Year One
Greek Literary Texts
The purpose of this module is to build upon A Level Ancient Greek and allow you to both broaden and deepen your understanding of Greek by further reading of significant works in genres that for the most part you will have not previously studied As well as developing your ability to translate from Greek the module also includes discussion of literary and grammatical points
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or
Latin Literary Texts
This module builds upon A level Latin and allows you to develop your understanding of Latin by further reading of significant works by authors and in genres which for the most part you will not have previously studied As well as developing your ability to read Latin more fluently and to translate from Latin the module also teaches you advanced grammar and offers an ambitious introduction to literary criticism and philological analysis at degree level
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Two optional modules from Classics chosen from the following
Greek Culture and Society
This module introduces students of all backgrounds to the vast panorama of Greek culture from Homeric times to the coming of Rome It explores some of the most distinctive features of Greek culture and its social institutions from the polis festivals and religion to mythology sport and the performance of poetry while encouraging students to consider the degrees of continuity and difference between ancient Greek culture and their own beliefs and practices The module is designed to provide a framework within which you can develop your own individual interests in the second and third
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Roman Culture and Society
This module explores what was distinctively ‘Roman’ about Roman culture and society both in Rome itself and throughout its empire from Britain to Bulgaria and from the Nile to the Euphrates The module introduces students of all backgrounds to topics from the late first century BC to the early third century AD investigating the impact on Roman society of the emergence of sole rulers and dynastic powers and the gradual opening up of society to provincials It considers a range of evidence from poetry to graffiti monuments to religious artefacts and is designed to provide a framework within which you can develop your own individual interests in the second and third
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Ancient Thought Philosophy Politics Science
This module introduces students to the breadth and variety of ancient thought – investigating the ways in which the ancient Greeks and Romans articulated their thinking and their beliefs about themselves and the worlds around them We survey the cultural and intellectual contours of the ancient Graeco-Roman world from the presocratics through to late antiquity and investigate not just the origins and development of philosophical thinking but also developments in scientific investigation
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Encounters with Greek Texts
This module taught in translation introduces students to many different kinds of ancient Greek texts across a wide variety of genres and forms including epic drama lyric historiography rhetoric The module will also allow students to explore critically the range of methodologies and approaches used in the interpretation of ancient texts both within and beyond original cultural and political contexts
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Encounters with Latin Texts
This module taught in translation introduces students to many different kinds of Latin texts written in a variety of genres and forms including historiographical epigraphic and rhetorical texts and literary texts in poetry and prose from the canonical to the marginal and ‘sub-literary’ As well as expanding awareness of the Latin texts classicists study across different sub-fields (for instance philology archaeology ancient history) the module will explore critically the range of methodologies and approaches used in the interpretation of ancient texts in their cultural and political contexts and allow students to test out these skills in their own responses to texts
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Modes of Reading
What is a reader? How is our understanding and perception of a text formed? What does it mean to think critically when we read? This module allows you to explore these questions by putting a spotlight on the question of critical thinking in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries By studying a series of literary texts in relation to some of the most influential literary and cultural theorists of the last hundred you will take your own position on everything from Marxism queer and feminist theory to ecocriticism and postcolonial critique
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Epic into Novel
Tracking the transition from the epics of the ancient world to their incarnation as texts of modernity this module introduces you to some of the most influential and formative works of world literature You will study central texts of the classical world such as Gilgamesh Homer’s Iliad Virgil’s Aeneid and Catullus; ancient epics from India and Africa; Milton’s Paradise Lost; as well as responses to ancient epic by Tennyson Margaret Atwood Seamus Heaney and Maria Dahvana Headley Reading across history and cultures between languages and genres you will develop the skills to analyse narrative character and style
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or
Medieval and Early Modern Literature
Taking you from the mythical court of King Arthur to the real world of ambition intrigue and danger in the courts of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I this module introduces you to early literature written in a range of genres (romance epic fabliau) and poetic forms You will study texts like Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales Thomas More’s Utopia Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene and Shakespeare’s sonnets to explore some of the period’s highest ideals—‘trawthe’ or integrity—as well as some of humanity’s darkest impulses greed deception revenge and desire
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Year Two
Optional modules from either the Classics or English department
You are required to take half your modules from each department including at least 30 CATS focussing on Latin literature in the original
Year Three
Dissertation (supervised by either the Classics or English Department) and modules chosen from the Classics and English Departments
You are required to take at least 30 CATS from each Department in addition to the Dissertation
Optional modules
Optional modules can vary from to Example optional modules may include
English Literature and Feminisms 1790-1899
The Vulnerable Body in Roman Literature and Thought
The Question of the Animal
Politics and Poetics in Greek and Latin Literature
Romantic and Victorian Poetry
Africa and the Making of Classical Literature
Space and Place in Ancient Greek Literature
Devolutionary British Fiction
Democracy and Imperialism
The Roman Empire from Tiberius to Hadrian
Explorations in Critical Theory and Cultural Studies
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