Allen Romano
aromano@uchicago.edu
office: HME 581
office hours: W 2-3 and by appointment
Greek Poetics & the Gendered Voice
CLCV 228
T/Th 1:30-2:50
website: chalk.uchicago.edu
Description
In this course we will study the representation of gender in
early Greek poetry and drama with particular attention to the
ways in which poets and speakers manipulate voice and gender
through speech. In addition to studying what makes ancient
speech masculine or feminine, topics include representations of
men speaking like women and women speaking like men,
specifically gendered speech genres such as lament, riddling and
choral singing, and ancient techniques of voicing as poetic
convention.
Goals
1. Exchange some knowledge about a) ancient gender and b)
ancient poetry and drama
2. Study the way that ancient poets manipulate gender
categories and relations in their poetry
3. Recover some part of an ancient poetics of voice
Requirements
This is primarily a discussion seminar and the emphasis is on
the basics: read the texts, talk about them, write about them.
Participation (40%)
The simplest part of class -- come to class having read the
material, thought about it, and ready to participate in
discussion. Everyone will lead part of at least one
discussion during the quarter. (If you are going to be
leading the discussion you should try to read some of the
optional reading for the week in addition to the regular
assignment.)
Writing Assignments
[in ascending order of formality]
Journal:
(10%):
Informal
blog-style
writing,
cutting,
pasting, linking and (mild) ranting on topics related to the
class. e.g. the role of gendered speech in the modern
workplace, modern theatrical forms which use cross-dressing,
singers who seem to cross genders, and the like. This is a
forum for situating our study of the ancient world in the
happenings of the modern world. I will post regular fodder
for discussion but I encourage you to post and discuss any
items of interest that you come across. Typical posts are a
paragraph or two -- no need to write a novel. There are no
deadlines or schedules but everyone should contribute at
least once per week.
Response papers (20%): Four 2-page (double-spaced) response
papers on the reading in a given week. Questions and
suggestions are given for each week. Assignments are due via
email before Monday morning (i.e. before we begin the next
week of readings). The first one must be submitted by the end
of week 3. You can choose any weeks to write but you must
complete a total of four by the end of the quarter. (Or, to
put it another way, you can skip any four assignments.) If
the given topic for a particular week does not appeal to you,
you can write on one of the optional readings for the week.
The optional readings are typically secondary articles and
thus you can take a stance as to whether the logic of an
argument holds up and whether, in your judgment, it provides
a reasonable and reasoned reading of the ancient text.
These papers should be brief and focused, so try to limit the
discussion to a small number of specific points. See the
handout for examples.
Expansion (30%): Develop one of your previous short writing
assignments by 1. responding to comments 2. going deeper into
the sources and secondary literature and 3. refining the
argument. You may choose to marshal more evidence in support
of your point or to take a different stance on a problem you
looked at before.
There is no midterm or final exam.
Schedule [readings to be completed by date indicated]
Week 1
INTRODUCTION
1/3
ARCHAIC WOMEN
1/5
Homeric Hymn to Demeter
Dover, K. "Classical Greek Attitudes to Sexual
Behaviour"
Carson, A. "Putting Her in Her Place: Women, Dirt and
Desire"
Optional: Ortner, S. "Is Female to Male as Nature is to
Culture"
Optional: H. Foley "The Homeric Hymn to Demeter"
Week 2
1/10
1/12
ARCHAIC POETRY: SAPPHO
Sappho's Greatest Hits: 1, 2, 16, 31, 94, 105a, 166
The "New" Sappho: P. Cologne + P. Oxy.
Skinner, M. "Woman and Language in Archaic Greece, or,
Why is Sappho a Woman?"
Optional: Winkler, J. "Double-Consciousness in Sappho's
Lyrics"
Optional: Segal, C. "Eros and Incantation: Sappho and
Oral Poetry"
ARCHAIC POETRY: SAPPHIC REFLECTIONS
Archaic female poets: Sappho [all], Praxilla, Corinna,
et al.
Catullus 51 [read with Sappho 31]
Alcaeus selections
Lardinois, ,A. "Keening Sappho: Female Speech Genres in
Sappho's Poetry"
Optional: Larmour, D. "Corinna's Poetic Metis and the
Epinician Tradition"
Optional: Parker, H. "Sappho Schoolmistress"
TWOPAGER1:
What makes Sappho's poems specifically feminine? OR What does the
recently rediscovered Sappho poem add to our knowledge of Sapphic poetry (i.e.
compare and contrast the new poem to the some of the previously-known poems).
