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CLU23215 Roman Letters

To write a letter - whether a formal, public composition or a private letter to a friend - is to create an image, consciously or unconsciously, of oneself as writer and of one's relationship with the letter's recipient. This was just as true for Roman letter-writers as it is for us today. This module will explore a selection of the wide range of letters, including both personal correspondence and more self-consciously literary compositions, that have survived from Roman antiquity.
  • Module Organiser:
    • Prof Monica Gale
  • Duration:
    • One term (Sept-Dec)
  • Contact Hours:
    • 19 (16 lectures twice weekly and 3 seminars)
  • Weighting:
    • 5 ECTS
  • Assessment:
    • 30% continuous assessment, 70% final examination

Introductory Reading

  • M. Trapp, 'Introduction', in Greek and Latin Letters: An Anthology with Translation (Cambridge, 2003), 1-47
  • G.O. Hutchinson, Cicero's Correspondence: A Literary Study (Oxford, 1998)
  • S. Lindheim, Mail and Female: Epistolary Narrative and Desire in Ovid's Heroides (Madison, Wisconsin, 2003), ch. 1
  • R.K. Gibson and R. Morello, Reading the Letters of Pliny the Younger: An Introduction (Cambridge 2012), esp. chs. 3-6

Learning Outcomes

On successful conclusion of this module, students should be able to:

  • Describe and analyse selected letters of Cicero, Pliny, and Seneca, and the epistolary poems of Horace and Ovid
  • Examine the prescribed letters, both as documents in intellectual history of the Roman world, and as literary texts, with a particular emphasis on authorial self-representation
  • Comment critically on select passages from the prescribed texts, both orally and in writing
  • Evaluate and apply recent critical approaches to epistolarity in general, and to the prescribed texts