CLST 450 (Dinner, Drinks, and Apologies) is an advanced, five-credit course in ancient sympotic and apologetic literature. Plato and Xenophon, both students of Socrates, wrote many philosophic works, some of which, such as Xenophon's Anabasis and Plato's Republic seem to respond to each other. Each author wrote an Apology or defense speech for Socrates, supposedly given publicly before a democratic jury of Athens that would historically convict Socrates and sentence him to death.  Each also wrote a Symposium or account of a polite, private drinking party (of aristocratic origins) between gentlemen in which Socrates was involved and erotic love, among other things, was discussed.  These works seem to provide the most obvious and fertile grounds for comparison between Xenophon and Plato. Moreover, these Apologies and Symposia prompted many imitations, parodies, and derivative works later, especially in the Second Sophistic and late antique periods, to the point that they define apologetic and sympotic genres of prose literature. In this course, we examine the Platonic and Xenophontic Apologies and Symposia and their later reception.

As is customary in the Classical Studies section, five-credit 450 courses are designated WP2 and require a research paper. Upon successful completion of the course, you will have two of the three necessary Writing Proficiency points. This means that at least 30% of the course grade must derive from scholarly writing that teaches you the writing style and conventions of the scholarly field, in this case classical studies, as well as techniques for integrating evidence into academic papers and developing evidence-based arguments. Moreover, you will write multiple drafts of assigned papers and receive suggestions for revision of drafts.

On Keeping an Open Mind

If you've taken CLST 350: Greek Mythology, you've seen how ancient Greek society differs from our own modern society in how it treats violence, sex, religion, and other topics of controversy today.  You will find in sympotic literature a lot of sex, especially kinds of sex like pederasty that are considered horrifying today, and quite a few demons; there will be demons and magic in the apologetic literature, too.  Remember that other cultures in other parts of the world and other times may not share modern American values.

Class Times and Location

CLST 450 meets every Tuesday and Thursday from 3:00 until 5:10 PM in Bond Hall 225. Our first class is Tuesday, March 28, and the final class is Thursday, June 1.  The final examination will be held on Wednesday, June 7, from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM, the day and time appointed by the Registrar's Office. No holidays interrupt Tuesday or Thursday classes during the winter quarter.

Instructor

Miller Krause ( miller.krause@wwu.edu )
Office: Miller Hall 122D
Office Hours: MWF 1:00–2:00 PM; TR 2:00–2:30 PM

Textbooks

CLST 450 is taught in English, with texts translated into English from Greek or Latin. I have asked the bookstore to make available the following translations of Plato and Xenophon:

• Marchant, E. and Todd, O. 2013. Xenophon: Memorabilia, Oeconomicus, Symposium, Apology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674996953 ($30).
• Rowe, C. 2011. The Last Days of Socrates. London: Penguin Random House. ISBN 978-0140455496 ($15).
• Waterfield, R. 1994. Plato: Symposium. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199540198 ($10).

There are many other readings, but they are all provided online either as PDF files or as links to websites. You can find the Plato and Xenophon online as well, but I recommend getting the copies above, because they are recent translations into modern English and include section numbers for Xenophon and Stephanus pagination for Plato, which makes citing them possible.  Avoid using the Jowett translation of Plato, because it is archaic prose and lacks Stephanus pagination.  The rest of the course is built around the Platonic and Xenophontic readings, as they establish the philosophic genres of apologetic and sympotic discourse.

Academic Honesty

Western has a policy on academic honesty and a statement on integrity.  Unusually, and quite Platonically, Western does not focus on the negative consequences of cheating or plagiarism, but on the positive results of honesty and integrity.  There are many forms that dishonest academic behavior might take, from plagiarism to having another write your papers for you to cheating on a test: honesty, though, has but one form, namely putting in the required work, and one consequence, namely learning.

