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CL4420   Fame, Tradition and Narrative: Homer's lliad

Academic year(s): 2017-2018

Key information

SCOTCAT credits : 30

ECTS credits : 15

Level : SCQF level 10

Semester: 2

Planned timetable: 2.00 pm - 4.00 pm Tue

This module will give students the opportunity to study Homer's celebrated martial epic, the Iliad, in translation and in detail. It will consider the relevant social and cultural-historical questions which are prompted by this tale of heroic savagery and suffering: why might archaic Greeks have needed an epic like this? Why is the Homeric conception of the heroic so fraught with conflict and so obsessed with honour, memory and power? The module will also analyse and interpret the epic's rich poetic texture and 'oral-derived' style (formulae, similes, type-scenes…); it will explore the character of its heroes and their relationship with divinity. For all its depictions of battle and slaughter the Iliad is a poem about language as much as action and participants will consider the complex rhetoric of heroes who fight with words as well as swords. Finally, the module will ask how and why famous artists and poets of the modern era have returned to the Iliad's ideas and imagery.

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact: 1 x 2-hour seminar and 1 coursework consultation hour.

Scheduled learning hours: 22

Guided independent study hours: 278

Assessment pattern

As used by St Andrews: 3-hour Written Examination = 50%, Coursework = 50%

As defined by QAA
Written examinations : 50%
Practical examinations : 0%
Coursework: 50%

Re-assessment: 3-hour Written Examination = 100%

Personnel

Module teaching staff: Dr J Hesk