapter in the architectural history of the city of Rome, because there is no parallel in any other period of Rome’s history for the transformation of the city’s built environment which took place at this time. According to Suetonius, Augustus found a city of brick and left a city of marble. This monumentalisation of Rome must be viewed against the background of the ‘Roman Revolution’ and the political changes undertaken by Augustus that saw the creation of the Empire from the ruins of the Republic.
The monuments of the city of Rome demonstrate in a very tangible way how Augustus used ‘the power of images’ to create a new political language which healed the wounds of the civil war and eased the transition to monarchy. In this module, students will examine the key public monuments of the Augustan city of Rome, by looking at the archaeological remains and the literary texts, many by writers of the Augustan period, in order to understand how Rome’s transformation was planned and executed by Augustus and his associates, and how the new built environment was experienced by those who lived in the city, from the Republican aristocracy in their town houses and villas to the lowliest residents of the densely-populated neighbourhoods.Preliminary reading Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, Augustan Rome (Bristol Classical Press, 1993)
From the idealising images of Classical Greek sculpture to the monstrous forms attributed to people at the ends of the known world, ancient discourse on the body debated fundamental questions about Greek and Roman identity. Focusing on ancient constructions of the body can provide insights into what was considered normal and abnormal for different groups in ancient culture.
This seminar module will include an examination of the physiology of the body found in Hippocratic and Galenic medicine; we will look at Roman ideas about physiognomy and the cultural meanings of gesture that preoccupied ancient orators and politicians; we will examine descriptions of foreigners’ bodies found in literary and scientific writing, and we will explore the iconography of depictions of the old and the young in ancient sculpture.
Preliminary Reading: James Porter (ed.) Constructions of the Classical Body (University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 2002)
GRC40120 Platonism in Late Antiquity
The philosophy of Plato had a profound effect on the intellectual world of late antiquity. In its redeveloped form, known to us today as Neo-Platonism, it not only provided contemporaries, both pagan and Christian, with an intellectual and spiritual foundation for everyday life, but absorbed and transmitted many strands of Greek philosophy to the Medieval and Renaissance worlds; it thus helped to form the Western mind.
In this seminar module we will concentrate on the work of Plotinus (205-270 AD), the founder and central figure of late Platonism. His treatises reflect the urgency of lively discussion on the nature of man and the meaning of human life in this world.
A useful introduction may be found in Part I of Andrew Smith, Philosophy in Late Antiquity (Routledge, London 2004).
Semester 2
GRC40160 Irish Drama and the Classics
Greek tragedy has had particular importance for Irish dramatists, and an understanding of the Classical background is essential for a full appreciation of their work. This module will examine both the use made of Greek tragedy by Irish dramatists and the light which these modern versions cast on the Greek plays themselves. We shall begin with Synge’s use of the Oedipus myth in The Playboy of the Western World (1907) and Yeats’s versions of Sophocles’ King Oedipus (1926) and Oedipus at Colonus (1927). Sophocles’ Antigone has been especially influential for its treatment of the relationship between the individual and the state, and we shall be examining Tom Paulin’s The Riot Act (1985), Brendan Kennelly’s Antigone (1986), and Seamus Heaney’s The Burial at Thebes (2004).
Euripides’ Medea is a key text for the representation of women in drama, and has been exploited in several Irish plays including Marina Carr’s By the Bog of Cats (1998). Classical themes are prominent in the work of Brian Friel, especially his reworking of the Hippolytus myth in Living Quarters (1978). Greek tragedy has retained its fascination for contemporary Irish dramatists, and UCD’s writer-in-residence Frank McGuinness has written powerful versions of Sophocles’ Electra (1997) and Euripides’ Hecuba (2004).
GRC40170 Perceptions of Classical Antiquity in the Italian Renaissance
This module will introduce graduates to aspects of the reception of Classical Antiquity in Renaissance Italy. We will explore a range of different engagements with the literature and material culture of Antiquity. These will include responses to the Classical world in Renaissance poetry and prose literature, political and historical writing, and developments in archaeology. The traditional tendency to ‘purify’ the Classical world along Christian lines and the incipient move to view all things Classical in their original antique contexts will also be examined.
Recommended reading:
Philip Jacks, The Origins of Rome in Renaissance Italy. Cambridge University Press, 1993
Christopher S. Celenza, The Lost Italian Renaissance: Humanists, Historians, and Latin's Legacy. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004.
For this module students research and write a thesis of 12,000 to 15,000 words on a topic relating to some aspect of the ancient world, selected in consultation with an appointed supervisor.
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