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2016/17 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

CLAS3360 Ovid the Innovator

20 creditsClass Size: 30

Module manager: Dr Bev Back
Email: b.back@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2016/17

This module is mutually exclusive with

CLAS3361

Ovid the Innovator: Linguistic Pathway

This module is approved as a discovery module

Module summary

This 20-credit module is suitable for Level 2 and 3 students with some knowledge of Classical literature. It focuses on three innovative works of Ovid: Heroides, a set of letters from mythical heroines to their absent lovers; Tristia, a series of poems in which the exiled poet laments his plight among savages at Tomis; and Fasti, a poetic treatment of the Roman calendar and its religious festivals in the age of Augustus. The poems are studied in English translation (tr. H. Isbell, Heroides, Penguin 1990; tr. A. Boyle and R. Woodard, Fasti, Penguin 2000; selected poems from Tristia will be provided).

Objectives

On completion of this module, students should be able to:
- situate Ovid's poetry in its literary, socio-political and historical contexts;
- compare and contrast the three poems under consideration, with each other, their predecessors and other works in the Ovidian corpus;
- use close reading techniques to produce critical appreciations of passages from these texts;
- identify and evaluate literary critical approaches, especially narratology, intertextuality and reception theory;
- select evidence for, and explore, Ovid's treatment of themes such as gender, gods and cosmology, mythical heroes and Roman kings, and Augustan Rome.

Syllabus

This module will focus on three innovative works of Ovid: Heroides, a set of letters from mythical heroines to their absent lovers; Tristia, a series of poems in which the exiled poet laments his plight among savages at Tomis; and Fasti, a poetic treatment of the Roman calendar and its religious festivals in the age of Augustus. But nothing is quite as it seems with Ovid. The mythical heroines in Heroides invite us to question the authority behind 'familiar' myths; the poems in Tristia are so full of poetic flair as to make some doubt whether Ovid was ever exiled at all; and Fasti outwardly celebrates and subtly criticises Augustan Rome in equal measure. These poems will be studied in their own right and, more generally, as a means of assessing Ovid's skill at manipulating myth, his exile and exilic persona, and his troubled relationship with Augustus and Augustan Rome.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Lecture	20	1.00	20.00
Seminar	2	1.00	2.00
Private study hours			178.00
Total Contact hours			22.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			200.00

Private study

2 hours per lecture = 40 hours
6 hours per seminar = 12 hours
10 hours for practice gobbet and essay plan = 10 hours
96 hours exam preparation (both seen and unseen parts) = 96 hours

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Student progress will be monitored formatively through their contributions to discussions and through their submission of an essay plan and practice gobbet for the exam.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	Not more than 2000 words	40.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		40.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Exams

Exam type	Exam duration	% of formal assessment
Standard exam (closed essays, MCQs etc)	2 hr 00 mins	60.00
Total percentage (Assessment Exams)		60.00

The exam will consist of two sections, A and B, from each of which students will be required to answer two questions (one essay and one gobbet) from a choice. Section A will consist of questions known in advance and discussed in class; Section B will be unseen. Each question will be weighted equally, therefore 4 questions x 25% = 100%.

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 20/04/2016

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