Latin Epic The University of Western Ontario Classical Studies 3150F, Fall 2016 Randall Pogorzelski 1
Welcome Welcome to Latin Epic. This is a course designed for students with an interest in Roman literature, but it doesn t require any specific background knowledge. If you re especially interested in ancient Rome, you should consider learning Latin (and ancient Greek), but for this course all of the readings are in English. Instructor My name is Randall Pogorzelski, and I will be your instructor for this course. Please call me Randy. I arrived at Western in July of 2011 as an Assistant Professor of Classical Studies. Before I came to Western I was a Lecturer at Scripps College in Claremont, California, at the University of California, Irvine, and at the University of New England in Armidale, New South Wales. I teach mostly classical Latin language and literature courses, but I also have some experience with Greek language and literature courses as well as ancient history courses. My research focus is on the poetry of the early Roman Empire, most especially Virgil. I also have an interest in the use of classical literature and myth in modern literature and culture. I wrote my Ph.D. thesis at the University of California, Santa Barbara on Virgil and James Joyce, and I ve taught courses including texts like Watchmen and Frankenstein. There are few things I enjoy more than talking about classical literature and history, so please feel free to contact me any time with questions about the course or about ancient Greece and Rome in general. Contact Details Phone: 1-519-661-2111 ext. 84526 Email: rpogorze@uwo.ca Office: Lawson Hall 3211 Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays from 8:30am-9:20am Office Hours and Appointments It s possible to make an appointment by email to meet with me in my office any time, but there are two hours per week (Mondays and Wednesdays from 8:30am-9:20am) when I m in my office and available to meet with students without an appointment. The hours when you can see me without an appointment are my regular office hours, and if it s possible for your schedule, those are the best times to meet with me. Class Meetings This class meets Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 10:30am to 11:20am in the Physics and Astronomy Building, room 34. 2
UWO Policies Note from the Dean of Arts and Humanities You are responsible for ensuring that you have successfully completed all course prerequisites and that you have not taken an antirequisite course. Lack of prerequisites may not be used as basis of appeal. If you are not eligible for a course, you may be removed from it at any time, and you will receive no adjustment to your fees. These decisions cannot be appealed. Plagiarism Students must write their essays and assignments in their own words. Whenever students take an idea, or a passage of text from another author, they must acknowledge their debt both by using quotation marks where appropriate and by proper referencing such as footnotes or citations. Plagiarism is a major academic offence (see Scholastic Offence Policy in the Western Academic Calendar). Statement on Academic Offences Scholastic offences are taken seriously and students are directed to read the appropriate policy, specifically, the definition of what constitutes a Scholastic Offence, at the following Web site: http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/appeals/scholastic_discipline_undergrad.pdf. UWO Policy on Accommodation for Medical Illness http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/appeals/accommodation_medical.pdf [downloadable Student Medical Certificate (SMC): https://studentservices.uwo.ca/secure/medical_document.pdf] Students seeking academic accommodation on medical grounds for any missed tests, exams and/or assignments worth 10% or more of their final grade must apply to the Office of the Dean of their home faculty and provide documentation. ACADEMIC ACCOMMODATION CANNOT BE GRANTED BY THE INSTRUCTOR OR DEPARTMENT. UWO Accessibility Policy Western has many services and programs that support the personal, physical, social and academic needs of students with disabilities. For more information and links to these services: http://accessibility.uwo.ca/ Mental Health Students who are in emotional/mental distress should refer to Mental Health@Western http://www.health.uwo.ca/mental_health/ for a complete list of options about how to obtain help. 3
Course Policies Content Warning Violence, including sexual violence, is a major theme in Latin epic. In the assigned reading, lectures, class discussions, and exams there will be material dealing with explicit violence, death, and rape. Class Attendance Attendance for this class is required, but not assessed. I will not keep track of who attends class and who doesn t, but it is expected that you will attend every class session. Statement on Use of Electronic Devices Students will be allowed to use electronic devices during class as long as they do not distract other students. The use of electronic devices is not permitted during the midterm test or final exam. 4
