CLAS3831: Interpreting Greek Drama Today

• CLAS1601 or ENGL1011 or ENGL1031

• None

• None

• To study Greek tragedies and comedies and a variety of approaches to interpreting them; both in performance and as literary texts.
• To gain a solid awareness of a range of approaches to studying Greek drama, including the use of critical theories (their application and limitations).

• The module involves the in-depth study of several tragedies and comedies in translation (e.g. Aeschylus Persians and Oresteia, Sophocles Ajax and Oedipus the King, Euripides Medea and Trojan Women, Aristophanes Acharnians and Women in the Assembly). The module explores the plays within their ancient contexts (e.g. social, cultural, political, moral, competitive) but also refers to the performance tradition of these plays. It also considers the application of some modern critical approaches to drama (e.g. Structuralism, Deconstruction, Narratology, New Historicism, Feminism, Psychoanalytic Criticism, Gender Theory and Post-Colonialism).

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Knowledge of the translated texts of Greek plays in detail; of the relationship of the tragedies to their Athenian dramatic, literary, social and cultural context; of the issues of interpretation raised by the tragedies and comedies.
• Knowledge of the range of approaches that scholars use for the study of Greek drama, including critical theories; their relationships to each other; their advantages and limitations.

Subject-specific Skills:

• Ability to understand and interpret, on a broad and on a detailed level, the genre of Greek drama.
• Ability to identify some critical theories operative in scholarship and to evaluate differing interpretations of the plays in the light of the ancient text.

Key Skills:

• Ability to use both primary and secondary sources to interpret texts; to use texts as a means of understanding their broader cultural background; to evaluate the arguments of others and to produce arguments of ones own in support of a given case..
• Increased familiarity with techniques of analysing and organising theoretical argument and presenting the results in writing.
• Enhancement of research and writing techniques in preparation for more advanced work (including the final-year dissertation).

• Lectures introduce texts, topics and approaches in the analysis of Greek tragedy and comedy.
• Seminars allow students to develop and test their ideas orally and to articulate their views in front of their peers.
• Tutorials offer group discussion of formative work which connects directly to the planning and preparation for the two summative essays.
• Summative essays allow students to develop their ideas and their analytical skills by close engagement with a single text and/or by exploration of wider theme(s) and methodological questions covered during the module.

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