Grading

Grading Scale

Course Components

Readings

This is a literature class. We read ancient literature (primary sources) and modern scholarship (secondary and tertiary readings). Keep up with the reading. I have tried to measure it out evenly and, when possible, assign heavier readings to Tuesdays and lighter to Thursdays.

Attendance and Participation (10%)

This class relies on your active participation in discussions, and therefore it relies on your attendance. I realize that emergencies do arise, so I will drop two absences (ten percent of our sessions). After that, you must show me a good reason for being absent, or I will begin deducting points from your attendance and participation grade.

Canvas is already set to drop the two lowest absence grades. This means that, by the third class, two attendance grades will appear greyed-out in the grades; if you have no absences, two will be greyed-out anyway, because the lowest two scores out of three perfect scores are still perfect.

Quizzes (20%)

Four quizzes are scheduled. These will involve writing, often with a collaborative component. You are free to use your books and notes, and you'll have time to discuss your answers with each other before writing.

Midterm Examination (20%)

The midterm will cover the symposia and apologies from Classical Greece, namely the readings from Theognis, Aristophanes, Plato, and Xenophon. The exam will consist of essay questions: you will be able to choose a few questions to answer from a larger pool of questions. For more details, see the Midterm Examination page in Canvas.

Final Examination (20%)

The final exam will cover Isocrates and the authors of the second sophistic and late antique periods. The exam will consist of essay questions: you will be able to choose a few questions to answer from a larger pool of questions. For more details, see the Final Examination page in Canvas.

Research Paper (30%)

Since this is a WP2 class, scholarly writing must account for at least 30% of your grade. In this class, you will practice the writing style and conventions of conference papers in classical studies. To this end, you should familiarize yourself with the course style guide.

In classical studies, as in many other disciplines of the humanities, one generally writes term papers which then become conference papers, presented before one's academic peers at a gathering of scholars interested in the field of study. With input from the conference, one then revises one's paper into a journal article and submits it to a journal, where it is read carefully by one or more experts who offer advice on revising the paper again before publication. At each stage, from the conference paper to the journal article, the author makes countless revisions guided by input from others. Also at each stage, the ideas presented for review by others become entries in the scholar's curriculum vitæ or academic resumé.

In this course, we shall mimic the process of writing a conference paper by writing a brief, five to six page research paper. First, each student will choose a topic, develop a preliminary thesis statement with some basic research, and write a brief abstract, which is an advertisement for the paper to be presented later. This is how one proposes a paper topic for a conference. Then, students will research their topics and develop an outline and basic bibliography. Next, students will write a rough draft. I shall provide detailed feedback on the rough draft for students' use in revision. Finally, students will submit to me final drafts of their papers.

Your final paper should be five to six pages (not including bibliography) with at least five secondary sources. Be sure to follow the style guide for formatting.

Lost for ideas? Check out the research questions page and the bibliography of secondary sources.

Components:

• Two Article Reviews (First and Second), worth ten percent of the research grade;
• an Abstract for your paper, worth fifteen percent;
• an Outline with Preliminary Bibliography for your paper, worth fifteen percent;
• the Rough Draft of your paper, worth thirty percent; and
• the Final Draft of your paper, worth twenty percent.

Handy links for research:

• jstor.org—JStor provides PDFs of articles from many journals; it works better if you access it from campus or the VPN to the campus network.
• scholar.google.com—Google Scholar searches over articles and books; it works better if you access it from campus or a VPN to the campus network.
• onesearch.library.wwu.edu—OneSearch integrates WWU's library catalogue with other databases.

You might also find the Hacherl Research & Writing Studio in WWU's library helpful.

Weekly Schedule

Below you will find a schedule of all exams, quizzes, assignments, readings, and so forth.

This syllabus is subject to change. Changes, if any, will be announced in class. Since the syllabus is on Canvas, students will have the latest information available at all times. Students will be held responsible for all changes.

Canvas provides feeds to which you can subscribe, to keep all your course info in your favorite calendar program like Apple's Calendar or Microsoft Outlook. For details, see the Canvas Guide on Calendar.