Classics 127/Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies

To these ends, the course will emphasize writing and discussion. We will use writing in part as a method to think and learn about the course material. For example, to help you read more carefully and prepare to participate in class discussion, 8 informal response papers are required over the course of the semester (4 before spring break). These 1-2 page musings on the day’s reading – potentially including a summary, comments, critique, concerns, comparison to other readings, answers to the discussion questions or proposals for new questions – must be submitted before discussion for credit. For all reading assignments, questions are provided on the syllabus to help direct your reading and responses, as well as our discussion. Your participation in class discussion will also be encouraged by having you lead at least two sessions. Two quizzes will be offered to help you learn critical places, people and dates in Greek and Roman history.

Three short, formal writing assignments are also required. These are your opportunity to present a fully-developed and well-evidenced argument on a particular issue of your choice. Since we will be working with a great deal of creative literature, both ancient and modern, you may choose to submit a short story, poetry or other creative writing for one assignment. Late paper policy: if a paper is not turned in by the designated time, one letter grade will be deducted from the one otherwise earned. For every additional day the paper is late (24 hrs.), another letter grade will be deducted.

Class participation includes reading the assigned material, thinking about the questions posed on the syllabus and otherwise preparing, coming to class regularly and on time, as well as actively participating in the group discussion. Your eight response papers, degree of success in leading discussion, and quizzes will also count toward your participation grade. Attendance will be kept; not only will you not receive credit for participation if you are absent, after four absences your grade will suffer directly. More than six absences may cause you to fail the course.

And last but not least, a final exam (Saturday, May 6, 10:30am - 12:30pm) will allow you to have the final word on the issues we have explored over the semester. If you have difficulties with the date of any scheduled quiz or exam, consult with me in advance. Likewise, if your abilities necessitate special exam conditions or other considerations, I encourage you to discuss these with me as soon as possible.

Class Participation	35%
Formal Writing Assignments	50%
Final Exam	15%

Textbooks and Reading

The following books have been ordered and should be available at the Macalester textbook center in the Lampert Building. Please notify the store and myself immediately if you cannot find any of these books:

Goddesses, Whores, Wives and Slaves. Women in Classical Antiquity, Sarah B. Pomeroy, Schocken Press, 1975/1995.

Sexuality and Gender in the Classical World, Laura McClure, ed., Blackwell Press, 2002.

If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho, Anne Carson, translator, Vintage Press, 2002.

Sappho’s Immortal Daughters, Margaret Williamson, Harvard University Press, 1995.

Medea, Euripides. Dover Thrift Editions.

Oedipus Rex, Sophocles. Dover Thrift Editions.

The Darker Face of the Earth, 3^rd edition, Rita Dove, StoryLine Press, 1996.

Some readings are also provided via electronic reserve at the Macalester library (http://www.macalester.edu/library/resources/reserves/index.html) or are otherwise available on the World Wide Web. These may all be found through links on the course homepage, http://www.macalester.edu/courses/clas127. Please bring a hard copy of these reading with you to class, although you may share with a colleague.

Classics 127/Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies:

Women, Gender and Sexuality in Ancient Greece and Rome

Spring 2006

Beth Severy-Hoven, Macalester College

McClure: Sexuality and Gender in the Classical World, Laura McClure, ed., Blackwell Press, 2002.

Pomeroy: Goddesses, Whores, Wives and Slaves. Women in Classical Antiquity, Sarah B. Pomeroy, Schocken Press, 1975/1995.

Williamson: Sappho’s Immortal Daughters, Margaret Williamson, Harvard University Press, 1995.

* Reading provided electronically; see course homepage at http://www.macalester.edu/courses/clas127.

