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Epinetron:
Louvre MNC 624
Instructors: John Gruber-Miller, 312 College Hall; phone:
x4326; email: jgruber-miller@cornellcollege.edu
Mariah Steele, Writing Consultant, 124 Cole Library; phone: x4509; email: msteele@cornellcollege.edu
Elizabeth Schau, Arts and Humanities Consulting Librarian, 307 Cole Library; phone: x4452; email: eschau@cornellcollege.edu
John's Office Hours: M W 11:00 - 12 and by appointment.
Class Meetings: M-F 9-11 & select afternoons 1-3 in College Hall 020
Required Texts:
- Elaine Fantham, et al., Women in the Classical World: Image and Text. New York: Oxford, 1995.
- Mary R. Lefkowitz and Maureen Brown Fant. Women's Life in Greece and Rome. A Sourcebook in Translation. 3rd ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 2005.
- Snyder, The Woman and the Lyre: Women Writers in Classical Greece
and Rome
- Xeroxed Course Pack
Course Goals: The purpose of this course is to introduce you to
the Classical sources, methodologies, and the current debates focusing
on women in antiquity. We will explore the representations of women in
Classical literature and art as well as the place of women in ancient
Greek and Roman culture. Ancient Greece and Rome have often been considered
as the origins of Western attitudes toward women. Thus, we will
- explore the similarities and differences between ancient and contemporary
notions of female identity and the position of women in society.
- interpret and critique various types of textual, visual, and archaeological
evidence for the lives of ancient women.
- investigate the legal, economic, religious, and social status of
women in the ancient world with particular attention to issues of class
and ethnicity.
- understand ancient Greek and Roman cultural constructions of gender
and how these may have affected the lives and behavior of women in Greek
and Roman societies.
- attempt to recover the lives of some of the individual Greek and
Roman women known to us from history.
- improve both your verbal and written communication skills.
- gather, use, and evaluate materials both from the library and the
World Wide Web.
Course Requirements:
-
Class Participation: This includes coming
to class prepared and participating actively in discussion. This
will be a seminar course, and thus requires you to not only to do
the reading before class, but to contribute actively to discussion.
Do not be shy. The success of the discussions will depend on each
person contributing thoughtfully to the class. By the same token,
we all bring different backgrounds and perspectives to the course
- this is what makes class interesting. It is, therefore, crucial
to the success of the course that everyone show respect and courtesy
to everyone else in the class, and a willingness to help each other
learn and approach the material from new perspectives.
-
Informal writing assignments of various types
based on class readings (approximately one for each section of the
course). These essays are meant to be a chance to examine your own
views, values and biases within the light of various readings. They
will also help you prepare for class discussions and give you practice
in analyzing primary sources before you have to tackle the final
project. They will be graded on the depth to which you actively
engage the readings and the level of thought you put into your reflections.
These topics will be announced in advance.
- Panel Presentation: Each person will be part of a group panel
on one of the following topics:
- Sappho
- Women & Greek Religion
- Women's Bodies/Ancient Medicine
- Women in Roman foundation stories
- Marriage & Women's Sexuality in Ancient Rome
Each panel will give a presentation on the topic and then lead a
discussion on it for the rest of the morning. The panel should not
be a series of separate unconnected reviews, but should be a coherent,
well-organized presentation and discussion centering on the topic
at hand. The group will need to turn in an outline of their presentation
detailing which areas will be covered and how the presentation will
be divided among panel members along with a list of discussion questions.
In addition, each person will turn in an article review from the list
of recommended readings. I will also schedule a meeting with each
group on the day before the presentation. Individual grades for the
panels will be based on your article review, your ability to collaborate
with your group (peer evaluations), the amount of effort you put into
the panel, and the success of the panel and following discussion as
a whole. Factors that will determine the success of the panel include:
preparation and organization, how well the topic is covered, integration
of individual discussions into the group presentation, visual aids,
how well the group generates and facilitates discussion.
- Project on a historical woman from Greek and Roman antiquity:
In order to see the lives of women of antiquity "from the inside,"
students will adopt one woman from Greek or Roman history. More detailed
instructions will be handed out later, but basically the project will
involve the following main steps:
1. library research on the life of an individual historical woman;
2. writing a research paper (in several stages) on her life and accomplishments
that includes a discussion of the difficulties and biases encountered
in the research process and of the way her life story follows and/or
transcends the life patterns of typical women in her society.
3. writing a brief, first-person "dramatic monologue" or
a "Readers Theater" presentation to be performed before
the rest of class. In the dramatic monologue, the presenter will introduce
her character and explain her life and accomplishments. In the Readers
Theater version, the students will present several historical women
dramatizing a theme chosen by the group. The student will base either
the monologue or dialogue on factual material but will add a sense
of personality and attitudes she thinks her subject might have had
and the cultural constraints she might have dealt with.
On the last day of class, I will also ask you to submit a one or two
page report summarizing what you accomplished, what you wished you had
done but were not able to do, and what you learned from the experience.
- Select Deadlines:
- First Wednesday- Historical Woman Chosen
- Second Monday- Bibliography due
- Third Wednesday - Historical Profile completed
- Fourth Monday - Dramatic Monologue/Readers Theater presentation
due
Early in the block, you will sign up for date to submit one of your drafts
ahead of the due date so that we can use it as a model paper. Model
papers are always due at 8:30 a.m. on the workshop day. You should email
the paper to me (jgruber-miller@cornellcollege.edu)
and to the Writing Associate, Mariah Steele (msteele@cornellcollege.edu)
as a MS Word attachment. This is an opportunity to get a lot feedback
on your work and help you produce a better, finished paper.
Grading:
- 20% informal writing assignments
- 20% panel presentation
- 50% historical woman project (10% for each stage, 10% for overall
project)
- 10% class participation
Policies
Attendance: Since our class format is based primarily on discussion
and workshops, it is essential that you come to class every day, prepared
and ready to participate actively. Any absence after two missed class
periods will harm your final grade.
Drafts and Model Papers: Learning how to revise papers is an important
element of becoming a successful writer, and peer workshops are an important
element in honing your reading and writing skills. The failure to submit
a full-length draft when due, submit a model paper when due, or attend
a peer workshop, will automatically result in a grade of C or below for
that particular paper.
Deadlines: no late work will be accepted. If an emergency or illness
occurs, please let me know immediately so that other plans can be arranged.
Academic Integrity: According to the Cornell College Student Handbook,
plagiarism is "is the act of taking the work of another and presenting
it as one's own, without acknowledgement of the original source."
In other words, using others' ideas, words, even sentence structure, without
crediting them is a serious academic offense. Plagiarism also includes
writing a paper for another person, borrowing or buying an essay and submitting
it as your own, or paraphrasing an article but forgetting to document
it. Click here for Cornell's
policy on Academic Honesty.
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