Week 3
1/17
1/19
ARCHAIC CHORAL POETRY
Alcman
Pindar Partheneia, Nemean 3, Pythian 1, Paeans 1, 2, 6
Optional: Calame, C. "The Function of the Lyric Chorus"
Optional: Ingalls, W. "Ritual Performance as Training
for Daughters"
SYMPOSIUM CULTURE
Theognis, Mimnermus, Xenophanes
Scolia (Drinking Songs)
Optional: Stehle, E. "Male Performers in the Community"
TWOPAGER2: How does the lyric "I" of Sapphic poetry differ from the choral poetry of
Alcman? OR What is the character of symposiastic speech?
Week 4
1/24
1/26
SPOKEN LIKE A MILITARY MAN
Iliad 9
Tyrtaeus, Callinus
Optional: Martin, R. ch. 1 The Language of Heroes
Optional: Ceccarelli, P. "Dancing the Pyrriche in
Athens"
ARCHAIC MISOGYNY
Archilochus, Semonides, Hipponax
Hesiod Theogony 570-616, Works and Days 53-105
TWOPAGER3: How do men speak differently from women in archaic poetry? Choose a few
representative examples. OR How do men and women speak similarly in archaic poetry?
Week 5
1/31
2/2
CLASSICAL ATHENS: COMEDY
Aristophanes Thesmophoriazusae
Aristophanes Ecclesiazusae
Optional: Taaffe, L. "Men as Women: Thesmophoriazusae"
Aristophanes Lysistrata
Optional: O'Higgins, L. "Comedy and Women"
TWOPAGER4: Compare the misogynistic humor of Aristophanes with that found in the
Archaic poets (1/26) and/or the obscene female humor suggested by the Homeric Hymn
to Demeter OR Compare the way that speech is gendered in Ecclesiazusae with that in
Thesmophoriazusae.
Week 6
2/7
2/9
CLASSICAL ATHENS: AESCHYLEAN TRAGEDY
Aeschylus Oresteia
Zeitlin, F. "Playing the Other"
Optional: Blok, J. "Virtual Voices: Toward a
Choreography of Women's Speech in Classical Athens"
Aeschylus Seven Against Thebes
TWOPAGER5: Compare the chorus of Eumenides with that in Seven Against Thebes. How
does each chorus speak and what is feminine about such speech? OR What is the effect
(if any) of Clytemnestra being portrayed by a man? What makes her feminine? What
makes her masculine?
Week 7
2/14
2/16
CLASSICAL ATHENS: SOPHOCLEAN TRAGEDY
Sophocles Antigone
Homer Iliad 24.840-910
Thucydides Histories, Pericles' Funeral Oration
Holst-Warhaft "Mourning in a Man's World"
Optional: Foley, H. "The Politics of Tragic
Lamentation"
Optional: Calame, C. "Peformative Aspects of the Choral
Voice"
Sophocles Electra
Loraux, N. ch. 3 from The Mourning Voice
Optional: Alexiou, M. ch. 1 from The Ritual Lament in
Greek Tradition
TWOPAGER6: To what extent is tragedy a form of public lament?
Week 8
2/21
2/23
CLASSICAL ATHENS: EURIPIDEAN TRAGEDY
Euripides Hippolytus
Fragments of Euripides' Cretans and Melanippe
Optional: Hall, E. "Actor's Songs in Tragedy"
CLASSICAL ATHENS: SATYR PLAY
Euripides Cyclops
Fragments of Sophocles' Trackers
Optional: Hall, E. "Ithyphallic Males Behaving Badly"
TWOPAGER7: To what extent is tragedy gendered feminine and satyr play masculine? OR
Is the promiscuity of Phaedra's feminine speech to blame for the events of the
Hippolytus?
Week 9
2/28
3/2
HELLENISTIC POETRY
Epigram: Nossis, Anyte, et al.
Erinna
Manwell, E. "Erinna's Voice and Poetic Reality"
Optional: Greene, E. "Playing with Tradition"
HELLENISTIC POETRY
Theocritus Idylls 2 and 15
Herodas Mimiambs 7 and 8
Optional: Skinner, M. "Ladies' Day at the Art
Institute"
TWOPAGER8: Compare and contrast the poetry of Erinna and that of Sappho OR
Compare and contrast the portrayal of women in one poem of Theocritus with that in
Herodas.
Week 10
3/7
3/9-10
Friday
3/17
VOICING THE OTHER
Hesiod Theogony 1-115
Murray, P. "The Muses and their Art"
Homeric Hymn to Apollo
Homeric Hymn to Hermes
Optional: Martin, R. "Just Like a Woman: Enigmas of the
Lyric Voice"
Optional: Plato, Symposium on Diotima
Reading period
Paper expansion due