Course Catalogue

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The course examines a period of enormous influence in the history of poetry: the final years of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Empire. It centres on Propertius and Tibullus, and will also include Catullus, Virgil, and Horace. It focusses on the relationship between love poetry and war, and on the strong sense of poetic identity that was the enduring legacy of the poetry of this period.

5 x 1 hour lectures on the historical, social, and literary background to the texts

5 x 1 hour seminars exploring the period in which the texts were produced, and other literature that relates to them.

10 x 1 hour seminars centred the study of the translated poems of Tibullus, Propertius, Catullus and Virgil

Standard entry to Masters at College level.

CLASSIC4094

None.

Oral Presentation (15 minutes) - 30%

Written commentary on a poem (1200 words) 30%

Essay (3000 words) 40%

This course aims to:

■ Provide students with the opportunity to focus on a crucial period in Rome's cultural development and explore its literature

■ Foster students' awareness of the importance of gender and sexuality as expressions of political and social environments

■ Develop skills in close reading and analysis of poetry, studied in translation

■ Develop students' exploring an important body of literature from a variety of different perspectives, reflecting the key themes of the course

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ Produce detailed readings of poetry in both oral and written form

■ Show evidence of understanding the social, historical, and literary contexts of the poetry studied

■ Present their own research relating to the themes of the course in a coherent and scholarly form

■ Show awareness of the interrelated nature of literature with political and social forces

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.