Classical Traditions

TEXTBOOKS:

1. Homer, The Odyssey, trans. Robert Fagles (Penguin, 1999), ISBN 0140268863
2. Aeschylus, The Oresteia, trans. Robert Fagles (Penguin, 1984), ISBN 0140443339
3. Euripides, Ten Plays, trans. Paul Roche (Signet, 1998), ISBN 0451527003
4. Virgil, The Aeneid, trans. Robert Fagles (Penguin, 2008), ISBN 0143105138
5. Ovid, The Metamorphoses, trans. Rolfe Humphries (Indiana, 1955), ISBN 0253200016
6. Dante, The Divine Comedy Vol. I:  Inferno, trans. Mark Musa (Penguin, 1984), ISBN 0142437220
7. Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, trans. Guido Waldman (Oxford, 1983), ISBN 0192836773
8. John Milton, Paradise Lost, 3rd ed. (Norton, 2004), ISBN 0393924289
9. a Bible of any translation with both the Old and the New Testaments

COURSE DESCRIPTION.  In this course, we focus on a pivotal literary text from the Classical period – Virgil’s Aeneid – and on Virgilian literary traditions.  Around our pivotal text, the course explores literary and historical relations – the textual “ancestors” and “progeny” that influenced or rewrote the Aeneid, as well as the philological, social, and political contexts of Virgil’s work.  Among authors explored in the course are Homer, Euripides, Ovid, Dante, and Milton.

GOALS.  In terms of my goals for this course, I want you to

1. to appreciate the literary achievements of Classical societies and their heirs,
2. to acquire perceptual habits and conceptual lenses conducive to the appreciation of specific media, genres, and styles of literature,
3. to engage in the analysis and interpretation of texts in their concrete historicity – that is, in their diverse philological, historical, aesthetic, cultural, and theoretical contexts,
4. to practice comparative literary and historical analysis,
5. to read critically, interpret responsibly, write and speak with clarity and grace, reason intelligently, and argue thoughtfully and persuasively, and
6. to enlarge the body of literature that you have read by becoming familiar with texts from other times and cultures, written in languages other than your own, texts within – and on the margins of – a variety of literary traditions.

REQUIREMENTS.  This course has the following graded assignments:

1. 10 two-page response papers (20 points each, 200 points total),
2. a mid-term exam (200 points),
3. two out of the following three assignments (200 points each, 400 points total):  PAPER 1, PAPER 2, and PAPER 3, and
4. a final exam (200 points).

Your final grade will be based on a 1000-point scale:  A = 930-1000 points, A- = 900-929, B+ = 870-899, B = 830-869, B- = 800-829, C+ = 770-799, C = 730-769, C- = 700-729, D+ = 670-699, D = 600-669, and F = below 600.  You absolutely may not do all three paper assignments (PAPER 1, PAPER 2, and PAPER 3); you may only do two out of the three.  Because response papers are a form of easy credit, not unlike extra credit, I generally do not offer other forms of extra credit or round borderline student grades up at the end of the semester.

ATTENDANCE.  Regular attendance is a virtual necessity for successful completion of this class.  Class discussion constitutes important, useful preparation for your graded work.  If you miss a class, you will essentially lose out on that day’s contribution to your preparation, since it is never really possible to reproduce or recapture the dynamics and flow of information for a missed class meeting (even if you get notes from someone).  If, however, you positively must miss a class, I expect you to find out what you missed and to come fully prepared – without excuses – to the next class meeting.  And please, don’t ask, “Did I miss anything?”  Check out Tom Wayman’s poem about that question.  For more on the College’s attendance policy, please go to http://www.tcnj.edu/~recreg/policies/attendance.html.

Academic Integrity.  Academic dishonesty is any attempt by a student to gain academic advantage through dishonest means, to submit, as his or her own, work which has not been done by him/her or to give improper aid to another student in the completion of an assignment. Such dishonesty would include, but is not limited to: submitting as his/her own a project, paper, report, test, or speech copied from, partially copied, or paraphrased from the work of another (whether the source is printed, under copyright, or in manuscript form). Credit must be given for words quoted or paraphrased. The rules apply to any academic dishonesty, whether the work is graded or ungraded, group or individual, written or oral.  TCNJ’s academic integrity policy is available on the web at http://www.tcnj.edu/~academic/policy/integrity.html.

