Course Catalogue

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People in antiquity felt emotions too. They wrote texts and created artwork that both portrayed people feeling emotions and aimed to invoke emotions in their audiences. Likewise, ancient literary critics and theorists had ideas about appropriate and inappropriate ways of portraying emotion and manipulating the reader's emotions. This course engages in the History of Emotions by exploring a range of different texts and/or works of art from ancient Greece and/or Rome (and in some years Egypt) in order to gauge what emotions were expected to be felt by various kinds of people (free, slave, men, women, children etc.) in what types of situations. There will be an option for students with Greek or Latin proficiency to read extracts of the texts in the original language.

1 x 1 hour lecture per week and 1 x 1 hour seminar per week, over 10 weeks.

Language students: 5 x 1 hour seminar where Greek/Latin texts are being discussed.

Available to all students on the MSc in Classics & Ancient History and the MSc in Ancient Cultures and, by agreement, to students on other PGT programmes who have a foundation in Classics or Ancient History.

CLASSIC4105 Emotions of the Ancients (UG)

None

The standard assessments for this course are:

■ One essay, 2500 words - 60%

■ One teaching presentation including teaching material (20 minutes) and leading a session for the undergraduate class (30 minutes) - 40% (i.e. presentation 25%, teaching materials 15%)

If required, for instance where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, the following alternatives are available:

■ There is no alternative to the essay, but flexible deadlines can be offered as reasonable adjustments (students should follow the usual process for extensions)

■ Recorded presentation and written script/lesson plan as alternative to teaching presentation.

Further reasonable adjustments may be provided where necessary. Students are encouraged to consult with the course convenor.

This course aims to:

■ Introduce students to different approaches to studying emotions in the ancient world,

■ Explore the portrayal of emotions, both named and unnamed, in a range of ancient texts and, in some years, works of art,

■ Explore the techniques used by ancient authors and/or artists to engage the reader's emotions,

■ Use ancient literature and/or art as a gauge of the emotional landscape of its time.

■ For language students: Introduce the students to the original Greek or Latin text of a range of different genres dealing with emotions in different ways.

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

1. Analyse the portrayal of emotions in a range of ancient texts and/or works of art,

2. Analyse the engagement of the readers'/viewers' emotions by a range of ancient texts and/or works of art,

3. Explain and engage critically with ancient theories about emotion in literature and art,

4. Explain some modern theories of emotion and analyse their applicability to ancient emotions,

5. Reconstruct ancient cultural 'scripts' of emotions

6. Prepare and lead a session for the undergraduate class on one of the texts, works of art, or themes of the course,

7. For language students: Translate extracts of a diverse set of Greek or Latin texts dealing with emotions into idiomatic English.