University of St Andrews

Key information

SCOTCAT credits : 30

ECTS credits : 15

Level : SCQF level 10

Semester: 2

Availability restrictions: Available to General Degree students with the permission of the Honours Adviser

Planned timetable: To be confirmed

Literature is a key source of information about gender and sexuality in ancient Greek society. Literary texts often deal with these issues in rich and complex ways, however, and this makes them very challenging for scholars of gender and sexuality to analyse: we may think of the dynamic, eloquent female characters of tragedy, the combination of aggressively obscene sexual references and inverted gender norms in certain comedies, or the nuanced treatment of sexuality and gender identity in lyric poetry. This module will have two main aims. Firstly, a selection of (mostly poetic) texts will be examined for what they reveal about the experience and understanding of gender and sexuality in ancient Greek culture. Secondly, we will consider the methodological challenges involved in this type of analysis, and become familiar with some of the theoretical approaches (anthropology, gender studies, Foucault, etc.) that literary scholars who work on ancient gender and sexuality have drawn on.

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisite(s): As stated in the School of Classics Undergraduate Handbook

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact: 2 hour lectures (11 weeks)

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 coordinator: Dr M J Carroll
Module teaching staff: Dr Michael Carroll
Module coordinator email mjc33@st-andrews.ac.uk