2024/25 Undergraduate Module Catalogue
CLAS3460 Subversive Desires: Roman Love Elegy
20 creditsClass Size: 24
Module manager: Paul White
Email: p.m.white@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2024/25
This module is mutually exclusive with
| CLAS2460 | Subversive Desires: Roman Love Elegy |
This module is approved as a discovery module
Module summary
Roman love elegy fundamentally shaped the way we think and talk about love. The Roman elegists wrote about the joys and sufferings of love, and about the social and political complications that may frustrate or pervert desire and make its fulfilment impossible. Their writings are, basically, about love and sex; but dig a little deeper and you will find they are about so much more than this. In making a poetic language to talk about the experience of love, they found that this language could be set to work to talk about other things, too: to question the foundations of socially constructed identities, to complicate gender roles, to express alienation and a sense of being out of synch with the world, to confront literary traditions and find a place for their own voice within them. Focusing primarily on the elegiac collections of Propertius, Tibullus and Ovid, we will explore how Roman elegy could express, with a seriousness tempered by humour and irony, complex ideas about everything from sex to reading, from Roman conceptions of masculinity and militarism to the psychology of desire and loss.Objectives
This module aims to give students an understanding of the genre of Roman Love Elegy by introducing, in English translation, the poems of the three canonical Roman elegists whose works substantially survive (Propertius, Tibullus and Ovid), as well as poems by other Latin elegists.It will give students the ability to engage in close reading and detailed analysis of the poems in English translation, paying attention to how poetic language creates meaning, for example through the use of imagery, verbal and structural patterning, intertextuality and allusion.
Students will become familiar with the conventions and topoi (established themes or devices) of the genre, and the ways in which they are used, ironized and subverted by individual poets.
The module will also explore aspects of the literary, social and cultural context that are relevant to an understanding of the works studied, and encourage students to engage with the secondary literature on Roman Elegy, and to gain an understanding of the main ideas that have characterized different phases of the criticism on elegy (e.g. formalist, socio-cultural, psychoanalytical, feminist critique)
The course will reflect on the importance and influence of the genre of Roman Love Elegy in the post-classical world.
Learning outcomes
On completion of this module, students should be able to:
- demonstrate a wide-ranging and detailed understanding of the genre of Roman Love Elegy, and apply this understanding to close analysis of the set texts (in English translation);
- use their further enhanced knowledge of historical, cultural and literary contexts to formulate interpretations of the set texts;
- think about Roman Love Elegy in wider terms, paying attention to issues such as gender and sexuality, the lyric voice and persona, the subversion or endorsement of social norms, literary tradition and reception;
- gather, evaluate and use information from secondary sources, and demonstrate an understanding of the main trends in the secondary criticism on elegy and an ability to describe and comment on particular aspects of current research;
- communicate ideas and interpretations effectively, both orally and in writing.
Syllabus
The module counts for 20 credits and runs over one semester, with two lectures per week and a total of five seminars. Our main set texts will be selected poems from the works of Propertius (Propertius, The Poems, trans. by Guy Lee (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), Tibullus (Tibullus, Elegies, trans. by A. M Juster (Oxford: OUP, 2012) and Ovid’s Amores (Ovid, The Love Poems, trans. by A. D Melville (Oxford: OUP, 2008). We will also look at poems or fragments by other elegiac poets. Lectures will introduce you to the genre’s themes and conventions; furnish you with an understanding of the literary background (Greek models, Alexandrianism, Catullus and the neoterics, Cornelius Gallus); discuss aspects of the social and political context; cover the main trends in the secondary criticism; and give a sense of the genre’s postclassical survival and influence. Seminars will give you the opportunity to study in detail specific poems taken from the set texts.
Teaching methods
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
| Lecture | 20 | 1.00 | 20.00 |
| Seminar | 5 | 1.00 | 5.00 |
| Private study hours | 175.00 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 25.00 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 200.00 | ||
Private study
Students will be expected to prepare for, and follow up on, lectures and seminars by (a) reading set text selections: 40 hours(b) reflecting on specific research questions: 65 hours
(c) carrying out bibliographical research: 10 hours
(d) specific preparation for assessments: 60 hours
Opportunities for Formative Feedback
Student progress will be monitored through attendance at and participation in teaching sessions (lectures and seminars), group discussion, and through a detailed module questionnaire.Methods of assessment
Coursework
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
| Essay | 2500 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 |
| Online Time-Limited assessment | 48 hr 00 mins | 60.00 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Exams) | 60.00 | |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
Reading list
The reading list is available from the Library websiteLast updated: 29/04/2024 16:12:25
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