OFFICE HOURS and EMAIL.  My office is Bliss Hall 216, and my office hours this term are 2:00-3:20pm on Tuesdays and Fridays.  If you cannot see me during these office hours, feel free as needed to call my office (771-2106) or to talk to me before or after class to arrange an appointment at another time.  You may also contact me by email (gsteinbe@tcnj.edu), or you may leave a message for me in my box at the English department offices in Bliss 124.  Email is generally the fastest way to contact me in an emergency.

I may, on occasion, want to e-mail everyone in class.  I generally only have access to your TCNJ e-mail addresses, however.  As a result, if you regularly use an e-mail address other than your TCNJ address, I recommend that you have mail from your TCNJ address forwarded to the address you use more regularly.  That way, if I e-mail your TCNJ address, my message will be forwarded to your other address automatically.

If you would like to send an e-mail message to one or more of your classmates, you can do so through SOCS.  To access SOCS, go to http://socs.tcnj.edu and, after you have logged in with your TCNJ e-mail username and password, choose this class from the list of your courses this semester.  Then, when our course page comes up, click the “Email” button.  From there, you can select individual e-mail addresses or the entire class and send a message to the address(es) you’ve selected.

Accommodations.  The College of New Jersey prohibits discrimination against any student on the basis of physical or mental disability or perceived disability.  The College will also provide reasonable and appropriate accommodations to enable students with disabilities to participate in the life of the campus community.  Individuals with disabilities are responsible for reporting and supplying documentation verifying their disability, and requests for accommodations must be initiated through the Office of Differing Abilities Services (Eickhoff Hall 159).  If you require special assistance, I will make every reasonable effort to accommodate your needs and to create an environment where your special abilities will be respected.  For more information, please go to http://www.tcnj.edu/~affirm/ada.html.

LANGUAGES ACROSS THE CURRICULUM.  A quarter-unit (one-credit) Languages Across the Curriculum independent study may be added to this course for those students who have intermediate level proficiency in ancient Greek, Latin, Italian, or French and who wish to complement the work in this course by utilizing their language skills. Please visit the LAC website at http://internationalstudies.intrasun.tcnj.edu/grant/lac.html or contact dcompte@tcnj.edu for more information. Students must meet with Dr. Compte to enroll in the LAC independent study right away.

RESPONSE PAPERS.  In the course of the term, you are required to write 10 short, informal papers (about 2 pages each) on the readings for class.  You may choose which readings you want to respond to, as long as you have completed ten response papers by the end of the term.  I will post questions about each day’s reading assignment for you to consider as the basis of your response.

Response papers will be graded “Pass/Fail.”  I ask you to type and double-space them (so that they are easier for me to read), but they need not be a perfect, polished product.  Rather, response papers should be just what their name says – a response.  Think about one of the topics above; then, write a response.  Don’t worry about typos or comma splices or organization.  Don’t worry about answering every question I ask under the particular topic.  In fact, focus on the one question that seems most interesting to you, and be as specific as you can, getting down as much as you can, as quickly as you can.  Treat response papers more like a journal entry than like a formal paper.  I don’t want a five-paragraph theme.  Rather, I want an exploration – as detailed and specific as possible – of the reading assignment for the day.

Normally, as long as you submit a response paper of suitable length, detail, and thoughtfulness (and as long as you turn it in in class on the assigned day), you will receive all the points that the response paper is worth.  The purpose of the response papers is

1. to help you in your preparation for class discussion,
2. to help me see where you’re struggling with the readings for class,
3. to help you develop your intellectual independence,
4. to help you develop your confidence as a reader of ancient, medieval, and Renaissance literature, and
5. to help you explore the relationships among the texts we’re reading.

You may submit more than 10 response papers in the course of the semester (to make up for any response papers that do not receive a grade of “Pass”), but no matter how many extra response papers you turn in, you will not receive credit for more than 10.  You may not submit more than one response paper on a single day, nor may you submit a response paper for a day that you are absent from class – absolutely no exceptions.

PAPER 1.  How does Euripides portray the character of Odysseus in The Cyclops?  How does Euripides use his portrayal of Odysseus to reinforce or revise Homer’s portrayal?  How does Euripides use Odysseus to comment on the values of his fellow Athenians?  In a paper of 4-6 pages, argue a clear and specific thesis about Euripides’s use of the figure of Odysseus by comparing Euripides’s Odysseus to Homer’s.  NOTE: You need not use outside sources for this paper (that is, sources in addition to the texts of Homer and Euripides); in fact, I would strongly encourage you not to use outside sources.  You will submit this paper to me electronically in the “dropbox” of SOCS (not in hard copy or in class), but you must submit it in the “dropbox” on the assigned day.  Your paper will be evaluated according to the criteria below.

