Prof. Wareh's Course Pages > Classics 162: Tragedy

Classics 162 Tragedy Winter 2008 Prof. Wareh

   email: wareht, phone: 388-6743
   W08 office hours: Mon. 9:30-10:30, Thu. 2:30-3:30, and by appt. (Humanities 214A)

I am usually in my office, so please drop by anytime! You can also email me to make an appointment, which can usually be arranged on short notice. Do come by or email me as often as you like to ask questions about the readings or to run your ideas by me!

Readings

Required textbooks

• Sophocles, vol. 2, Loeb Classical Library, ed. and trans. Lloyd-Jones (ISBN 0674995589)
• Seneca, Four Tragedies and Octavia, Penguin, trans. Watling (ISBN 0140441743)
• Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, Folger, ed. Mowat and Werstine (ISBN 0671722921)
• Shakespeare, Four Tragedies, Bantam, ed. Bevington and Kastan (ISBN 0553212834)

Secondary articles

• Malcolm Heath, "Sophocles' Philoctetes: A Problem Play?" in Jasper Griffin (ed.), Sophocles Revisited, Oxford University Press, 1999 [electronic reserves]
• Martha Nussbaum, "Consequences and Character in Sophocles' Philoctetes," Philosophy and Literature 1:1 (1976:Fall), pp. 25-53.
• Martha Nussbaum, "Sophocles' Antigone: conflict, vision, and simplification," Ch. 3 of The fragility of goodness: Luck and ethics in Greek tragedy and philosophy, Cambridge University Press, 1986 [electronic reserves: part 1, part 2 including notes]
• Joseph Smith, "Seneca and the Pleasures of Evil," review of A. Schiesaro, The Passions in Play: Thyestes and the Dynamics of Senecan Drama, Classical Review 55 (2005), pp. 540-541.
• Christopher Crosbie, "Fixing Moderation: Titus Andronicus and the Aristotelian Determination of Value," Shakespeare Quarterly 58 (2007), pp. 147-173.

Online resources

• The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature
• The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare

Schedule

Assignments and grading

Class notes and reading questions

Our main reading for this course is not very extensive: just six plays. This means that you are expected to read closely, think about, and ask questions about your texts—over and over, rereading, reviewing, and rethinking as needed—until you really feel well acquainted with the plays and their literary artistry, and provoked into having your own (evidence-supported) ideas and interpretations of them. Two requirements will help ensure that you enforce this discipline. After every class meeting you must prepare a short paragraph distilling the most important points in our discussions. This must include citation of specific lines by number (or page number for Seneca). And in the course of every reading assignment you must note at least two or three questions you would like considered in the next class. These must also include citation of specific lines by number (or page number for Seneca). These questions can and should include simple clarifications, but at least one question for each assignment should be a discussion question, indicating to your classmates the direction you think will be most interesting and fruitful to take in order to understand the text better. Expect to begin every class by being called on to share and discuss these distillations and questions with the class. You will keep a running record of these to hand in together with the two papers.

Scene introductions, performances, and critiques

We will often use our class time to perform crucial tragic scenes, and an important goal and requirement of the course is to develop the ability gain new understanding of our dramatic texts through these exercises. This has little to do with acting talent or "flair." Students will be called on, not only to read lines, but to introduce scenes, share pre-acting and post-acting character notes, and to identify and discuss production and acting choices that determine the scene's meaning for its ancient and modern audiences. This will lead us to appreciate how dramatic performance involves the community and its values, and to sort out our ambivalence about the meaning of the plays' ethically consequential actions, both admirable and abominable.

Reading quizzes

The class notes, reading questions, and scene discussions are meant to ensure close reading and thinking about what you read, as part of your preparation on your own (or with classmates) to participate in class. If necessary, these may be supplemented with unannounced reading quizzes, given at any time (typical questions: who is speaking? in response to what situation? with what intention? in contrast to or in sympathy to what else in the play?).

