Graduate

How do public speakers deal with controversial topics when addressing polarized audiences? And how do different approaches affect or influence the reception of their words and ideas, and by extension the audiences’ understanding of the issues at hand? In this course, we will study some of the earliest examples of such articulations by examining how archaic and classical Greek poets addressed the most controversial issues of their times, ranging from Sappho’s musings on the class and civic conflicts of the archaic period to Aristophanes’ provocative forays into debates about identity, education, policy, and even poetry itself in classical Athens. Our focus will be on the manner in which these poets addressed conflict(s) as privileged practitioners of public speech, and how they controlled or manipulated their audiences’ interpretations and receptions of their words, anticipating the maneuvers of Classical era rhetoric. In order to do so, we will look closely not only at the cultural contexts in which the poetry was first presented, but also at theories of communication, conflict, and identity, genre and reception studies (e.g. comedy, invective), along with examples of contemporary music, poetry, and visual art that address similar conflicts. 

Reading a classic from manuscript: Cicero’s Laelius de amicitia from the ninth-century Krakow (ex-Berlin) Codex. We shall read from a high-quality color facsimile and consult in tandem the recent Cambridge edition (2024) by Volk/Zetzel. 

This course examines the development of the Latin elegy from Catullus to Ovid. Our major themes are the use of motifs and topoi and their relationship to the problem of poetic persona. 

This course will examine the iambic, elegiac, lyric, and epinician genres of archaic and classical Greece, including the poetry of Sappho, Archilochus, Corinna, Bacchylides, Pindar, and many other. We will focus on questions of performance, genre, and context; on the texts’ relationships to each other and other ancient poetic traditions; and to a broad range of cultural, social, and political aspects of the archaic and classical Greek world(s), including sex and sexuality, class, gender, and other forms of identity, and the relationship of the individual to the community. The mythological, dramatic, and formal poetic aspects of these poems will be explored as well as questions of meter and dialect. 

Mastering Greek is an intensive Greek language course for pre-professional Hellenists. Do you find yourself fudging accents sometimes? Wondering about the use of infinitives versus participles? Pondering the future less vivid? Have you found yourself speaking Greek while looking in the mirror? This course will help you review Attic Greek from the level of the word to the short paragraph. Recommended for advanced undergraduates and graduate students, especially those who aspire to teach Greek. Assignments will include extensive written homework in Attic Greek, analytic exercises, creative writing exercises, as well as regular quizzes in order to advance to strong, active mastery of the language.  

This course will examine the iambic, elegiac, lyric, and epinician genres of archaic and classical Greece, including the poetry of Sappho, Archilochus, Corinna, Bacchylides, Pindar, and many other. We will focus on questions of performance, genre, and context; on the texts’ relationships to each other and other ancient poetic traditions; and to a broad range of cultural, social, and political aspects of the archaic and classical Greek world(s), including sex and sexuality, class, gender, and other forms of identity, and the relationship of the individual to the community. The mythological, dramatic, and formal poetic aspects of these poems will be explored as well as questions of meter and dialect. 

This is the second quarter of a two-part course that will cover the long life of ancient Greek poetry and prose, touching on many genres in their first forms: epic and hymns, history, oratory, and philosophical dialogues, poetry that is theogonic, iambic, elegiac, lyric, epinician, tragic, comedic, and dithyrambic. We will seek to discuss key moments, passages, and poems that give us entry to larger literary questions and themes. We will pay particular attention to details of genre, dialect, and meter, while also being attentive to the history of scholarship that attends on these traditions. We will continue to read a lot of Greek. 

This is the first quarter of a two-part course that will cover the long life of ancient Greek poetry and prose, touching on many genres in their first forms: epic and hymns, history, oratory, and philosophical dialogues, poetry that is theogonic, iambic, elegiac, lyric, epinician, tragic, comedic, and dithyrambic. We will seek to discuss key moments, passages, and poems that give us entry to larger literary questions and themes. We will pay particular attention to details of genre, dialect, and meter, while also being attentive to the history of scholarship that attends on these traditions. We will read a lot of Greek. 

In this course, we will read mostly Plato, also some Aristotle. 

This course will examine the iambic, elegiac, lyric, and epinician genres of archaic and classical Greece, including the poetry of Sappho, Archilochus, Corinna, Bacchylides, Pindar, and many other. We will focus on questions of performance, genre, and context; on the texts’ relationships to each other and other ancient poetic traditions; and to a broad range of cultural, social, and political aspects of the archaic and classical Greek world(s), including sex and sexuality, class, gender, and other forms of identity, and the relationship of the individual to the community. The mythological, dramatic, and formal poetic aspects of these poems will be explored as well as questions of meter and dialect.