COMP 226
The Ancient Novel
Last Offered Spring 2012
Division I Writing Skills
Cross-listed CLAS 226
This course is not offered in the current catalog

Class Details

In this course we read and closely analyze long works of fiction composed in the ancient Mediterranean between the first century BCE and the fourth century CE. To call these ancient works “novels” might be misleading, if our definition depended on the historical conditions that fostered the emergence of the modern novel (e.g., industrialization and widespread literacy). On another definition, however, the novel is that genre which, more than any other, devours and incorporates other genres. Judged by this standard, the works we will deal with in this course are quintessentially novels. They afford new perspectives on the diverse, cosmopolitan culture of the Hellenistic and late antique Mediterranean world in which they were originally written and read. Replete with spectacular tales of true love, death, danger, miracles, stunts, conversions, triumphant recognitions and happily-ever-after reconciliations, they access other classical genres such as history, tragedy, and epic by means of parody, allusion, and homage.
The Class: Format: tutorial
Limit: 10
Expected: 10
Class#: 3295
Grading: no pass/fail option, no fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: alternating papers and critiques
Extra Info: may not be taken on a pass/fail basis; not available for the fifth course option
Prerequisites: none; not open to students who took this course as CLAS 105/COMP 113
Enrollment Preferences: sophomores and first-years intending to major in Classics, Comparative Literature, English, or another literature
Distributions: Division I Writing Skills
Notes: This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
COMP 226 Division I CLAS 226 Division I

Class Grid

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