Greek alphabet quizzes

One goal of this course is to give you an idea of what it is like to encounter the great plays of Sophocles (half of our course's readings) in the original Greek. You won't learn the Greek language (you have to take Greek 100-101 and Greek 102 for that), so I will be providing all the necessary background for these exercises in appreciation—except for the little bit I ask of you, which is a passing familiarity with the letters. This will allow us to read critical essays on Sophocles that make reference to key Greek terms, and occasionally to deepen our discussions of the tragedies by looking at the facing-page Greek text and considering issues of translation, meaning, and verbal artistry.

The Greek alphabet has fewer letters than ours, and many of the Greek letters are quite similar to ours, or familiar from frats, sororities, math, and science! You can learn them with only a little effort, and these two quizzes (breaking the alphabet into two manageable sets of 12 letters) will let you do that. The quizzes are supposed to motivate you to help your grade a little, but they can't hurt you much, so just have fun with this, as there's no cause to be intimidated.

Your guide to the Greek alphabet.

Group film analyses

We will study three adaptations, the theatrical Gospel at Colonus (IMDB, song lyrics), and the two films Titus (IMDB) and Ran (IMDB, transcript, Wikipedia). It will be your responsibility to attend evening screenings or to arrange viewings on your own.

Working with a group of your classmates, you will present to the entire class a scene of approximately two minutes and an analysis of approximately ten minutes, and you will then lead a short discussion. The analysis should engage both the literary work's complexities and the filmmakers' interpretive choices in adapting it; guidance for this task will be provided in discussions and handouts. The discussion is expected to be probing and substantial (for example, you might require your classmates to draw out the meaning of a specific costuming choice, but you would not ask a question that boils down to, "So, do you agree with what we said?"). Three groups will choose scenes from Titus, and three from Ran. (Our class discussion of The Gospel at Colonus will serve as preparation.)

Papers

Paper #1 (approximately 1,000 words) will present an argument about the ethical outlook of Oedipus at Colonus and its complexities, with reference to ethical thought in Sophocles' other plays. Paper #2 (approximately 2,000 words) will consider Shakespeare's development and transformation of Senecan ideas. The papers may include preparatory assignments with advance due dates.

Grading

Faithful and punctual attendance and completion of all assignments (including careful and timely reading of the assigned texts) are the minimal requirements for passing this course. Any arrangements for absences or missed work must be agreed to in advance and should not be expected without a compelling reason beyond your control.

Policies and further information

Academic Honor Code. All work submitted for this course must be your own; assume that any idea of another person must always be cited clearly and specifically. (This is just as true of loosely repeated ideas as of quoted ideas. And an "idea" is anything that contributes to the quality of your work: for example, not just literary analysis, but also the selection of which passages are discussed.) You may discuss the readings with your classmates but must not collaborate on any individual written assignment. If you ever have any question about proper citation or the propriety of collaboration, please consult with me. The penalty for using ideas that are not your own, in any assignment, without proper attribution, will be, at least, a failing grade in the course. Violations could also result in expulsion from college or a record of dishonesty that would exclude you from professional school. The Academic Honor Code also requires your refusal to tolerate dishonesty in quizzes and exams (copying, using any aids, or communicating). A full statement of Union's Academic Honor Code may be found in the Student Handbook (see pp. 4-7 of this PDF). See also Union's statement on plagiarism.

Disabilities. It is Union College policy to make accommodations for individuals with disabilities. If you have any disability or special concern, please let me know what your needs are in order that they may be accommodated. All discussions will remain confidential to the extent permissible by law. Students with disabilities needing academic accommodations must also: (1) register with and provide documentation to the Dean of Students Office; (2) bring a letter to the instructor from the Dean of Students Office indicating what academic accommodations you require. This must be done within the first two weeks of the term. For more information about services available to Union College students with disabilities, please contact the Dean of Students Office: Shelly Shinebarger, Director of Student Support Services, Dean of Students Office, shinebas@union.edu, (518) 388-6116.