Classics
Classical Civilization
CLCV V3101x The Archaeology of Ancient Egypt and Nubia 3 pts. Thanks to the pyramids of Giza, the treasure of Tutankhamun, and other remains of royal activity, pharaonic Egypt is justly famous for its monuments and material culture. Equally fascinating, if less well known, however, are the towns, fortresses, cultic centers, domestic spaces, and non-elite cemeteries that have been excavated over the past 200 years or so. The archaeology of Nubia is also little known but fascinating on many levels. This course will focus on what archaeology can reveal about life as it was experienced by individuals of all social classes. Through a combination of broad surveys and case studies of some of Egypt and Nubia's most culturally indicative and intriguing sites, we will explore issues such as the origins of inequality, state formation and its effects, the uneasy mix of state-planned settlements and village life, urbanism, domestic and community worship, gendered spaces, ethnicity and colonialism, religious revolution and evolution, bureaucracy, private enterprise, and the effects of governmental collapse on life and death in ancient Egypt and Nubia.
CLCV V3158x Women in Antiquity 3 pts. Prerequisites: None. Corequisites: None.
CLCV V3162x Ancient Law 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014.
CLCV V3205y Classics in the 20th and 21st Centuries 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014.
CLCV V3230y Classics and Film 3 pts. Considers cinematic representations of the ancient Mediterranean world, from early silent films to movies from the present day. Explores films that purport to represent historical events (such as Gladiator) and cinematic versions of ancient texts (Pasolini's Medea). Readings include ancient literature and modern criticism.
CLCV V3535x Identity and Society in Ancient Egypt 3 pts.
Open only to students enrolled in the post-baccalaureate certificate program in Classics.
LATN W3908x The Post-Baccalaureate Seminar 3 pts. This seminar aims to provide students in the post-baccalaureate certificate program with opportunities 1) to (re-)familiarize themselves with a selection of major texts from classical antiquity, which will be read in English, 2) to become acquainted with scholarship on these texts and with scholarly writing in general, 3) to write analytically about these texts and the interpretations posed about them in contemporary scholarship, and 4) to read in the original language selected passages of one of the texts in small tutorial groups, which will meet every week for an additional hour with members of the faculty.
ANCS V3995x The Major Seminar 3 pts. Prerequisites: Junior standing. Required for the Ancient Studies major. The topic changes from year to year but is always broad enough to accommodate students in the languages as well as those in the interdisciplinary major. Past topics include: love, dining, slavery, space, power.
CLCV W4110y Gender and Sexuality In Ancient Greece 3 pts. Prerequisites: Sophomore standing or permission of the instructor. Examination of the ways in which gender and sexuality are constructed in ancient Greek society and represented in literature and art, with attention to scientific theory, ritual practice, and philosophical speculation. Topics include conceptions of the body, erotic and homoerotic literature and practice, legal constraints, pornography, rape, and prostitution.
CLCV W4145x Ancient Political Theory 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. An examination of ancient political theory in its social and philosophical context. Topics will include constitutional theory, the origins and legitimation of government, ethics and politics, the regulation of private life, the rule of law, and the cosmopolis. Authors will include the Sophists, Plato (Republic, Laws, Statesman), Aristotle (Politics), Cicero (Republic and Laws), Polybius, Dio of Prusa (On Kingship, Borysthenic Oration), and Augustine (City of God).
CLCV W4190y Virtue and Happiness: Philosophy in Classical Rome 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. This class provides an introduction to the philosophical texts and practices of Rome's classical period (1st century BC and 2nd century AD). Readings are in Egnlish translation and include works by Lucretius, Cicero, Horace, Vergil, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, and others.
CLCV W4225x Ancient Cities: Urbanism in the Near Eastern and Mediterranean World 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. In this seminar we will explore a wide variety of ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean cities, as well as the theoretical frameworks that inform their development, growth, and contraction over time. Cities thrive for different reasons; some are grounded on trade and markets, others on sacred centers or military bases, while others are fashioned as if from scratch to fit a particular political ideology. In addition to reading texts focussing on specific cities and on overarching issues, each of you will develop an expertise on one particular city and will examine issues of broad interest as they are manifest in that city. Such issues include city-planning vs. organic growth, the position of the city within a general settlement pattern, its relationship to its hinterland, its political status, neighborhoods, ethnic enclaves, slums, topography, landscape, markets, industry, temples, palaces, memorials, and arenas to showcase political, sacred, and spectacular performance.
