CL7023 Classics and European Identity

Weighting: 10 ECTS
Module Coordinator: Professor Anna Chahoud
Contact Hours: 22 (11 x one 2-hr seminar p/w)

Overview

This course explores the historical reasons for the importance attached to the study of Classics in school and academic curricula from antiquity to modern-time Europe. It will discuss the intellectual (and political) force of a supposedly ‘authoritative’ past in the shaping of cultural (and national) identities, and examine the ways in which classical texts have been approached, appropriated, and communicated over the centuries. It aims to debate the relevance of Classics as a discipline in contemporary Western society.

Aims

• To explore the historical reasons for the importance attached to the study of Classics in school and academic curricula from antiquity to modern-time Europe.
• To discuss the intellectual (and political) force of a supposedly ‘authoritative’ past in the shaping of cultural (and national) identities.
• To examine the ways in which classical texts have been approached, appropriated, and communicated over the centuries.
• To debate the relevance of Classics as a discipline in contemporary Western society.

Working Methods

The course will be taught as a series of student-led discussion seminars. Guidance for reading and topics will be given in class.

Assessment

This module requires the completion of assignments as directed by the lecturer. All assignments are compulsory.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the course students will be able to:

• Detail the development of Classical education from Antiquity to modern-time Europe.
• Identify and analyse the contextual reasons behind the interpretation of classical texts.
• Understand and evaluate the methodologies involved in Classical scholarship, ranging from textual criticism to contemporary theoretical approaches.
• Demonstrate proficiency in oral presentation and critical thinking.

Syllabus

1. Alexandria: Greek civilization abroad
2. Rome: language and literature in the Roman educational system
3. Organising the Past in late Antiquity
4. Medieval transformations and the triumph of ‘Grammar’
5. Charlemagne’s reform of education
6. The Humanists’ foundational theory for a study of the classical world
7. The Renaissance legacy: Classical Studies in Europe
8. New Science and old books: Rationalism, Empiricism, Criticism
9. From the ‘New Humanism’ to the concept of ‘Science of Antiquity’
10. 20th-century challenges: inaccessible authorial ‘self’; philological method invalidated; historical perspective disappearing; self-fulfilling nature of critical science denied; non-professional education downgraded, etc.
11. Foundational theories for Classical Studies in the 21st century.

Introductory Reading

• Bulwer, J. (ed.) (2006) Classics Teaching in Europe (London: Duckworth).
• Dionisotti, A.C., Grafton A., and Kraye, J., (eds.) (1988), The Uses of Greek and Latin. Historical Essays (London).
• Pearcey, L.T. (2005) The Grammar of Our Civility: Classical Education in America (Baylor University Press)
• Simmons, T.L. (2002) Climbing Parnassus: A New Apologia for Greek and Latin (ISI Books)
• Too, Y.L, and Livingstone, N. (1998) Pedagogy and Power: Rhetorics of Classical Learning (Cambridge University Press)
• Waquet, F. (2001) Latin or the Empire of a Sign (London and New York)