CLAS 239
The Construction of Gender in Ancient Greece and Rome
Last Offered Spring 2009
Division I
Cross-listed HIST 322 / WGST 239
This course is not offered in the current catalog

Class Details

The inferior political status and heavily circumscribed lives of women in ancient Greek and Roman societies have received extensive study in recent decades. Yet it is nearly impossible to understand women’s lives without also studying the often stringent cultural norms that governed men’s lives as well. This course seeks to understand these aspects of Greek and Roman societies over time as expectations for the behaviors, priorities, and activities of both women and men evolved. While the impact of these gendered expectations on the lives of men and women often varied considerably in kind and degree, their interplay was at the same time often intricate, and many that constructed women’s lives could only be articulated with reference to corresponding expectations for men. Others emerged only during times of crisis and could even involve a reversal of the usual roles of men and women. Some norms gave men and women a shared experience that is rare in other societies.
We will explore these and related issues by reading widely in such ancient authors as Homer, Sappho, Herodotus, the Greek tragedians, Greek and Roman philosophers, Vergil and other Latin poets, and Roman didactic writers. We will also read modern scholarship on such subjects as the family, prostitution, the exposure of unwanted infants, demography, and the anthropology of gender in both Greek and Roman societies.
The Class: Format: lecture/discussion
Limit: 25
Expected: 15
Class#: 3219
Grading: yes pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: evaluation will be based on class preparation and participation, two short 5- to 7-page papers, a midterm, and a final exam
Prerequisites: none
Unit Notes: meets Group C and G requirements in History major only if registration is under HIST
Distributions: Division I
Notes: meets Division 1 requirement if registration is under CLAS; meets Division 2 requirement if registration is under HIST or WGST
This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
CLAS 239 Division I HIST 322 Division I WGST 239 Division I
Attributes: HIST Group C Electives - Europe and Russia
HIST Group G Electives - Global History

Class Grid

Updated 9:06 pm

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