Introduction

Bucolic and elegy were genres of Greek poetry that developed in the Hellenistic age in opposition to epic and then dominated the poetic scene of the early Roman republic.  Both bucolic and elegy establish comfortable, even alluring, fantasy worlds that occupy different landscapes but share many features, most of all a rejection of the real-world's masculine civic roles and domestic patriarchal duties in favor of a consequence-free existence.  They differ, however, in many respects: bucolic embraces egalitarianism and friendly competition that borders on cooperation, while elegy often subordinates a man to his domina and involves envy and perfidy.  Most obviously, bucolic is the imagined poetry of the lowest classes furthest removed from the city, namely the herdsmen, while elegy is at home in the sophistication and squalor of the city.  At the same time, the authors of these works are the highest of the elite, poets who rubbed shoulders with emperors in the city or even governed provinces while reveling in erudite allusions.  My main goal in this class is to explore the fictional worlds that bucolic and elegiac poets create, how those worlds relate to each other, how they oppose reality, and how porous the boundary between reality and fiction can be.

On Keeping an Open Mind

If you've taken other Classical Studies courses, you've seen how ancient societies differ from our own modern society in how they treat violence, sex, religion, and other topics of controversy then as now. You will find in bucolic and elegiac poetry many sexual situations, some (everything Ovid ever wrote, for example) horrifying by modern standards. Elegiac poetry will have adultery, abuse, and humiliation (especially of men), and there are in bucolic poetry obscene puns involving lonely herdsmen with unfortunate goats. Remember that both elegiac and bucolic poetry describe fictional alternatives to real life, but not necessarily better ones.

Class Times and Location

CLST 450 meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:00 to 5:10 in Miller Hall 021, in the basement, roughly below my office.  No holidays impinge on the Tuesday-Thursday schedule.  The final examination will be held on Wednesday, June 12, from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM.

Instructor

Miller Krause ( miller.krause@wwu.edu )

Office: Miller Hall 122D

Office Hours:

• Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 10:00 to 11:00 AM
• Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:00 to 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:

• Hopkinson, N. 2015. Theocritus, Moschus, Bion. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (ISBN 978-0674996441; $30)
• Juster, A. 2012. Tibullus: Elegies. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (ISBN 978-0199603312; $15)
• Lee, G. 1990. Catullus: The Complete Poems. Oxford University Press. (ISBN 978-0199537570; $14)
• Lee, G. 1994. Propertius: The Poems. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (ISBN 978-0199555925; $13)
• Melville, A. D. 1990. Ovid: The Love Poems. Oxford: Oxford University Press (ISBN 978-0199540334; $15)

These are all very standard texts that you might well read in another classical studies class: I plan to use the same Catullus and Ovid books in the CLST 370 class next fall.  You can also find translations online for free.  The bookstore is having difficulty obtaining Melville's Ovid: The Love Poems and was unable to order Vergil, so we may well be using online texts for both of those.  In every assignment on Canvas, I've added links to online texts.  Remember, however, that online texts are usually online because they're out of copyright, which means that they're old and may use archaic language.  The textbooks I've asked the bookstore to make available are more recent translations that will probably be more accessible to the twenty-first century student.

Grading

Grading Scale

Course Requirements

Reading and Participation

While the 300-level Classical Studies courses are large lectures, the 450 courses are meant to be seminars in which students actively debate about the texts we read.  With the exception of the first, introductory class, in which I'll lay out some basics about genres and themes that we should look for throughout the readings, classes will be based on discussion of readings.  You absolutely need to read before class and be prepared to contribute throughout class.  Have opinions, defend them when they seem right, acknowledge when they're wrong, and try to discover the truth.  

Attendance and Participation (20%)

You need to come to class and be involved in discussing the readings.  The time you spend reading might be fifteen minutes or two hours, but the time you spend in conversation with others who have read the same texts multiplies your exposure to the texts by the time and effort they've put into the same work.

I understand that emergencies do arise.  Canvas will drop two absences automatically, with or without documentation. After that, you need to show me a good reason for your absence if you do not want the attendance grade to diminish.

Athletes and anyone planning on missing class for athletics, university-sponsored events, military duty, or religious holidays should inform me of absences in advance.  That lets me excuse absences and plan for any make-up work you might need.  Within the first two weeks of class, give me a letter listing the games, matches, meets, military service, holidays, or other events requiring absences for the quarter, so that I can plan ahead to help you stay on track.

Secondary Readings (25%)

When you read, you spend time and effort understanding a text.  When you debate a text with other students, you multiply your time and effort by the time and effort of your students.  There is, however, another conversation going on, one played out in journals and books: when you engage with secondary scholarship, you multiply your time and effort by the time and effort of scholars who devote considerable parts of their lives understanding the same texts and cite other authors who have done the same.  Reading journal articles, chapters in edited books, and monographs multiplies your exposure to a text even more than class discussion, and it helps you discover new ways of understanding those texts and bring that understanding to class discussions.  So, I've put four points into the class progression where you must engage with secondary scholarship (journal articles, chapters in edited books, or monographs) and bring those opinions to the class.  

For the first, I've provided a starter bibliography from which you'll choose an article or chapter to summarize.  For the rest, you should search JStor (a database of articles and books) for recent (twenty-first century scholarship) to find recent scholarship to bring to bear on our texts.  You should also bring this knowledge into our class discussions: you will improve them by multiplying the time and effort we collectively put into our work.   The best students whom I have taught have sought out new opinions and knowledge and have brought that back into our class discussions.

Quizzes (30%)

Quizzes are scheduled.  For each quiz, you'll receive several possible prompts.  You can choose the one you like best and write an essay in response.  You'll have time to discuss what you'll write with other students, and then you'll have quiet writing time.  You should make the most of your discussion time.

I've done this for years now, and I've never had two students turn in the same essay. From my experience, I believe that students weed out their worst ideas by debating each other and learning what seems wrong and what seems right, and that improves their writing.  In the end, that helps accomplish my goals.

Final Examination (25%)

There is a final examination, which will be held in-person in our classroom.  Students will have two fifteen-minute periods to discuss their answers, and two forty-five minute periods to write quietly.  It's usually a battle trying to get students to spend all fifteen minutes of each period talking.  I wish they did.  You'll have a menu of prompts to which to respond, and you'll have trouble figuring out which ones you know and like best.  Knowing and liking are two different things, but by that point you'll question that.  You'll write three essays, and I shall provide blue books.

Academic Honesty

Academic honesty means more than negative injunctions like "don't cheat" or "don't plagiarize": in a positive sense, it means putting in real effort into learning from primary and secondary sources to develop a deeper understanding of your subject that leads to new interpretations of it.  See the University's website on Academic Honesty.  

Help

If you have questions about how to use Canvas, first read the Canvas Student Guide and the ATUS help page on Canvas. If you still need help after that, contact the ATUS Help Desk:

Web: atus.wwu.edu/help-desk
Email: helpdesk@wwu.edu
Phone: (360) 650-3333

For other questions, e-mail me at miller.krause@wwu.edu or stop by my office during office hours.

Weekly Schedule

Below you will find a schedule of all exams, quizzes, assignments, readings, and so forth. This syllabus is subject to change, for example if snow should close the university. Changes, if any, will be announced in class and on Canvas. Students will be held responsible for all changes.

Canvas provides feeds to which you can subscribe, to keep all your course information and due dates in your favorite calendar program like Apple's Calendar or Microsoft Outlook. For details, see the Canvas Guide on Calendar FeedsLinks to an external site..  To subscribe to just this course alone, click here.