CLA 6905: Women and Gender in the Graeco-Roman World
Summary:
This course is intended to provide important background for issues of Gender and Sexuality in the study of Greek and Roman authors. Gender intersects with every literary genre and every author who wrote in Greek or Latin, but the way the Greeks and the Romans understood gender relations and stereotypes is significantly different from the way we understand them. While for us two thousand years of monotheistic religions have established some fairly rigid stereotypes in our perception of gender roles and expectations, the polytheistic religions of the Greeks and the Romans were more flexible on such matters. They did not understand traditional gender roles in their societies as dictated by a divine authority or an infallible holy book. Instead, they understood such roles as part of a disputable and changeable narrative of human interactions and societal needs and wants. Gender roles and expectations to the Greeks and the Romans were a human necessity, a traditional pattern, or an organizational and utilitarian arrangement, not inviolable eternal truths. Research has viewed Greece and Rome as patriarchal societies, but the picture is much more nuanced, since at least among the Greeks women had opportunities as authors, scholars, philosophers and scientists which were not going to have again in history until the 20th century. Late 20th century scholarship has projected into ancient studies of gender modern stereotypes and contemporary arguments. All these issues have complicated and sometimes confused our understanding of Gender in Graeco-Roman authors, and affected the way we perceive these works. This is why understanding better women and gender in the Graeco-Roman world will make a substantial contribution to our understanding of its literature as a whole.
Format:
Every week students will need to read a text centrally important for the week’s topic, in preparation for the discussion in class. During the semester each student will prepare a 30 minute presentation on a topic of his/her preference, and by the end of the semester he/she will be required to submit a 2000 word paper on this topic. There is no final exam; the grade is assessed on the basis of overall performance, willingness to participate in discussions, and preparedness for the class and the presentation.
Weekly Topics:
(Note: Weekly readings and bibliography will be circulated to students in a more detailed syllabus on the first week of class).
1. Introduction: Narratives of Gender and Sexuality, ancient and modern
2. Male sexuality and the stereotypes of masculinity in the Graeco-Roman world
3. Female sexuality and the stereotypes of femininity
4. Crossing overbinary gender boundaries
5. The continuum of Greek sexuality
6. Roman sexualities, civic virtue and family values
7. The seductive mistress in the epic and lyric tradition
8. Love, sex and ageing in Greek Lyric poetry
9. Tragic heroines: gender rules and inversions
10. Women in the comic tradition
11. Images of female prostitution in the Attic Orators and vase iconography
12. Images of male prostitution in Attic Oratory
13. The good women of Greece and Rome
14. The bad women of Greece and Rome
15. Concepts of Gender and Sexuality, Past and Present
16. Revision and conclusions.