Course Information Course Description In this course we will read (in translation) two major Roman poems: Virgil's Aeneid and Ovid's Metamorphoses. We will use them as the basis for discussions on many different topics, including mythology, literary and cultural history, rhetorical devices, and the history of poetry. Learning Outcomes At the end of this course you will have read Virgil s Aeneid and Ovid s Metamorphoses. These poems are excellent, and they have been exceptionally influential in the development of subsequent European literature. By reading these poems you will have gained greater familiarity with the Western literary tradition. You will be able to discuss knowledgably and without notes key passages and themes from the poems. The Aeneid and the Metamorphoses are not now and never were easily accessible for the general reader. They require patience, effort, and training to appreciate. At the end of this course you will be a skilled interpreter of these poems, able to discuss them in a variety of settings. More generally and more importantly, you will have gained or advanced an ability to analyze ancient Roman epic. Ancient sources are not always straightforward or trustworthy, and you will practice reading against the grain, i.e. reading ancient texts to find out more than just what they want to tell you. In the process you will have improved your skills in critical thinking and analysis skills which are transferrable to a variety of fields of study and professional employment, and which will improve your appreciation of any text. You will have practiced and developed your scholarly writing ability an ability useful not only for professional scholars, but in a variety of careers. Most importantly, this course aims to develop an appreciation of ancient Roman epic poetry. It will be work, but it should also be fun, and you may find yourself with a lifelong appreciation of ancient Rome. Required Texts Ovid. Metamorphoses. Trans. Stanley Lombardo. Indianapolis: Hackett, 2010. Virgil. Aeneid. Trans. Stanley Lombardo. Indianapolis: Hackett, 2005. 5
Schedule of Reading Assignments Week 0 (Fri 9/9) Reading Assignment: No reading for this week Week 1 (Mon 9/12, Wed 9/14, Fri 9/16) Reading Assignment: Aeneid books 1-3 Week 2 (Mon 9/19, Wed 9/21, Fri 9/23) Reading Assignment: Aeneid books 4-6 Week 3 (Mon 9/26, Wed 9/28, Fri 9/30) Reading Assignment: Aeneid books 7-9 Week 4 (Mon 10/3, Wed 10/5, Fri 10/7) Reading Assignment: Aeneid books 10-12 Thanksgiving Holiday: Mon 10/10 Week 5 (Wed 10/12, Fri 10/14) Reading Assignment: No reading assignment for this week Midterm Test on Friday, 10/14 at the regular class time in the regular class room Week 6 (Mon 10/17, Wed 10/19, Fri 10/21) Reading Assignment: No reading assignment for this week Essay 1 due Friday, 10/21 at 5pm Week 7 (Mon 10/24, Wed 10/26) Reading Assignment: Metamorphoses books 1-3 Fall Study Days, 10/27-10/28 Week 8 (Mon 10/31, Wed 11/2, Fri 11/4) Reading Assignment: Metamorphoses books 4-6 Week 9 (Mon 11/7, Wed 11/9, Fri 11/11) Reading Assignment: Metamorphoses books 7-9 Week 10 (Mon 11/14, Wed 11/16, Fri 11/18) Reading Assignment: Metamorphoses books 10-12 Week 11 (Mon 11/21, Wed 11/23, Fri 11/25) Reading Assignment: Metamorphoses books 13-15 Week 12 (Mon 11/28, Wed 11/30, Fri 12/2) Reading Assignment: No reading for this week Essay 2 due Friday, 12/2 at 5pm Week 13 (Mon 12/5, Wed 12/7) Reading Assignment: No reading for this week Final Exam Date and Location as Scheduled by the Registrar 6
Assessment Information Introduction The components of your mark in this course will be two short essays, a midterm test, and a final exam. Having your performance in a course assessed and graded can be stressful, but try to keep in mind that grades are an important part of your university experience. You re here not only to learn, but also to have your level of success in learning assessed. Think of having your work marked as an opportunity to show what you ve learned. Also, remember that your marks are a measure of your academic performance and not a judgment of you as a person. Percentage Breakdown Midterm Test: 20% Essay 1: 20% Essay 2: 30% Final Exam: 30% Important Dates Midterm Test: Friday, October 14 th, 10:30-11:20pm, in the regular classroom Essay 1: Due Friday, October 21 st, 5pm, via OWL Essay 2: Due Friday, December 2 nd, 5pm, via OWL Final Exam: As scheduled by the registrar Midterm Test and Final Exam Content and Format Although many students at Western prefer multiple-choice tests and in other courses I use that format, for this course I d like to focus less on the kinds of facts that multiple choice questions most easily test and more on analytical skills. The midterm test and final exam will ask you to analyze short (10-15 line) passages from the primary texts. For each passage you will write a short essay of 300-600 words (the equivalent of 1-2 typed, double-spaced pages) analyzing the significance of the passage. This type of test question, often called a gobbet or commentary, tests your ability to perform close readings of literary sources. The best responses will be focused, analytical, and argumentative, using the passage in question to prove some point about a characteristic or theme of the work as a whole. Since most of the lectures in this class will be based on passages from the primary texts projected on PowerPoint slides, there will be many opportunities in class to learn what analysis of a passage should look like and to discuss ways in which a student might respond to a passage on a test. The midterm test will be made up of three passages from the Aeneid, of which you will choose two. The final exam will be made up of five passages (one from the Aeneid and four from the Metamorphoses), of which you will choose three. Some of the passages on the test and exam will have appeared on PowerPoint slides in class, and some will not have appeared in class. You will have 50 minutes for the midterm test and 120 minutes for the final exam. You will not be allowed the use of any books or notes during the test or exam. For the sake of equity, especially for those students writing the test and exam in a separate location with accommodations, I will not answer any questions during the test or exam. 7
