Course syllabus
TEACHER
Dr Maxine Lewis
Room: Room 810, Level 8, Humanities Building (University building 206)
Email: maxine.lewis@auckland.ac.nz
Office hour: By appointment
Ancient History & Classics Tuakana mentor: Mia-Mae Stevens
e-mail: mste856@aucklanduni.ac.nz
Mia-Mae's cohort includes all Maori and Pacific students enrolled in stage 1 through to stage 3 courses in Ancient History and Classics.
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
The ancient society of Athens gave humanity democracy, theatre, philosophy; it also put slaves in chains and women behind doors. The great civilisation of Rome brought the world aqueducts, underwater concrete and the alphabet you’re reading right now; Rome too sat on a foundation of social inequality.
In this course we study some of the greatest achievements of Greece and Rome – their literature – to understand how sex, gender and sexuality interconnected with power in the ancient world.
Literature played a key role in societies in antiquity just as it does now, in shaping minds, ideas and public debate about social problems and morality. Some writers, singers, playwrights, and poets of Greece and Rome used their writing to reinforce dominant ideologies about women’s weaknesses/roles and the corresponding rights of men. Other writers challenged mainstream ideas and questioned the existing power imbalances between men and women, free people and slaves, citizens and foreigners.
The texts in the course deal with war, justice, love, religion, revolution, murder, marriage, same-sex desire, slavery, and more. We will pay particular attention to how literature enables political and social interventions; how it can either uphold, shape, or challenge the status quo. We will examine the depiction of gender and sexuality across a wide range of genres, such as epic, didactic poetry, lyric (sung) poetry, tragedy, history, and medical treatises. We will consider how the constraints of genre shape what authors can say about a topic and what tools they can use to say it. We will read literature by both men and women and discuss the possible historical and literary values in gynocriticism (the study of women writers). And we will contextualise the study of women, gender, and sexuality in antiquity in the changing world of the academy, exploring how this field went from being marginal to accepted within our discipline(s).
As well as developing their understanding of the ancient world, students will consider how sex and/or power remain relevant to today’s world and their experiences now.
We will consider questions such as:
- How did ancient authors depict gender identities, sexed bodies, and sexual practices?
- What tools and techniques did writers and singers use to construct identities of “men” and “women”? How did writers think of and describe people whose gender identity fell outside the binary categories of “woman” or “man”?
- How closely did Greeks and Romans link ideas about sexuality to their understanding of gender roles?
- How did factors such as class, ethnicity, access to language, and whether one was free or slave, intersect with gender and sexuality? How did authors depict these intersections?
- Which authors replicated existing social norms about gender, and why? Who challenged norms and what led/allowed them to do so?
- (How) do male-authored and female-authored texts from antiquity depict different views on gender, sexuality, power, and society?
- How did Greco-Roman ideas about gender and sex develop and change in antiquity, and how do the ideas from antiquity differ from (or relate to) our own?
We will answer these questions by studying a range of literature from antiquity.
All texts will be read in translation.
EXPECTED OUTCOMES
Students will:
- Read and become familiar with a wide variety of texts from antiquity to understand their representation of gender.
- Develop a strong understanding of how gender and sexuality is depicted differently in particular genres.
- Read texts by female authors and consider the theoretical and methodological issues surrounding gynocriticsm.
- Read and discuss scholarship to understand how academic work on gender and sexuality in antiquity has been shaped by and has shaped norms in our own society.
- Develop your written presentation skills, skills of poetic analysis, collaborative skills, and essay-writing skills.
- Learn to provide effective feedback on draft written work.
- Take an active role in discussion groups, modelling both collaboration and communication skills for the stage II students.
COURSE DELIVERY
Classes1hr x 3*
I like to teach as interactively as possible. Sometimes I will deliver content in a lecture format; at other times we will break into small groups or pairs.
*From week 2, we will run one of the three classes primarily as a discussion group. I will post questions online in advance and then will ask them of you in class. You will also have the chance to ask questions of me and your fellow students. Please come to class ready to participate.
LEARNING MATERIALS/TEXTS
The bookstore is currently sourcing textbooks; stay tuned for an announcement.|
Assignment 1,200 words 20% |
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Peer review (max. 500 words) 10% |
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Discussion collaboration 5% |
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Essay 2,300 25% |
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Final exam 40% |
Workload and deadlines for submission of coursework:
The University of Auckland's expectation is that students spend 10 hours per week on a 15-point course, including time in class and personal study. Students should manage their academic workload and other commitments accordingly. Deadlines for coursework are set by course convenors and will be advertised in course material. You should submit your work on time. In extreme circumstances, such as illness, you may seek an extension but you may be required to provide supporting information before the assignment is due. Late assignments without a pre-approved extension may be penalised by loss of marks – check course information for details.
Course summary:
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