Classical Literature
CLLT V3132x Classical Myth 3 pts. A survey of major myths from the ancient Near East to the advent of Christianity, with emphasis on the content and treatment of myth in classical authors: Aeschylus, Euripides, Hesiod, Homer, Livy, Ovid, Sophocles, Vergil.
CLLT V3135y Ancient Novel 3 pts. We study several of the extant novels that have survived from classical antiquity, such as Longus' "Daphnis and Chloe," Achilles Tatius' "Leucippe and Cleitophon," and Petronius' "Satyricon." We examine the narrative features of these ancient tales of romance, adventure, and survival, and we consider the relationship of novels to other genres that were popular in antiquity (e.g. epic poems, histories, travelogues), their ideological function(s), and their treatment of gender, ethnicity, and social status. We also explore the influence of novels on other important forms of narrative in antiquity, notably the Acts of the Apostles and the lives of Christian saints, and their impact on texts of subsequent eras -- both direct (e.g., Boccaccio's Decameron, Sidney's Arcadia, Richardson's Pamela, Swift's Gulliver's Travels) and indirect (Harlequin romances, the "Twilight" novels, and popular movies such as "Pirates of the Carribean").
CLLT V3140x Comedy Past and Present 3 pts. Ancient Greek and Roman comedies are studied along with their modern English counterparts, as we explore how fantasy and satire have been developed as tools for grappling with political, social and cultural issues. Authors may include Aristophanes, Petronius, Lucian, Apuleius, Seneca, Tom Stoppard, Thomas Pynchon, Douglas Adams and John Waters.
CLLT V3185x From Augustine to Abelard 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. The proposed course, Medieval Latin Literature: From Augustine to Abelard, aims to provide undergraduate students with an introduction to the literature of the Latin Middle ages in translation. It will include all the important literary genres within the varieties of Latin which we call Medieval Latin, both in verse and prose. The course will emphasize those types of literary compositions that are newly created within the context of medieval culture, such as monastic rules, Christian hymns, biblical exegesis, hagiography and devotional literature. The readings will emphasize both continuity with the literary traditions of ancient Rome as found in these texts, but also the integration of biblical narratives and hermeneutics into the written culture of medieval Europe. Also included among the primary sources will be medieval discussions of literary theory.
CLLT W4115y Tragedy and Performance 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. An intensive study of problems relating to the interpretation and performance of Greek and Roman tragedy, including modern stage versions. Special consideration is given to staging, the changing role of actors and the chorus, Aristotle's Poetics, and the reception of ancient tragedy, as well as social and philosophical issues, including gender conflict.
CLLT W4300x The Classical Tradition 3 pts. Overview of Greek and Roman literature. Close analysis of selected texts from the major genres accompanied by lectures on literary history. Topics include the context out of which the genres arose, the suitability of various modern critical approaches to the ancient texts, the problem of translation, and the transmission of the classical authors and their influence on modern literature.
Greek
GREK V1101x Elementary Greek I 4 pts. For students who have never studied Greek. An intensive study of grammar with reading and writing of simple Attic prose.
GREK V1102y Elementary Greek II 4 pts. Prerequisites: GREK V1101 or the equivalent, or the permission of the instructor or the director of undergraduate studies. Continuation of grammar study begun in GREK V1101; selections from Attic prose.
GREK V1121x and y Intensive Elementary Greek 4 pts. Covers all of Greek grammar and syntax in one term. Prepares the student to enter second-year Greek (GREK V1201 or V1202).
GREK V1201x Intermediate Greek I 4 pts. Prerequisites: GREK V1101-1102 or the equivalent. Selections form Attic prose.
