121 - 130 of 211 results for: CLASSICS

Sustained economic growth is an anomaly in human history. Moreover, in the very long term, sustained economic decline is common. Following a historical and cross-cultural perspective, we will study the causes of economic decline, the social and political consequences of that decline, and the path that led to the collapse of some of the most prosperous societies in human history. Among the episodes we will cover are the Late Bronze Age collapse in the Eastern Mediterranean, the fall of the Western Roman Empire, and the Classic Maya collapse. We will compare these ancient episodes with recent cases of socioeconomic decline, including the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the downfall of Venezuela under Chavismo. We will use the past to reflect on the fundamentals of harmony and prosperity in our society and the challenges that they will face in the future.

Focus on Plato and Aristotle in English translations; detailed interpretation of both the well-known and the less-known works of the two philosophers on the topic. How their ideas about poetry and the arts were reinterpreted and sometimes misinterpreted by influential modern thinkers. Undergraduate course for juniors and seniors.

In this seminar we will explore ancient Greek and Roman ideas and images of the idealized landscape, reading examples of the pastoral ideal from Greek authors such as Homer, Hesiod, Plato, Theocritus, and Longus and Roman authors such as Vergil, Horace, and Ovid. We will read these works in conversation with the larger tradition of the pastoral and idealized landscape as represented in the landscapes of Roman frescoes, Chinese ink paintings, and French oil paintings, continuing to the modern evolution of the anti-pastoral or post-pastoral positions represented by ecocriticism. Works will be read in translation (although graduate students and advanced undergraduates may elect to read the original Greek and Latin texts for appropriate credit).

What do we mean by "Latin"? Our earliest Latin-language texts date to 600BC or earlier; our latest, to centuries after Rome's decline. We also have an astonishing range of Latin texts by people of every background: women, the enslaved, soldiers, merchants, travelers, non-native Latin users, even idle passerby. These documents range from single words to expansive treatises, simple greetings to complex rites; all inform the "story of Latin" as much as the elite "literary" writing of the Classical period, and are crucial evidence of life during Roman times. This course will introduce students (graduates and advanced undergraduates) to the study of Latin across time and context, with two major goals: 1) to make this sometimes overwhelming topic accessible; and 2) to better understand the rich cultural influences that shaped Latin in use. Coursework will include introductions to major corpora (e.g., inscriptions, vernacular tablet letters, graffiti, non-elite literatures) and associated methodologies (e.g., epigraphy, material studies, historical linguistics), in addition to detailed study and discussion of important texts. Intermediate-to-advanced knowledge of Latin will be assumed, but NO background in linguistics, epigraphy, material culture, and Roman history is expected or required.

What do archaeologists have to say about long-term human relationships with the environment? How might archaeology inform our understanding of current concerns with agency and climate change? In this seminar we will explore the key concepts and concerns of a transdisciplinary field of environmental aesthetics. Taking in recent debates about the ontology and temporality of building archaeological knowledge, we will critically interrogate concepts such as land and landscape, nature and culture, dwelling and lifeworld, as a means of developing an archaeology beyond a science-humanities dualism that engages actively with the challenge of changing relationships with the environment.

Join archaeologist Michael Shanks in a tour through more than a thousand years of history, 700 BCE to 450 CE, debunking a host of myths and misconceptions about Graeco-Roman antiquity and offering a fresh view of what was driving the motor of ancient history. Drawing on new approaches that have hardly escaped academic journals and seminar rooms, we will avoid the plot of the well-worn stories and focus on the way the ancient world worked around the key concern of membership ¿ who belonged to civic community and who didn¿t, on what grounds, and with what consequences. The class will take you back to the origins of city life in the Near East, to the princely societies of Bronze Age Europe to show how the scene was set for the success of the city states of the Mediterranean, and how important it is to maintain a big perspective on Greece and Rome. Not afraid to offer critique of orthodoxy, we will share alternative views of familiar and unfamiliar features of antiquity, in the arts and culture, the likes of poetry and portraiture, philosophy and religious institutions, and in politics, including misunderstandings of Athenian democracy and Roman military might. You will come away from the class with a new view of antiquity and why we should still be fascinated by its relevance to today. Advanced undergraduates are welcome to register.

In this seminar we read through Aristotle's Prior Analytics, paying close attention to the relation between Aristotle's logic to Greek mathematics, and to its place within Aristotle's overall philosophy. Knowledge of Greek is not required. Open to advanced undergraduate students.

(Formerly CLASSGEN 160.) May be repeated for credit.

(Formerly CLASSGEN 199.) May be repeated for credit