Essays You will write two essays for this course, each 1,250-1,500 words (approximately 4-5 pages, but please count words rather than pages). Writing two short essays rather than one long one will give you a chance to learn from the mistakes of your first essay and improve on the second. How to turn in your essays: You must submit your essay as a DOC or DOCX file to the assignment on the OWL site. The filename should be your last name followed by Essay 1 or Essay 2. No paper copy is necessary. The OWL assignment will use Turnitin.com for textual similarity review for the detection of plagiarism. All required papers may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to the commercial plagiarism detection software under license to the University for the detection of plagiarism. All papers submitted for such checking will be included as source documents in the reference database for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of papers subsequently submitted to the system. Use of the service is subject to the licensing agreement, currently between The University of Western Ontario and Turnitin.com (http://www.turnitin.com). Formatting: Your paper must be in 12pt. Times New Roman with 1-inch (2.54cm) margins. Please include page numbers and your name on every page in a document header. Your paper must have a title. No cover sheet is necessary. Sources and Citations: For your citations, please follow the guidelines in the Chicago Manual of Style. You can find a quick reference here: http://www.lib.uwo.ca/files/styleguides/chicago.pdf or the complete manual online through the UWO library. You may use either traditional footnotes or author-date style, but if you don t have a preference I prefer author-date style using in-text, parenthetical citations. When citing passages from the Aeneid and the Metamorphoses, you should use book and line numbers rather than page numbers. Although the line numbers are not the same in the Lombardo translations as they are in the Latin texts, if you are citing Lombardo s translation (as most of you will in this class), you should use his line numbers. If you cite other ancient sources (this is not required, but some of you may want to use comparative evidence), you should not use page numbers, but rather the standard locations in the ancient sources. For poetic texts, this generally means using book and line numbers, or for collections of shorter poems it means citing book, poem, and line numbers. In general, those of you who can t read Latin or Greek may have to estimate the line numbers from the translations in the Loeb texts. For ancient prose sources, you should cite the book and chapter numbers. This is a standard scholarly practice that allows us to find the cited passage in the original source even when we use different editions. If you have any questions about how to cite ancient sources, we will devote some class time to the issue before the first essay is due. There is no set number of quotations from the primary text you must use in your essay. The best essays will make good use of the text, but they will also use the text as needed to support the argument rather than simply citing for the sake of citations or quoting for the sake of quotations. No citation of secondary sources is required, but if you do use secondary sources you should engage with them constructively and use them purposefully. The audience: Write your paper for a generally knowledgeable academic audience. You can assume that your audience has read the primary texts assigned for the class, but will need to be reminded of the context of specific passages. Please avoid writing to me or to your classmates. You must not assume that your audience has any knowledge of our class lectures or discussions. Do not refer to our class in your paper. It may be helpful to imagine that you are writing for an academic journal or conference, or that you are composing a writing sample for a scholarship application. 8
Essay topics: Your first essay must be about some aspect or theme of the Aeneid, and your second essay must be about some aspect or theme of the Metamorphoses. You should come up with your own idea for a topic and argument, and the marking criteria will include the originality and persuasiveness of your argument. You don t need to argue something that nobody has ever thought of or argued before, but you should demonstrate independent thought. If you re having trouble thinking of a topic to write about, it may be helpful to come to my office hours or to make an appointment to speak with me in my office. Department of Classical Studies: Grading Rubric for Honors-Level Essays (Modified) I have modified the departmental essay grading rubric to remove components related to secondary scholarly literature. In this class I would like you to focus your efforts on close analysis of the primary texts, i.e. the Aeneid and the Metamorphoses. It is not at all forbidden to use modern scholarship, and if you do use modern scholarship you must cite it properly. It is not, however, required that you do any research for the papers in this course. Rather than reporting what other people have written, I would like you to write your own analytical thoughts. If you do use secondary sources, you should engage with them constructively rather than simply reporting what they say. 90 100 / A+ (Outstanding) Writing strongly demonstrates: i) significant originality and high degree of critical engagement with primary sources, ii) sophisticated synthesis and analysis of theoretical and conceptual dimensions of topic, iii) prescribed format of paper including proper citation of sources is rigorously followed; mature prose style free of grammatical error. 