CLU23215 Roman Letters
To write a letter - whether a formal, public composition or a private letter to a friend - is to create an image, consciously or unconsciously, of oneself as writer and of one's relationship with the letter's recipient. This was just as true for Roman letter-writers as it is for us today. This module will explore a selection of the wide range of letters, including both personal correspondence and more self-consciously literary compositions, that have survived from Roman antiquity.
- Module Organiser:
- Prof Monica Gale
- Duration:
- One term (Sept-Dec)
- Contact Hours:
- 19 (16 lectures twice weekly and 3 seminars)
- Weighting:
- 5 ECTS
- Assessment:
- 30% continuous assessment, 70% final examination
Introductory Reading
- M. Trapp, 'Introduction', in Greek and Latin Letters: An Anthology with Translation (Cambridge, 2003), 1-47
- G.O. Hutchinson, Cicero's Correspondence: A Literary Study (Oxford, 1998)
- S. Lindheim, Mail and Female: Epistolary Narrative and Desire in Ovid's Heroides (Madison, Wisconsin, 2003), ch. 1
- R.K. Gibson and R. Morello, Reading the Letters of Pliny the Younger: An Introduction (Cambridge 2012), esp. chs. 3-6
Learning Outcomes
On successful conclusion of this module, students should be able to:
- Describe and analyse selected letters of Cicero, Pliny, and Seneca, and the epistolary poems of Horace and Ovid
- Examine the prescribed letters, both as documents in intellectual history of the Roman world, and as literary texts, with a particular emphasis on authorial self-representation
- Comment critically on select passages from the prescribed texts, both orally and in writing
- Evaluate and apply recent critical approaches to epistolarity in general, and to the prescribed texts