GREK V1202y Selections from Homer 4 pts. Prerequisites: GREK V1101-V1102 or GREK V1121 or the equivalent. Detailed grammatical and literary study of several books of the Iliad and introduction to the techniques or oral poetry, to the Homeric hexameter, and to the historical background of Homer.
GREK V3105x Philo of Alexandria: Historical Essays and the Contemplative Life We will read in the original language selections from three treatises -- In Flaccum, Legatio ad Gaium, and De Vita Contemplativa -- of Philo of Alexandria; aside from their importance as Imperial Greek texts, these essays provide essential and very rare evidence for the environment (early Imperial Alexandria) and thought of their author.
GREK V3309x Selections from Greek Lit: Herodotus 3 pts. Since the content of this course changes from year to year, it may be repeated for credit.
GREK V3310y Greek Novel 3 pts. Prerequisites: GREK V1201-V1202 or the equivalent. Since the content of this course changes from year to year, it may be repeated for credit. Topic for 2006-2007: Aristophanes
Open only to students enrolled in the post-baccalaureate certificate program in Classics.
GREK W3980x The Post-Baccalaureate Seminar 3 pts. This seminar aims to provide students in the post-baccalaureate certificate program with opportunities 1) to (re-)familiarize themselves with a selection of major texts from classical antiquity, which will be read in English, 2) to become acquainted with scholarship on these texts and with scholarly writing in general, 3) to write analytically about these texts and the interpretations posed about them in contemporary scholarship, and 4) to read in the original language selected passages of one of the texts in small tutorial groups, which will meet every week for an additional hour with members of the faculty.
GREK V3996x The Major Seminar 3 pts. Prerequisites: Junior standing. Required for all majors in classics and classical studies. The topic changes from year to year but is always broad enough to accommodate students in the languages as well as those in the interdisciplinary major. Past topics include: love, dining, slavery, space, power.
GREK V3997x and y Directed Readings 3 pts. Prerequisites: Permission of the director of undergraduate studies. A program of reading in Greek literature, to be tested by a series of short papers, one long paper, or an oral or written examination.
GREK V3998x and y Supervised Research 3 pts. Prerequisites: Permission of the director of undergraduate studies. A program of research in Greek literature. Research paper required.
GREK W4009x Sophocles 3 pts. Prerequisites: GREK V1201 and V1202 or their equivalent. Since the content of the course changes from year to year, it may be taken in consecutive years.
GREK W4010y Aristophanes 3 pts. Prerequisites: GREK V1201-V1202 or the equivalent. Since the content of this course changes each year, it may be repeated for credit. Topic for 2007-2008: Sophocles
GREK W4105x History of Greek Literature I 4 pts. Prerequisites: At least two terms of Greek at the 3000 level or higher. Readings in Greek literature from Homer to the 4th century B.C.
GREK W4106y History of Greek Literature II 4 pts. Prerequisites: At least two terms of Greek at the 3000 level or higher. Greek literature of the 4th century B.C. and of the Hellenistic and Imperial Ages.
GREK W4139y Elements of Prose Style 3 pts. Prerequisites: At least four terms of Greek, or the equivalent. An intensive review of Greek syntax with translation of English sentences and paragraphs into Attic Greek.
Latin
LATN V1101x and y Elementary Latin I 4 pts. For students who have never studied Latin. An intensive study of grammar with reading of simple prose and poetry.
LATN V1102x and y Elementary Latin II 4 pts. Prerequisites: LATN V1101 A continuation of LATN V1101, including a review of grammar and syntax for students whose study of Latin has been interrupted.
LATN V1120x Preparation for Intermediate Latin 4 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. A one-term intensive review of the basic grammar and reading skills; designed for students who have had some Latin in the past but need further instruction to qualify for LATN V1201.
LATN V1121x and y Intensive Elementary Latin 4 pts. Designed to cover all of Latin grammar and syntax in one semester in order to prepare the student to enter LATN V1201 or V1202.
LATN V1201x and y Intermediate Latin I 4 pts. Prerequisites: LATN V1101-V1102, or LATN V1121, or the equivalent. Selections from Catullus and from Cicero or Caesar.
