CLAS352

036595

The most famous texts you've never heard of, the ancient Greek and Roman novels are a rich and diverse group of texts that arose somewhat suddenly from mysterious origins, and include formulaic tales of love, sex and marriage, travel to bizarre foreign lands, magical transformations, riddles, zombies, and debauchery. These stories have sometimes been looked on as texts of inferior quality, a topic we will reconsider together, but these novels also laid the groundwork for more modern novels, as well as the works of Cervantes and Shakespeare and films like The Princess Bride and Indiana Jones. This course will use a Humanists perspective to critically read, analyze, discuss, and formulate arguments about select Ancient Greek and Roman novels. We may also include reading and consideration of similar texts from other ancient societies and/or the receptions of these novels in subsequent literature. As we read, we will consider when novels become literature, what makes books good, how we define genre and how genre impacts our reading, as well as what fiction can teach us about the history of love, sex, social class, women, the body, religion, and magic.

GRD - Regular Grades A, B, C, D, E

Undergraduate

GE - T2-HUM (Tier 2 Humanities), GEED - EPHUM (Gen Ed: EP Humanist), WE - WEC (Writing Emphasis Course)

Two courses from Tier One, Traditions & Cultures.