CLST 273-WI / WSGS 297-WI - Classical Tragedy with a focus on Women's Studies and Gender Writing Intensive

Fall Semester 2010

Our work will pursue four main aims (plus the fifth, of having fun with all of them):

• To gain familiarity with a selection of extant Classical Athenian tragedies, powerful literary works. They were applauded in their own day. They have become cornerstones of Western theatrical tradition in Europe and beyond. And they can still blow your mind.
• To grow in mastery of critical vocabulary and crucial ideas of feminist inquiry into cultural artifacts like plays, and to apply them to studying our plays in their cultural context. We will consider how the tensions between women's position in the mythology the plays depict, in ancient Athenian traditions of theatrical representation, and in real Athenian life compare with tensions in women's and men's lives, gender-ideologies, and artistic representations in Classical Athenian and other cultures, including our own.
• To extend literary-critical vocabulary and understanding by analyzing how literary techniques shape our plays, and thus also the ways the plays re-interpret traditional stories for new cultural moments. Dramatists still seek to solicit and challenge their audiences through literary means.
• Through discussion, writing, and performance, to explore plays' multiple interpretive possibilities. We will investigate texts' indications of how poets and their audiences lived in their world, what they understood and believed about it, and the values they thought important. Literature, legend, religion, history, and art operate all together, in Classical antiquity just as they do now. Classical Studies foster skills of multidimensional inquiry and integrative analysis; feminist criticism calls for application of such skills to relationships of power and identity, both women's and men's, that shape every aspect of our lives.

• Robert Fagles, tr., Aeschylus: Oresteia (Penguin Classics, 1966, 1967, 1975, 1977, 1984)
• David Franklin and John Harrison, ed. and tr., Sophocles: Antigone (Cambridge Translations from Greek Drama, 2003)
• Peter Burian, ed., The Complete Sophocles II: Electra and Other Plays (Oxford University Press 2009)
• James Morwood, tr., Euripides: Bacchae and Other Plays (Oxford University Press 1999, 2008)
• James Morwood, tr., Euripides: Medea and Other Plays (Oxford University Press 1997, 1998)
• James Morwood, tr., Euripides: The Trojan Women and Other Plays (Oxford University Press 2000, 2009)
• William Strunk, Jr., and E. B. White, The Elements of Style (4th edn., Longman Publishing 1999)
• additional resources on-line and in the library

Writing

• Guide to Writing Academic Papers: a strategic checklist devised by your instructor (hint, hint)
• Guide to Beginning Research on Topics in Classical Studies: suggestions and resources
• Loyola Libraries' Subject Guide to Classical Studies, prepared by Classical Studies Bibliographer Jane Currie: a research guide to help identify and access core research resources relating to Classical Civilization, ancient Greek, or Latin
• Loyola Writing Program's Statement of Grading Standards. As you can see, Harvard University's Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning recommends to instructors a similar set of policies for Grading Papers - the document offers extremely useful insight to instructors' objectives for student writing.
• 1st edn. (1918) of William Strunk, Jr., The Elements of Style: print editions, with E. B. White, have been updated and attained eternal fame as "Strunk and White," the standard American guide to good writing, but if you don't have a paper copy to hand the original still spells out the most vital principles crisply and memorably. Never neglect it.
• Jack Lynch, Guide to Grammar and Style: more discursive than Strunk and White.
• How to use apostrophes, or else.
• The the impotence of proofreading by Taylor Mali.

• Diotima: a clearing-house of resources on the Internet for the study of women and gender in the ancient world, including much specifically relevant to Classical Athenian tragedy.
• Didaskalia: Ancient Theatre Today: a web-site and journal dedicated to the study of ancient Greek and Roman theatre in performance, and to the legacy of ancient theatre. Editorial Board of scholars in Classics and Theater. Published in association with King's College London.
• Dates of extant Classical Athenian tragedies.
• Dr. J's Illustrated Greek Theater: images and explanation of the parts of a Greek theater, by Dr. Janice Siegel of Illinois State University.
• Index of Vital Information on Roman Theatres, including a rich array of links; all highly relevant to us, since the Greek world became part of the Roman world and many Greek theaters continued to be used and were rebuilt during the Roman period. Part of Lacus Curtius, a treasurehouse of on-line resources for Roman archaeology, compiled by Bill Thayer.
• Perseus Project: an evolving digital library for the study of the Greek and Roman worlds, especially texts, language, and visual representations.

Revised 24 August 2010 by jlong1@luc.edu
http://www.luc.edu/classicalstudies/