Syllabus
•Purpose of seminar: to explore the (literary) ways in which politically subordinate classes at
•Seminar requirements: weekly readings, active participation, in-class translation, class presentation (length to be determined), 15-page research paper.
•
them rather than checking out the volume. (H) designates handouts; (B) means the book is assigned for the course. Many of the books and articles listed under "useful further reading"
are also available at the reserve desk (see attached list).
Week 1. Jan. 5
The language and ideology of imperial self-representation
Some comments on Augustan propaganda, including a look at the Res Gestae, representations of Actium, and the political catchwords of the new regime; also the changing role of the senate,
the manipulation of mythology and history, and the widening gap between res and verba.
Week 2. Jan. 12
Roman literary "dissidence": legal and historical evidence; literary tactics; dominant/subordinate psychology
Read: in Latin
On the Lex Iulia Maiestatis and recorded incidents of literary censorship:
Dig. 48.4; Sen. Cons. ad Marc. 1.3; Tac. Ann. 1.72-74, 2.50, 3.50, 4.34-35, 4.42, 6.29, Agr. 2; Pliny Ep. 1.5; Suet. Div. Aug. 54, Tib. 58.1, 61.3 (all H)
in English:
Dio 56.27.1, 57.20.3-4, 57.23.1-4, 57.24.2-4, 7; 58.24.3-5, 59.20 (H)
in the secondary material:
Scott, J.C. Domination chaps. 1 "Behind the Official Story" and 2, "Domination, Acting, and Fantasy," 1-44; (B)
Ahl, F.M. "The Art of Safe Criticism in
Issues: what was the (changing) jurisdiction of the Lex Iulia Maiestatis? does the historical evidence let us speak of literary "dissidence" and/or "censorship" in early imperial
what motives seemed to drive punitive measures by the Julio-Claudians? what tactics were used by authors critical of this regime? how does the issue of authorial intention (animus nocendi)
play out in the Roman sources?
Useful further reading:
Bauman, R.A. The Crimen Maiestatis in the
Cramer, Frederick. "Bookburning and Censorship in Ancient
MacMullen, Ramsay. Enemies of the Roman order: treason, unrest, and alienation in the Empire.
Rudich, Vasily. Political dissidence under Nero.
Sullivan, J. P. Literature and politics in the age of Nero.
Week 3. Jan. 19
Lucan's Civil War: language and politics
Read: in Latin: book 1, 1-182, 352-88, 666-72; book 2, 1-42, 234-391 (B)
in English, books 1-5 (B); the Vitae of Lucan (H)
in the secondary material:
Dewar, Michael. "Laying it on with a Trowel: The Proem to Lucan and Related Texts," CQ 44 (1994): 199-211. (X)
Martindale, Charles. "Paradox, Hyperbole, and Literary Novelty in Lucan's De Bello Civili." BICS 23 (1976), 45-54. (X)
Scott, Domination chaps. 3, "Public Transcript as Performance," and 4, "False Consciousness," 45-107 (B)
Issues: the debate over the "praise of Nero"; how the poem functions as an indictment of the act of praise; the role of paradox, hypallage, and catachresis in a poem on civil war; the collapse
of linguistic boundaries.
Useful further reading:
Ahl, Frederick. Lucan : an introduction.
Henderson, John. "Lucan/ The Word at War." Ramus 16 (1987), 122-64. (X)
Hübner, U. (1972) "Hypallage in Lucans Pharsalia," Hermes 100: 577-600
Johnson, W. R. Momentary monsters : Lucan and his heroes.
Week 4. Jan. 26
Lucan's Civil War: the body and the state
Read: in Latin, book 2, 139-226; book 3, 583-762; book 9, 734-838 (B)
in English, books 6-10 (B)
in the secondary material:
Bibby, M. (1993) "Fragging the Chains of Command: GI Resistance Poetry and Mutilation," Journal of American Culture 16: 29-38. (X
Gross, Elizabeth. (1990) "The Body of Signification." In edd. John Fletcher and Andrew Benjamin, Abjection, Melancholia and Love: The Work of Julia Kristeva.
Philosophy and Literature: 80-103.
Quint, David. "Epics of the Defeated," in Epic and Empire.