PAPER 2.  How does Virgil portray the character of Odysseus/Ulysses in Book III of the Aeneid?  How does Virgil use his portrayal of Ulysses to revise and “correct” Homer’s portrayal of Odysseus?  How does Virgil use Ulysses to reinforce the values of Augustan Rome?  In a paper of 4-6 pages, argue a clear and specific thesis about Virgil’s use of the figure of Ulysses by comparing Virgil’s Ulysses to Homer’s Odysseus.  You may revise and re-use portions of PAPER 1 in this paper if (and only if) they are relevant to this assignment.  NOTE: You need not use outside sources for this paper (that is, sources in addition to the texts of Homer and Virgil); in fact, I would strongly encourage you not to use outside sources.  You will submit this paper to me electronically in the “dropbox” of SOCS (not in hard copy or in class), but you must submit it in the “dropbox” on the assigned day.  Your paper will be evaluated according to the criteria below.

PAPER 3.  Odysseus/Ulysses was definitely a popular figure in ancient literature.  He appears as a major or minor character in Homer, Euripides, Virgil, and Ovid.  How has Dante altered or maintained the tradition of Odysseus/Ulysses in Canto XXVI of the Inferno?  What characteristics from other incarnations of the character does Dante use and admire or revise and correct?  How does Dante’s characterization of the figure of Ulysses relate to his characterization of other pagan figures in the Inferno (e.g., Virgil)?  How does it relate to his characterization of his pilgrim self?  In a paper of 4-6 pages, argue a clear and specific thesis about Dante’s use of the tradition of Odysseus/Ulysses by comparing Dante’s Ulysses to one other incarnation of the Odysseus/Ulysses character.  You may revise and re-use portions of PAPER 1/PAPER 2 in this paper if (and only if) they are relevant to this assignment.  NOTE: You need not use outside sources for this paper (that is, sources in addition to the texts of Homer, Euripides, Virgil, Ovid, and Dante); in fact, I would strongly encourage you not to use outside sources.  ALSO NOTE: Dante did not read ancient Greek, the language of Homer’s Odyssey and Euripides’s plays; so Dante did not know Homer’s or Euripides’s versions of the Odysseus character directly (although comparing Dante’s Ulysses to Homer’s or Euripides’s Odysseus may still yield interesting insights into Dante’s use of the tradition).  You will submit this paper to me electronically in the “dropbox” of SOCS (not in hard copy or in class), but you must submit it in the “dropbox” on the assigned day.  Your paper will be evaluated according to the criteria below.

CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING PAPERS.  PAPER 1, PAPER 2, and PAPER 3 will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

1. Does the paper have a clear, specific thesis?
2. Does the paper’s comparative analysis progress logically?  Does the paper have a clear and consistent overall organization that relates all the ideas of the paper together in support of the thesis (rather than simply a list of random similarities and differences without relation to one another or to the thesis)?  Does the paper have appropriate transitions to aid the reader (rather than weak transitions, such as "The first similarity...," "Another difference...," and "Also...")?
3. Does the paper provide relevant, concrete evidence and logically persuasive reasons for every assertion?
4. Does the paper show sensitivity to the concrete historicity of the literary works under consideration (rather than treat them as timeless museum pieces or reflect on them anachronistically)?
5. Does the paper exhibit confidence and insight when analyzing literary works not yet discussed in class?
6. Does the introduction to the paper offer an interesting, helpful preview of the content, logic, and organization of the paper?
7. Is factual information in the paper accurate?
8. Is the writing in the paper clear, effective, correct (according to the norms of standard American English), and appropriate to an academic setting?

COURSE SCHEDULE.  The schedule below is subject to revision at the discretion of the professor.  I recommend that you check this online syllabus regularly over the course of the term.  Changes and updates will be indicated in red after the first week of classes.  All the readings assigned below are available in one or another of the purchased textbooks for class.  The assignments below are the minimum that you should read for each class meeting; if you have extra time, please read even more from the works and authors assigned.

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