WesMaps - Wesleyan University Catalog 2020-2021       Summer Session       Winter Session       Home       Archive       Search
CS92PROD
"Sexuality" in the Making: Gender, Law, and the Use of Pleasure in Ancient Greek Culture (CLAC.50)
GRK 291
Spring 2021 not offered
Crosslisting: CGST 291

The parent course (CCIV 281/FGSS 281) examines the construction of gender roles in ancient Greece and approaches gender as an organizing principle of private and public life in ancient Greek society by using literary, scientific, historical, and philosophical sources as well as material evidence. Issues addressed include: the creation of woman, conceptions of the male and female body, the legal status of men and women; what constitutes acceptable sexual practices and for whom (e.g., heterosexual relationships, homoeroticism, prostitution etc.); ideas regarding desire, masculinity and femininity, and their cultivation in social, political, and ritual contexts such as rituals of initiation, marriage, drinking parties (symposia), the law court, and the theater.

The textual sources used in the course cover a spectrum of genres: medical texts, Homer, lyric poetry, tragedy, comedy, law-court speeches, and philosophy among others. In the CLAC connected to this course students with some background in ancient Greek will read selections from these genres and will be able to compare different discourses and registers in the original. In the past, even through brief lexical examples--e.g., pointing at the use of ta Aphrodisia (the things/matters related to Aphrodite) in a culture that has no one term/concept for our notion of "sexuality"--students were intrigued by how different terms and discursive media in the original may offer access to perspectives, visions, and values that differ from and can, in turn, inform our own. The CLAC will create an opportunity precisely for this kind of access and a better informed and nuanced conversation.
Credit: .5 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA CLAS
Course Format: LanguageGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: GRK102
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (CLST)(CLST-History, P)

Last Updated on MAR-28-2024
Contact wesmaps@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions. Please include a url, course title, faculty name or other page reference in your email ? Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459