Issues: Lucan's treatment of the body; the meaning of the grotesque; Kristeva's concept of the abject; the effect of civil war on the human subject. Is the body in the Civil War merely a
mechanism? Is Lucan "fragging the chains of command"?
Useful further reading:
Bibby, Michael. Hearts and minds : bodies, poetry, and resistance in the
Harpham, Geoffrey Galt. On the grotesque : strategies of contradiction in art and literature.
Kristeva, Julia. Powers of horror : an essay on abjection; tr. Leon S. Roudiez.
Most, G. W. (1992) "Disiecti membra poetae: The Rhetoric of Dismemberment in Neronian Poetry." In edd. R. Hexter and D. Selden, Innovations of Antiquity: 391-419.
Scarry, Elaine. The body in pain : the making and unmaking of the world.
Week 5. Feb. 2
Lucan's Civil War: cynicism, ideology, and hope
Read: in Latin (B) book 7, 1-123, 185-213, 385-459, 680-97; 8.610-91; 9.190-214
in the secondary material:
Marti, Berthe. (1945) "The Meaning of the Pharsalia," AJP 66: 352-76. (X)
Feeney, Denis. "'Stat Magni Nominis Umbra.' Lucan on the Greatness of Pompeius Magnus," CQ n.s. 36 (1986): 239-43. (X)
Masters, Jamie. (1994) "Deceiving the Reader: The Political
151-77. Chapel Hill and
Issues: How are we to understand the narrator's attitude towards his protagonist, Pompey? Is this a poem of despair and cynicism, or an ideological defence of the last defender of the
Republic? Is Stoicism an answer to the strangely evolving picture of Pompey? What are the narrator's politics, anyhow? And what's in a name?
In-class reports start this week
Useful further reading:
Masters, Jamie. Poetry and civil war in Lucan's Bellum civile. Jamie Masters.
Rudich, Vasily. Dissidence and literature under Nero : the price of rhetoricization.
Week 6. Feb. 9
Petronius' "Cena Trimalchionis" and the world as theater
Read: in Latin (B) "Cena" §§34-41, 47-52
in English: All of the "Cena" (any translation); Tac. Ann. 16.18-19
in the secondary material:
Scott, Domination chaps. 5 "Making Space for a Dissident Subculture" and 6, "Voice under Domination," 108-182 (B)
Barton, Carlin. Chap. 5 "Envy (II): Striking the Monster" from The Sorrows of the Ancient Romans.
Slater, Niall. Reading Petronius, chap. 4: "A Self-Consuming Cena," 50-86 (X)
Issues: Theatricality as a dissident metaphor; interpretive confustion in the "Cena"; Trimalchio's world and aspirations; the political meaning of the concept of Saturnalia.
In-class reports continue
Useful further reading:
Arrowsmith, William. "Luxury and Death in the Satyricon." Arion 5 (1966), 304-31.
Bryson, Norman. Looking at the Overlooked.
Sandy, G. N. "Scaenica Petroniana" TAPA 104 (1974), 329-46.
Slater, Niall W. Reading Petronius.
Zeitlin, Froma. "Petronius as Paradox: Anarchy and Artistic Integration." TAPA 102: 631-84
Week 7. Feb. 16.
Seneca's "Thyestes": Stoicism in senatorial psychology and imperial politics
Read: in Latin (B) Thyestes 176-576
in English: All of the Thyestes (B); Tac. Ann. 15.59-63; selections from the essays and epistles TBA.
in the secondary material
Braden, Gordon. "The Rhetoric and Psychology of Power in the Dramas of Seneca." Arion 9.1 (1970), 5-41. (X)
Brunt, P. "Stoicism and the Principate," Papers of the
Henry, Denis and Elisabeth. Chap. 5, "Personal Identity" in The Mask of Power: Seneca's Tragedies and Imperial
Issues: Is the "Thyestes" a play about the success of Roman Stoicism or its failure? How does Stoicism figure in the psychology of dissidence? How do the human body and human identity
fare in this way of looking at the world? What sort of role do mythology, rhetoric, and adunata play in Seneca's literary world?
