CLST 384 - The Humanism of Antiquity II Spring Semester 2013

Our work together will pursue five chief aims (plus a sixth of having fun with them):

• To study a selection of important texts of Roman literature, from the Republican to the Imperial periods, thereby to gain knowledge of authors, works, genres, themes, and literary techniques
• To analyze our selected texts, especially as they bear upon Centering Questions of humanistic inquiry: to distinguish ideas about which texts turn, to describe their operation, to formulate, test, and refine arguments - thereby to discern better how Roman discourse has contributed and can contine to contribute to conceptions of the human spirit and its endeavors
• To consider how our texts arise from and reflect upon their context in Roman history and culture, including other texts; in service of this goal also to connect and flesh out knowledge of Roman history and culture
• To distinguish between ancient Roman perspectives and the many different perspectives we can take studying the same material, so as to appreciate how attitudes and values are formed and understand more deeply different cultures and persons, including ourselves
• To extend awareness of Classical Studies as an academic field, and how its varieties of inquiry endeavor to compose multidimensional understanding of ancient Greek and (for our present purposes, especially) Roman individuals, societies, cultures, discourses, and ideas

• David Potter, Ancient Rome: a New History (Thames & Hudson, 2009)
• additional resources on-line and in the library

Disciplinary Knowledge - to be demonstrated orally and in writing

• Students will study significant works of Roman literature, their plots, characters, and themes
• Students will analyze our works and their messages
• Students will recognize genres of Roman literature and explain our works' relationship to Roman literary history (including their relationships to one another, within and across genres)
• Students will appreciate the development over time of Roman society and culture, and explain our works' relationship to circumstances and concerns at the time they were composed
• Students will perform research using our works as material to investigate Roman attitudes and values, especially in relationship to Centering Questions of humanistic inquiry
• Students will further their knowledge of varieties of inquiry used in the field of Classical Studies, and how they build multidimensional understanding of Classical, especially Roman, discourse, society, and ideals

Critical Skills - to be exercised in active inquiry

• Students will gather information from literary texts and historical summary, and will analyze it so as to generate understanding
• Students will form, test, assess, refine, and extend theories about Roman literature, culture, and values
• Students will explore how attitudes and values are formed and the bases implicit in Roman and modern beliefs about the human person; they will recognize differences and commonalities, and they will seek to understand reasons for differences and commonalities

Additional Resources

Basics of Academic Life: Studying, Research, and Writing

• SQ3R for Primary-Source Coursework: a method for effective studying
• Patrick Rael, Reading, Writing, and Researching for History: a Guide for College Students (Brunswick, ME: Bowdoin College 2004): developed by a historian of African American history and the American Antibellum/Civil War/Reconstruction periods, as the illustrations suggest, but applicable to our materials and inquiry as well: a model of approach for all stages of academic reflection and synthesis
• 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.
• Oxford Bibliographies Online - Classics: annotated bibliographies compiled by leading scholars in the relevant fields, including a historical overview of our period (look under History, Roman: Late Antiquity), some of our major primary sources, and a couple of important cultural topics
• Loyola Writing Program's Statement of Grading Standards. It credits the Rhetoric Program of the University of Illinois at Urbana; other universities also observe similar criteria (e.g., this outline from Harvard University's Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning): these expectations are held widely.
• 1st edn. (1918) of William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White, The Elements of Style: print editions have been updated and it's well worth getting a copy if you don't own one already, but in whatever edition you use it, Strunk and White is the classic guide to desirable American prose style
• How to use apostrophes, or else.
• The the impotence of proofreading by Taylor Mali.

• The Perseus Digital Library, a non-profit enterprise housed in the Department of Classics, Tufts University; its flagship collections feature texts and images for the study of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds.
• Lacus Curtius, a staggeringly rich treasurehouse of on-line resources for Roman archaeology and topography (especially), including texts; compiled by Bill Thayer.
• Chronological Table of Roman Literature, from Charles Thomas Cruttwell, A History of Roman Literature: from the Earliest Period to the Death of Marcus Aurelius (1877), online at About.com
• De Imperatoribus Romanis: an on-line encyclopedia of Roman emperors, including empresses, junior emperors, and ultimately non-successful claimants of imperial power - classical, later Roman, and Byzantine. Includes interlinked biographical articles with bibliography, imperial stemmata, the DIR/ORB Ancient and Medieval Atlas, and an index of select major battles. Scholarly, peer-edited; editorial boards currently under the presidency of Richard Weigel of Western Kentucky University (Classical through Later Roman Empire) and Lynda Garland of the University of New England, New South Wales (Byzantine).
• Diotima: a clearing-house of resources on the Internet for the study of women and gender in the ancient Mediterranean world.
• Didaskalia: The Journal for Ancient Performance: dedicated to the study of all aspects of ancient Greek and Roman performance (drama, dance, and music). Advisory and Editorial Boards of scholars in Classics and Theater. Published by Randolph College.

Revised 16 January 2013 by jlong1@luc.edu
http://www.luc.edu/classicalstudies/