GREEK 7172

Graduate Seminar in Greek

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2022-2023.

Spring 2023 topic: Paideia, Power, and the Body. This seminar traces a central theme in postclassical Greek literature across a range of authors and genres, including Plutarch, Lucian, the ancient novel, and physiognomist writings. Often translated as "education" or "culture," paideia describes a kind of embodied performance, typically registered through display of masculine ideals and knowledge of classical Greek language and literature, that generated cultural currency and social cohesion for a privileged group (pepaideumenoi). Students will examine how postclassical Greek literature negotiates and plays with the tensions and paradoxes of paideia; engage theoretical approaches to analyze the relationship between paideia and constructions of gender, race, and the body; and trace how certain threads within this ancient discourse (e.g., reading like the pepaideumenos) might relate to modern scholarly practices.

When Offered Spring.

Permission Note Enrollment limited to: graduate students.

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