In-class reports continue
Useful further reading:
Bishop, J.D. Seneca's Daggered Stylus: Political Code in the Tragedies. Königstein, 1985.
Boyle, A.J. ed. Seneca Tragicus: Ramus Essays on Senecan Drama. 1983.
Boyle, A.J. Tragic Seneca: An Essay in the Theatrical Tradition. Routledge. 1997.
Week 8. Feb. 23
Tacitus' "Dialogue on Orators": techniques of contradiction
Read: in Latin (B): Dial. 1-4, 36-4
in English (B) All of the "Dialogus," in your Collected Works of Tacitus (B)
in the secondary material:
Barnes, T.D. "The Significance of Tacitus' 'Dialogus de Oratoribus.'" HSCP 90 (1986), 25-44. (X)
Rudich, Vasily. "Accomodation to Corrupt Reality: Tacitus' 'Dialogus de Oratoribus,'" Ancient World 11 (1985), 95-100. (X)
Scott, Domination, chap.7 "The Infrapolitics of Subordinate Groups," 183-201 (B)
Issues: How can we make sense of the "Dialogus"' internal contradictions? Why is so much space devoted to poetry in a work on the decline of oratory? What roles are represented by
Maternus and Aper in particular? Is Maternus' praise of Vespasian sincere? What is the relationship between Vespasian, Nerva, and the delatores ?
In-class reports continue
Useful further reading:
Barwick, Karl. "Der Dialogus de Oratoribus des Tacitus: Motive und Zeit seiner Entstehung." Sitzungsberichte der Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschafen,
Klasse 101.4 (1954)
Luce, T. J. and A.J. Woodman, edd. Tacitus and the Tacitean tradition.
Week 9. Mar. 2
Tacitus' Annals: political historiography
Read: in Latin: Tac. Histories, 1.1; Agricola 45; Ann. 13.14-17, 13.25, 14.5-10, 16.4-5 (H)
in English: Annals book 1.1-15, 72-8; 13.12-25; 14.1-13, 52-65; 15.48-74; 16.1-5 (B)
in the secondary material:
Boesche, Roger. "The Politics of Pretence: Tacitus and the Political Theory of Despotism." History of Political Thought 8 (1987), 189-210. (X)
Goffman, Erving. "Expression Games" in Strategic Interaction.
Shotter, D.C. A. "Ea simulacra libertatis." Latomus 25 (1966), 265-71. (X)
Syme, R. "The Political Opinions of Tacitus" in Ten Studies in Tacitus ,
Issues: What are Tacitus' political opinions? Does it make sense, at this date, to speak of "Republicanism"? Is this author a "dissident" in any sense of the word? What are the implications
of his "theatrical paradigm" in the depiction of imperial politics under Tiberius and Nero? Does the world really function according to Goffman and Scott's theories?
In-class reports continue
Useful further reading:
Köhnken, Adolf. "Das Problem der Ironie bei Tacitus," MH 30 (1973), 32-50.
Martin, Ronald. Tacitus. 1981.
Syme, R. Tacitus.
Woodman, A.J. "Amateur Dramatics at the Court of Nero," in Luce, T. J. and A.J. Woodman, edd. Tacitus and the Tacitean tradition.
Week 10. Mar. 9
Pliny's "Panegyricus": when words lose their meaning
Read: in Latin: Pan. 1.1-3, 6.1-2, 33-35.3, 46, 48, 53-54.2, 72.5-7 (H)
in English: all the Panegyricus (X)
in the secondary material:
Bartsch. S. "Pliny's Panegyricus: The Art of Sincerity." Chap. 5 in Actors in the Audience.
Orwell, G. "Politics and the English Language." (X)
Issues: Why is Pliny's panegyric so nauseatingly unpalatable to us? What is the significance of his reliance on antithesis? What has happened to the "public transcript"? How is he a man
in a bind? Is there any point in looking for sarcasm in such a speech? Can there be dissidence when the appearance is valued as much as the reality?
In-class reports continue
Useful further reading:
Scholarship on the Panegyricus is extremely thin. An interesing article on the Letters is:
Leach, E. "The Politics of Self-Presentation: Pliny's Letters and Roman Portrait Sculpture," CA 9 (1990), 14-49.