University of St Andrews

Key information

SCOTCAT credits : 30

ECTS credits : 15

Level : SCQF level 10

Semester: 1

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

Planned timetable: Thursday 2-4pm

The first to third centuries CE was one of the most prolific periods of Greek literary production: we have more Greek literature surviving from that period than from all the previous centuries put together. The Roman empire saw the development of a breathtaking range of new genres and literary forms, side by side with new ways of imagining and narrating individual experience and cross-cultural interaction. This module samples a range of prose authors, with a particular focus on novelistic, (auto-)biographical and satirical texts and their playful manipulation of the Greek literary tradition. Highlights include Dio Chrysostom’s novelistic account of being shipwrecked on the island of Euboia in his Euboicus; the writing of Lucian, especially his satire of Roman elite culture in the Nigrinus, and his brilliantly denigratory biography of the religious fraudster Alexander of Abonuteichos, in the Alexander; and Philostratus’ reimagining of Homeric epic in his Heroicus.

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisite(s): 40 credits from GK2001, GK2002, GK2003, GK2004, or a pass in LT3018, or evidence of equivalent linguistic achievement.

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact: One 2-hour seminar (x10 weeks)

Scheduled learning hours: 20

Guided independent study hours: 278

Assessment pattern

As used by St Andrews: Coursework = 60%, Written examination = 40%

As defined by QAA
Written examinations : 55%
Practical examinations : 0%
Coursework: 45%

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

Personnel

Module coordinator: Professor J P Konig
Module teaching staff: Prof J König

Intended learning outcomes

• Develop Greek language skills by reading a large volume of text both from the set text prescriptions and from other authors in practice unseens classes.
• Develop a sophisticated understanding of Greek imperial prose writing within its wider literary and cultural context.
• Develop skills of analysing specific passages from the set text prescription in their wider context.
• Develop skills of reading, processing and analysing large volumes of primary and secondary material.
• Describe and evaluate a range of scholarly approaches to the topic.
• Formulate sophisticated arguments about the Greek literature of the Roman Empire using appropriate evidence and demonstrating awareness of the broader debates in the scholarship on the topic.