80 89 / A (Excellent) Writing clearly demonstrates: i) originality and high degree of critical engagement with primary sources (written or material), ii) writing is perceptive and probing in its conceptual analysis, iii) topic is focused, logically organized, and thesis effectively presented and argued, iv) prescribed format of paper including proper citation of sources is followed; well developed prose style virtually free of grammatical error. 75 79 / B+ (Very Good) Writing demonstrates: i) above average analysis, critical thinking, and independent thought, ii) topic is addressed in reasonable depth and/or breadth, thesis is well presented and clearly argued, iii) prescribed format of paper including proper citation of sources is followed; good intelligible prose style relatively free of grammatical error. 70 74 / B (Good) Writing demonstrates: i) satisfactory attempt at analysis and critical thinking; arguments supported by reasonable evidence, ii) topic has been addressed in some depth and/or breadth, iii) text is generally well written; some problems with grammar and prose style. 60 69 / C (Competent) Writing demonstrates: i) only adequate engagement with the topic, ii) limited depth and/or breadth in conceptualization and discussion of topic, iii) paper has numerous problems of organization, clarity of argument, and grammar. 50 59 / D (Poor) Writing demonstrates: i) inadequate engagement with topic, ii) factual errors regarding primary sources, iii) prose style is difficult to follow, improper format for paper, incorrect citation of sources, many grammatical errors. Below 50 / F (Unacceptable) Writing demonstrates: i) failure to comprehend the topic, ii) topic is not clear, text is disorganized and/or unintelligible, iii) writing skills do not meet the minimum university entrance-level standards. 9
Books on Reserve in Weldon Although no research is required for the test, exam, or essays in this course, you may still find some resources helpful in answering questions or satisfying curiosity. I have requested that the following items be placed on reserve in the Weldon library. Conte, Gian Biagio. Latin Literature: A History. trans. Joseph B. Solodow. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994. PA6008.C6613 1994 This is a general history of Latin literature organized chronologically by author. There is an article on every author of Latin literature with basic biographical information, summaries of their work, descriptions of major scholarly approaches, and brief bibliographies of important works. Richardson, John. Augustan Rome 44 BC to AD 14: The Restoration of the Republic and the Establishment of the Empire. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2012. DG279.R525 2012 This is a detailed history of the triumviral and Augustan periods, when both of our poems were composed. Online Resources In addition to the books on reserve in Weldon, you may find the following online resources helpful. Most of them require a subscription, so if you re not on campus you ll need to log into Off-Campus Access on the Western Libraries home page before you can access the texts. To find these resources, a keyword search of the Library catalogue should work, but let me know of you have any trouble. The Loeb Classical Library This is an excellent and pretty comprehensive collection of ancient Greek and Roman texts with the original Latin or Greek and an English translation. You can find it by doing a keyword catalogue search for Loeb Classical Library. The Chicago Manual of Style, 16 th ed. This is my preferred writing style manual, and in it you ll find detailed answers to all kinds of questions about how to write an essay. TOCS-IN (Table of Contents of Journals of Interest to Classicists) This is a good database of journal articles. If you re doing independent research, you can search for keywords and get a good list of articles to look at. L Année Philologique More than TOCS-IN, this is the standard database of articles and books in Classical Studies. The interface is complex and can be a little clunky, but it s the best database for classicists looking for journal articles especially. The Bryn Mawr Classical Review If you re looking for books instead of articles, this is a good place to start. It s a searchable series of online book reviews covering most of the books published in the fields of Classics and Ancient History since 1990. Do a search for some keywords and you should get a nice list of books to look at. Boatwright, Mary T., Daniel J. Gargola, and Richard J. A. Talbert. The Romans: From Village to Empire. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. This book is a good introduction to and overview of Roman history. For those of you without a background in Classical Studies, this would be a good place to look for general information and historical narrative. 10
Bowman, Alan K., Edward Champlin, and Andrew Lintott, eds. The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 10: Augustan Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. The Cambridge Ancient History is a massive project covering the entire history of ancient Greece and Rome. Volume 10 covers our period and has an excellent and scholarly treatment of the major historical issues. Hornblower, Simon, and Anthony Spawforth, eds. The Oxford Classical Dictionary. 4 th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. This is an encyclopedia of everything classical, with very short entries on all topics, including brief bibliographies of essential scholarship. 11