LATN V1202x and y Intermediate Latin II 4 pts. Prerequisites: LATN V1201 or the equivalent. Selections from Ovid's Metamorphoses and from Sallust, Livy, Seneca, or Pliny.
LATN V3012x Augustan Poetry 3 pts. Prerequisites: LATN V1202 or the equivalent. Selections from Vergil and Horace. Combines literary analysis with work in grammar and metrics.
LATN V3033x Medieval Language and Literature 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. Prerequisites: Four semesters of college Latin or permission of the instructor. This survey focuses on translation, grammatical analysis, and discussion of the literary and cultural contexts of medieval Latin prose and poetry. It includes widely read texts by major authors (e.g. Augustin, Boethius, Abelard and Heloise, Bernard of Clairvaux, Petrarch) as well as lesser-known anonymous pieces (e.g. love lyric from the Cambridge Songs and the Carmina Burana, poetic satire from a rotulus, and a novel, the Historia Apollonii).
LATN V3309x Latin Literature Selections: The Roman Novel 3 pts. Prerequisites: LATN V3012 or the equivalent. Since the content of this course changes from year to year, it may be repeated for credit.
LATN V3310y Silver Latin Epic 3 pts. Prerequisites: LATN V3012 or the equivalent. Since the content of this course changes from year to year, it may be repeated for credit. Topic for 2007-2008: Livy
LATN V3996x The Major Seminar 3 pts. Prerequisites: Junior standing. Required for all majors in Classics and Classical Studies. The topic changes from year to year but is always broad enough to accommodate students in the languages as well as those in the interdisciplinary major. Past topics include: love, dining, slavery, space, power.
LATN V3997x and y Directed Readings in Latin Literature 3 pts. Prerequisites: Permission of the director of undergraduate studies. A program of reading in Latin literature, to be tested by a series of short papers, one long paper, or an oral or written examination.
LATN V3998x and y Supervised Research in Latin Literature 3 pts. Prerequisites: Permission of the director of undergraduate studies. A program of research in Latin literature. Research paper required.
LATN W4009x Selections from Latin Literature: Roman Comedy 3 pts. Prerequisites: LATN V3012 or the equivalent. Since the content of this course changes from year to year, it may be repeated for credit.
LATN W4010y Second Century Prose 3 pts. Prerequisites: LATN V3012 or the equivalent. Since the content of this course changes from year to year, it may be repeated for credit. Topic for 2007-2007: Elegy
LATN W4105x Latin Literature of the Republic 4 pts. Prerequisites: At least two terms of Latin at the 3000 level or higher. Latin literature from the beginning to early Augustan times.
LATN W4106y Latin Literature of the Empire 4 pts. Prerequisites: At least two terms of Latin at the 3000 level or higher. Latin literature from Augustus to 600 C.E.
LATN W4139x Elements of Prose Style 3 pts. Prerequisites: At least four semesters of Latin, or the equivalent. Intensive review of Latin syntax with translation of English sentences and paragraphs into Latin.
LATN W4140y Latin Stylistics 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. Prerequisites: LATN W4139 or the equivalent The study of the development of Latin prose style through practice in composition.
LATN W4152y Medieval Latin Literature 3 pts. Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. The focus of this course will be on he varied literatures of historical writing in the Latin Middle Ages, including biography, hagiography, chronicles, national and institutional histories (such as, for example, monastic histories and the Liber pontificalis).
LATN W4160y Latin Language, Culture, and Identity in Ancient Rome 3 pts. Prerequisites: LATN 3012 or equivalent. An introduction to the Latin language: linguistic analysis of morphology and phonology combined with exploration of its cultural significance as an artificial construct. Topics to be considered will include: the struggle over 'Latinity' in the first century BCE; the problem of 'vulgar Latin'; the role of the grammarian as guarantor of social order; archaism and linguistic innovation.
