CCIV250 - Ancient Sexualities

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Academic Year 2002/2003

Ancient Sexualities
CCIV 250 FA

Crosslistings:
WMST 268

Along with the invention of "homosexuality" as both word and concept came an historical evaluation of expressions of sexuality in various civilizations, including ancient Greece and Rome. Beginning with the late Victorian classicists J.A. Symonds and the circle of Oscar Wilde (trained at Oxford in Classics, or, as it was called at the time, "Greats"), this scholarly enterprise has enjoyed a renewed flourishing in the last thirty years. Many Second-Wave Feminist scholars have studied the roles of women in both ancient civilizations, including the possibilities for expressions of female desire and women's sexualities; many Classicists have studied the expressions of both male and female sexual experience in antiquity; meanwhile, other scholars have theorized the sex/gender systems of various cultures. In this course we shall read amongst these (all too often disparate) bodies of scholarship, attempting both to understand the varieties of sexual experience in ancient Greece and Rome and also to understand the current state of these scholarly enterprises.

OBJECTIVES:
Designed for both Classical Studies majors and non-majors, this course takes as its over-arching objective the study of the history and theories of sexuality, as they apply to Classical Antiquity. For majors, the primary texts read may be familiar, but the analysis new; for non-majors, the tools of analysis may be familiar, but the cultural specifics and primary texts analyzed may be new. This course is designed, then, to broaden the intellectual horizons of all students, be they Classical Studies majors or not.

MAJOR READINGS

K. J. Dover, GREEK HOMOSEXUALITY
D. Halperin, J. J. Winkler, & F. I. Zeitlin, edd., BEFORE SEXUALITY
J. P. Hallett & M. B. Skinner, edd., ROMAN SEXUALITIES
Plus Course Reader (Greek and Latin texts in original and in translation; a selection of articles and selections from books by key authorisin the field).

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Weekly one-page response papers; two short essays; final paper.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

Students are urged to attend every class starting from the first.

Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the Registrar's Office.

The instructor of this course will not be using the on-line wait list. If you are interested in this course, please contact the instructor directly.

COURSE FORMAT: Seminar

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA CLAS Grading Mode: Student Option

Prerequisites: NONE

SECTION 01

Instructor(s): Prince,Cashman Kerr

Instructor's Course Page

Times: ..T.R.. 09:00AM-10:20AM; Location: BTFDA413

Reserved Seats: (Total Limit: 19)

SR. major: 5 Jr. major: 3

SR. non-major: 2 Jr. non-major: 4 SO: 3 FR: 2

Special Attributes:

Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-18-2003