The Iliad and its Legacies in Drama IDSEM-UG 1454/COLIT-UA 104 Fall 2012 Professor Laura Slatkin Office: 715 Broadway, Room 505 212-998-7363 Office hours: Tues. 2-3, Weds. 2-3 and by appointment laura.slatkin@nyu.edu "The poem of force," according to Simone Weil, the Iliad is also a poem of forceful influence. In this course we will read the Iliad intensively, followed by an introduction to its heritage on the dramatic stage. In the first half of the semester we will primarily explore the Iliad in terms of the poetics of traditionality; the political economy of epic; the ideologics of the Männerbund (the "band of fighting brothers"); the Iliad's uses of reciprocity; its construction of gender; its intimations of tragedy. In the second half of the course, informed by a reading of Aristotle's Poetics, we will focus on responses to the Iliad in dramatic form. Schedule of Assignments: September 5 introduction: problems and perspectives; background to the Homeric poems September 12 epic and action: forms of authority readings: Homer, Iliad Books 1-8; Martin, R. Epic as Genre, Ch.1 in A Companion to Ancient Epic, ed. J.M. Foley (Oxford: 2005); recommended reading: Murnaghan, S. Introduction in Homer: Iliad (tr. Lombardo, S. (New York: 1997) xvii-lviii; Vernant, J.-P. "A 'Beautiful Death' and the Disfigured Corpse in Homeric Epic" in Mortals and Immortals (Princeton l991) 50-83; Arthur, M. "The Divided World of Iliad VI" in Reflections of Women in Antiquity, ed. H. Foley (London: 1981) 19-44; Nagy, G. Epic as Genre ch 1. in Epic Traditions in the Contemporary World, edd. Beissinger, M. et al. (Berkeley: 1999) 21-32. September 19 epic and character: forms of desire reading: Iliad Books 9-16 recommended: Schein, S., The Mortal Hero (Berkeley: 1985), chs. 4 & 5 Achilles: One, Achilles: Two ; Nagy, G. The Best of the Achaeans: Concepts of the Hero in Archaic Greek Poetry (Baltimore: 1979) ch. 2 http://www.press.jhu.edu/books/nagy/bofatl/toc.html; Wofford, S., The Choice of Achilles (Stanford: 1992), ch. 1 The Politics of the Simile 29-96.
September 26 genre and gender readings: Iliad Books 17-22; Felson, N. and L. Slatkin, Gender in the Homeric Poems Ch. 7 in The Cambridge Companion to Homer, ed. Fowler, R. (2004). recommended: Loraux, N. "Le Lit, la guerre," L'Homme 21.1 (1981) 37-67, transl. as "Bed and War" in The Experiences of Tiresias, trans. P. Wissing (Princeton: 1995) 23-43. October 3 pity and the audience readings: Iliad 23-24; Weil, S. The Iliad or the Poem of Force tr. McCarthy, M. (Paris: 1939) recommended: Rutherford, R. Tragic Form and Feeling in the Iliad, Ch. 8 in Oxford Readings in the Iliad, ed. D.L. Cairns (Oxford: 2002); cautiously recommended: Slatkin, L. Notes on Tragic Visualizing in the Iliad, Ch. 1 in Visualizing the Tragic, edd. J. Elsner, C. Kraus, et al. (Oxford: 2007). October 10 before and beyond the Iliad reading: Aeschylus, Agamemnon recommended: Zimmerman, B., Greek Tragedy: An Introduction (Baltimore 1991), 1-25; Goldhill, S. Reading Greek Tragedy (Cambridge: 1986) 1-32, 57-78 October 17 In-class written exercise reading: Aeschylus, Libation Bearers and Eumenides 2
October 24 sacrifice transformed reading: Euripides, Iphigeneia at Aulis recommended: Zeitlin, F., "Art, Memory, and kleos in Euripides' Iphigenia in Aulis," in B. Goff, ed., History, Tragedy, Theory (1995) October 31 theorizing Greek tragedy reading: Aristotle, Poetics http://classics.mit.edu/aristotle/poetics.1.1.html November 7 drama and desire reading: Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, ed. A. Dawson (Cambridge: 2003) (R) recommended: Cook, C., Unbodied Figures of Desire, Theatre Journal 38 (1986) 34-42 November 14 fidelity, heroism, and the female reading: Racine, Andromache, translation by R. Wilbur (New York: 1982) of Andromaque (1667) recommended: Barthes, R. On Racine, transl. by R. Howard (New York: 1964) of Sur Racine (Paris: 1960) 3-26, 72-81 November 21 comic Troy -- NO CLASS, but reading: Giraudoux, J., Tiger at the Gates, transl. by Christopher Fry (1955) of La guerre de Troie n aura pas lieu [ The Trojan War will not take place ] (Paris: 1935) November 28 Iliadic traces in our time 3
reading: Logue, Christopher War Music (London: 1981); Ellen McLaughlin, Iphigenia and Other Daughters (New York: 2004) All primary texts are available (under the course number and instructor s name) at Shakespeare & Co. Bookstore, 716 Broadway (right across the street from Gallatin). Secondary readings will be posted on Blackboard. Texts designated reading in the weekly schedule above are required; you are urged (but not required) to read those designated recommended, and it will be to your advantage to draw on them in your written work. 1) The Iliad of Homer, transl. R. Lattimore, U. of Chicago Press (paper) ISBN 0-226-46940-9 2) Aeschylus I, transls. D. Grene & R. Lattimore, U. of Chicago Press (paper) ISBN 0-0226-30778-6 3) Euripides IV, transls. D. Grene & R. Lattimore, U. of Chicago Press (paper) ISBN 0-226-30783-2 4) Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, ed. A. Dawson, Cambridge UP (paper), edition: "The New Cambridge Shakespeare" ISBN 0-521-37619-X 5) Racine, Andromache, transl. Richard Wilbur, Harvest/Harcourt Brace (paper) ISBN 0-15-607510 6) Fry, C. Tiger at the Gates/The Trojan War Will Not Take Place (London: 1955) translation of Giraudoux, J. La Guerre de Troie n aura pas lieu. Available on Blackboard 7) McLaughlin, E. Iphigenia and Other Daughters (New York: 2004) available on Blackboard Course requirements: 1) class attendance and participation: unexcused absence except for documented emergency will adversely affect your grade; 2) required reading; 3) *weekly questions (see below); 4) midterm written exercise; 5) final take-home exam. *Weekly questions: beginning next week (Sept. 11), please post on the Blackboard discussion site-- NO LATER THAN than 9 p.m. the night before 4
class TWO clearly formulated, SUBSTANTIVE questions about the week s reading (required or recommended) that you think will stimulate or enrich class discussion. Be prepared to be called on to present one or more of your questions in class. These will NOT be graded separately, but will be considered part of your class participation for the purposes of your final grade. No posting necessary for class on Oct. 17. Grading will be based on: class participation 30%; midterm exercise 30%; final exam 40%. All your written work must be your own; borrowed work will be severely sanctioned in accordance with school policies. See the following for the university s response to plagiarism: http://www.nyu.edu/cas/ewp/html/policies procedures.html If you have any questions about what constitutes plagiarism, please ask me. 5
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