Wk	Date	Topic	Reading	Questions
1	Tue 1/24	Welcome & Introduction
	Th 1/26	Women, Gender and Classics	1. McClure, pp. 1-15. 2. M. Skinner, “Classical Studies, Patriarchy and Feminism” Women’s Studies International Forum* 10 (1987) 181-6. 3. Selected Poetry (class handout)	What has been the role of Classics in ‘Western’ society? Why is the field well suited to this role? Why are you taking this course? What does “Classics” mean to you?
2	Tue 1/31	Archaic Greece	1. Pomeroy, pp. 1-56.	This provides background information for the sessions that follow, but also deserves careful scrutiny itself. Which conclusions or methods would you question or qualify? Identify salient features of women’s lives in archaic Greece.
	Th 2/2	Sappho: Introduction	Williamson, pp. 1-89.	What problems face us in interpreting the poetry of Sappho?
3	Tue 2/7	Poetry	1. Browse through the Carson translation of Sappho’s poetry, reading closely at least fragments 1, 2, 16, 31, 51, 94, 105a, 110, 111. 2. Read selected poetry of male contemporaries (handout).	Do you perceive differences between Sappho’s poems and those of her male contemporaries? Consider poetic techniques, themes, characters, etc. How would you characterize Sappho herself based on her work?
	Th 2/9	Scholarship	Winkler article in McClure, pp. 39-71.
			What is the main “double” to which Winkler refers in the title? What evidence does he use to approach each? What assumptions do these ideas rest upon? Do you find his arguments about individual poems compelling? Well supported? What new insights into the poems have you gained, if any?
4	Tue 2/14	Sexuality	Williamson, pp. 90-132. QUIZ on places, people and events in Greek history.	Are the terms ‘homosexual’ and ‘heterosexual’ useful in discussing Sappho’s poetry or Sappho herself? Does the relationship between lover and beloved presented in Sappho’s work differ from similar imagery in the work of her male contemporaries?
	Th 2/16	Hymn to Demeter	*Hymn to Demeter	How does the hymn reflect the lives of archaic women as presented by Pomeroy, Williamson, Winkler and even Sappho? How could this be read as a subversive text?
5	Tue 2/21	Athenian Democracy	Pomeroy, pp. 57-92.
			How did women’s lives under the democracy in Athens differ from those of archaic women? What evidence does Pomeroy use to identify these? What is the relationship between political systems and gender in Athens? Again, PLEASE read critically and be prepared to challenge Pomeroy’s conclusions and comments.
First Paper Due Wednesday, February 22, by 12 noon in envelope outside 312 Old Main.
	Th 2/23	Tragedy	Sophocles, Oedipus Rex	How can we understand this play as the product of, and helping to produce, the Athenian democracy? How did it help to produce the gender roles of the Athenian democracy?
6	Tue 2/28		Euripides, Medea	What conceptual categories besides gender are at work in Euripides’ characterization of Medea? Does the play challenge or reinforce gender and other social categories? Why did the citizens of Athens spend time and money to produce such a play?
	Th 3/2	Modern Responses	Read sources in McClure, pp. 139-43, then Zeitlin article in McClure, pp. 103-38.
			From what observations does Zeitlin begin? What are the key questions she seeks to answer about these observed phenomena? What does she mean when she calls tragedy “the epistemological genre par excellence” (115)? What are the four traits of the Athenian theatrical experience Zeitlin identifies as both essential to the genre and culturally linked to the feminine? Can you see these operating in the ways she describes in Medea or Oedipus Rex? Do you find her arguments compelling?
7	Tue 3/7		Rita Dove, The Darker Face of the Earth	How does Dove reuse the story of Oedipus for her own purposes? How can we understand her play as the product of, and helping to both produce and challenge, modern America?
	Th 3/9	Law & Oratory	* Demosthenes (?)/Apollodorus, Against Neaera	What are the precise charges in the case? What of the evidence presented is relevant to those charges? What can we learn about Neaera’s life from this material?
8	SPRING BREAK - NO CLASSES
9	Tue 3/21	Medicine	1.* Selections from the Hippocratic Corpus (Women’s Life in Greece and Rome #341, 343, 344, 346, 348, 349) 2. * Selections from Aristotle (Women’s Life in Greece and Rome # 339)	Do the Hippocratic treatises derive from an ideological or scientific view of women? How does Aristotle reason? How does he formulate and prove his theories, and how does this affect his analysis of women?
	Th 3/23		King article in McClure, pp. 77-97.
			What does King want to understand better (there may be more than one answer)? What are some of her objections to how scholars have tried to understand these things previously? What forms of evidence does she use? Does she use them well? What answers does she put forth to the problems or questions she raises? Now reread “On Unmarried Girls,” McClure pp. 98-99. Do you now perceive that more is going on here than you did upon reading? How so?
10	Tue 3/28	Amazons	Readings, images and questions provided in online project – see course homepage.
	Th 3/30	Rome	1. Pomeroy, pp. 149-204. 2. Sources in McClure, pp. 157-60.	Is it possible to characterize differences between the lives of Greek and Roman women? What trends emerge from the epitaphs, and to what degree can we take these as reflecting the lives of Roman women?
Second Paper Due Friday, March 31, by 12 noon in envelope outside 312 Old Main.
11	Tue 4/4	Beginnings	Livy, History of Rome*, preface and book 1
			How do females function in this story of how Rome came to be? Why does the monarchy begin and end with a rape? How are these stories similar and different? Why does Lucretia die? From whose point of view is her story told? What if any relationship do you perceive between Livy’s legendary women of Rome and the epitaphs of real women?
	Th 4/6		Joshel article in McClure, pp. 163-87.
			What is Joshel’s overall argument about the role of women in Livy’s narrative of the birth of Rome? What evidence does she use? Are her deductions and evidence convincing? Joshel is forthcoming about her own context as a reader, but her present was 1992. Do her observations resonate for you with any parts of the world of 2006?
12	Tue 4/11	Cleopatra	* Plutarch, Life of Antony	What are Plutarch’s sources of information? Which social categories does Plutarch utilize in portraying Cleopatra? Can we use this as evidence about the life of Cleopatra?
	Th 4/13		Presentation in class on the Later Life of Cleopatra -- no preparation needed. QUIZ on places, people and events in Roman history.
13	Tue 4/18	Art & Empire	* René Rodgers, “Female Representation in Roman Art: Feminising the Provincial ‘Other’” in Roman Imperialism and Provincial Art, S.Scott & J. Webster, eds. Cambridge, 2003, pp. 69-93. (Some images provided online – see course homepage.)
			In the first part of her article, what are some differences she observes between our notions of masculine and feminine and Roman notions? How does she make use of this (or not) in the second part? In your own words, explain the concept of the Other. How is it constructed or expressed in Roman art? Do you find her arguments and conclusions compelling?
	Th 4/20	Sexualities	1. * H. Parker, “The Teratogenic Grid” Roman Sexualities, 1997, pp. 47-65. 2. Sources (handout).	How do Roman sexual categories differ from those of the modern US? How does he determine them? Although Parker does not address this, with what other social categories do Roman sexual categories intersect? How are these at play in the excerpts from Roman authors?
14	Tue 4/25	Private Art: Porn?	* “Where Do We Stand on Pornography?” and “Pornography: Does Women’s Equality Depend on What We Do About It?” Ms., Jan/Feb 1994, pp. 32-45.	On-line Project (See course homepage.)
	Th 4/27	Private Art & Identity	Presentation in class on the House of the Vettii in Pompeii -- no preparation needed.
Third Paper Due on Friday, April 28, by 12 noon, in envelope outside 312 Old Main.
15	Tu 4/26	Wrap Up

Final Exam: Saturday, May 6, 10:30am - 12:30pm