Modern Greek
GRKM V1101x Elementary Modern Greek I 4 pts. This is the first semester of a year-long course designed for students wishing to learn Greek as it is written and spoken in Greece today. As well as learning the skills necessary to read texts of moderate difficulty and converse on a wide range of topics, students explore Modern Greece's cultural landscape from "parea" to poetry to politics. Special attention will be paid to Greek New York. How do "our," "American," "Greek-American" definitions of language and culture differ from "their", "Greek" ones?
GRKM V1102y Elementary Modern Greek 4 pts. Prerequisites: GRKM V1101 or the equivalent. Continuation of GRKM V1101. Introduction to modern Greek language and culture. Emphasis on speaking, writing, basic grammar, syntax and cross-cultural analysis.
GRKM V1201x Intermediate Modern Greek I 4 pts. Prerequisites: GRKM V1101-V1102 or the equivalent. Corequisites: Students are also required to take the conversation class, GRKM W1211. This course is designed for students who are already familiar with the basic grammar and syntax of modern Greek language and can communicate at an elementary level. Using films, newspapers, and popular songs, students engage the finer points of Greek grammar and syntax and enrich their vocabulary. Emphasis is given to writing, whether in the form of film and book reviews or essays on particular topics taken from a selection of second year textbooks.
GRKM V1202y Intermediate Modern Greek II 4 pts. Prerequisites: GRKM V1201 or the equivalent. Continuation of GRKM V1201. Students complete their knowledge of the fundamentals of Greek grammar and syntax while continuing to enrich their vocabulary.
GRKM W1211x Intermediate Modern Greek Conversation 1 pt. For students in GRKM V1201, but also open to students not enrolled in GRKM V1201, who wish to improve their spoken Modern Greek. For more information, contact Prof. Vangelis Calotychos at ec2268@columbia.edu.
GRKM V3135y Topics Through Greek Film 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. This course introduces students to major literary, cultural, and political issues in modern Greece through Greek film. Discussion of films are placed alongside weekly readings in the novel, history, politics, film criticism. All films have English subtitles. There will be a Greek and English section. Films by Angelopoulos, Cacoyannis, Voulgaris, Marketaki, Koundouros, Costa-Gavras, Giannaris, Papatakis, and Dassin.
GRKM V3306x The Making of Modern Greek Poetry 3-4 pts. This course is given with a 1 pt. bilingual option (1 hr. per week) for those students who have the skills to discuss the material in Greek. Prerequisites: GRKM V1201 or the equivalent. In this course, we read back and forth through Greek literary history from the 1980s to the 1930s, 1920s, 1880s and 1820s, mapping contemporary critical concerns and contemporary literary works onto earlier works, as well as examining how previous generations of writers influence contemporary writers. We will focus on questions of women's writing, gender and sexuality, as well as how translation conceals and reveals these questions. Texts include works by Anghelaki-Rooke, Cavafy, Dimoula, Elytes, Laina, Mastoraki, Ritsos, Sachtouris, Seferis, Sikelianos and Solomos. This method of reading back and forth not only highlights what is linguistically familiar about contemporary writing and more foreign about earlier writing, but makes questions of canon formation and literature as a national institution integral to the process of studying Modern Greek poetry. Students will create portfolios of their own translations of the poems we read and discuss them with poets and translators over the course of the semester. No knowledge of Greek is necessary, although an extra-credit tutorial will be offered for Greek speakers wishing to read the poetry in the original. Class discussion and texts will be in English. Works also available in Greek for those students wishing to read in Greek. Assignments may be completed in English or Greek.
GRKM V3308y Athens 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. Introduces students to important discussions about culture and society in contemporary Greece. Examines the themes of gender, family, kinship, ethnicity, friendship, national identity and diaspora, individuality and community, class, and citizenship. Readings include essays by distinguished contemporary Greek scholars and are intended to offer students a comprehensive perspective of contemporary Greek cultural criticism.
GRKM V3400y Diaspora & Translation 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. This course introduces students to the rich tradition of literature about and by Greeks in America over the past century, exploring questions of ethnic identity, gender and language. Students examine how contemporary debates in diaspora studies and translation theory can inform each other and how both, in turn, can inform a discussion of the writing of the Greek American experience in histories, novels, poetry, travel literature, performance art and films. Authors include Kazan, Gage, Broumas, Spanidou, Galas, Selz, Papandreou, and Petrakis.
CLGM V3920y The World Responds to the Greeks: Modernity, Postcoloniality, Globality 3 pts. How does the world respond to the Greeks? This course introduces students to interdisciplinary study by examining the kind of analytical frame a particular area (Greece, the Mediterranean, the Balkans, Europe, Greek-America) provides for interdisciplinary work. The focus is on how literature as a discipline works comparatively and how it borrows and differs from other disciplines in its forms of comparativism. Readings foreground moments when Greece's position at the crossroads (between East and West, Byzantine and Ottoman, Ancient and Modern, the Balkans and Europe, Greece and America) become comparatively productive to particular fields (Comparative Literature, History, Sociology, Film, Architecture, Anthropology, Ethnic, Gender, and Translation Studies). The course can be taken with an extra-credit tutorial for students reading materials in the original and fulfills the Global core requirement. For information about the course contact: vandyck@columbia.edu and about the Program, visit: www.columbia.edu/cu/hellenicstudies/
CLGM W3937x The Culture of Democracy 3 pts. The point is to examine democracy, not as political system, but as a historical phenomenon characterized by a specific culture: a body of ideas and values, stories and myths. This culture is not homogenous; it has a variety of historical manifestations through the ages but remains nonetheless cohesive. The objective is twofold: 1) to determine which elements in democratic culture remain current, no matter what form they take in various historical instances; 2) to understand that the culture of democracy is indeed not abstract and transcendental but historical, with its central impetus being the interrogation and transformation of society.
GRKM V3997x and y Directed Readings 1-4 pts. Designed for undergraduates who want to do directed reading in a period or on a topic not covered in the curriculum.
GRKM V3998x and y Senior Research Seminar 1-4 pts. Designed for students writing a senior thesis or doing advanced research on Greek or Greek Diaspora topics.
GRKM W4250y The Greek Islands 1600-present 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. Prerequisites: GRKM V1201-GRKM V1202 or permission of the instructor Texts in Greek and English. Selective survey of key literary texts from Crete, the Ionian Isles, the Cyclades, and the Dodecannese as well as western texts about these topoi. Sometime island paradises and retreats; othertimes sites of political internment or occupation, texts will be read in historical specificity, in linguistic, cultural, political, utopic terms. Texts will include selections from Kornaros's Erotokritos, Jesuit Cycladic theater, folksongs, Solomos, Papadiamantis, Theotokis, Venezis, Elytis, Ritsos, Karapanou as well as some Greek and foreign contemporary films.
CLGM W4290 (Section 001) GREECE AT THE CROSSROADS 4 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. This course introduces students to key aspects of Modern Greek culture as well as to faculty at Columbia working on Greece in different departments. Readings focus on moments when Greece's position at the crossroads between East and West become comparatively relevant to particular disciplines. Students study works by poets, novelists, filmmakers, literary critics, historians, anthropologists and architects; Columbia faculty and invited guests then discuss their own scholarship in these fields. Texts are available in both English and Greek. The course can be taken with a one-credit extra hour tutorial for advanced students reading materials in Greek.
CLGM W4390 (Section 001) THE POLITICS OF POIEIN: GREEK 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. This course stages an imaginary dialogue between certain Greek poets, whose work spans the 20th century, and poets of the same era from other parts of the world, for whom Greek motifs are crucial to their poetic sensibility. These motifs may pertain to both ancient and modern figures of Hellenism, but even when the figures are recognizably ancient the assumption is that they extend themselves to an outmaneuverable modernity. Indeed, by staging this dialogue, the course will engage in interrogations of modernity and, moreover, the specific ways in which figures of modernity and figures of Hellenism are entwined. At the same time, we will pay close attention to different articulations of poi?sis, especially as they pertain to a certain politics. The literary historical sphere spans the range of early modernism to postmodernism and postcolonialism, as well as specific poetic-political sensibilities, whether aestheticist or Marxist, feminist or queer.
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