CLAS 328 B: Sex, Gender, and Representation in Greek and Roman Literature

CLAS 328: Sex, Gender, and Representation in Greek and Roman Literature

Spring 2023

MWF 9:30am-10:20

CHL 015

Our class google doc can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1c22Y_6NZq3OUEpy6_ZtSUXblwIDir3aEPcOJ1bE8JoM/edit?usp=sharing

Prof. Levin-Richardson (you can call me Professor Levin-Richardson, Professor L-R, or just Professor)

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Email: sarahlr@uw.edu

Office Hours: Wednesdays 11am-noon and Thursdays 1:30-2:30pm in person (I wear a mask when holding office hours in my office; Zoom option available, too—please email me in advance so I can set it up) and by appointment

Office: Denny 227; enter the main doors of Denny, pass the water fountain and elevator, and it’s the

first office on the left

Description:

This class explores how the categories of gender and sexuality were defined, represented, enforced, and transgressed in ancient Greek and Roman literature. What were the expectations for normative gendered behavior in Greece and Rome? What were considered appropriate sexual acts? What evidence is there for transfolks, nonbinary folks, and other types of gender or sexual identities? No prior knowledge is needed.

Supporting your learning and well being

If you know of something that might affect your learning (technology problems; health or family crisis; religious observance) please contact me as soon as possible, ideally at the beginning of the quarter, so that I can make appropriate accommodations. Below you can find further resources:

• UW Academic Support: http://depts.washington.edu/aspuw/more/campus-resources/
• UW Counseling Center: http://www.washington.edu/counseling/
• Husky Health and Well-Being: http://wellbeing.uw.edu
• UW Q Center (resource, advocacy, and mentoring center for queer students and concerns at the University of Washington): https://sites.uw.edu/qcenter/
• RAINN (the national’s largest anti-sexual violence organization; includes 24/7 live chat): https://www.rainn.org/
• Student Technology Loan Program: https://stlp.uw.edu/
• UW Food Pantry: https://www.washington.edu/anyhungryhusky/the-uw-food-pantry/
• Department of Classics Undergraduate Textbook fund (for majors and minors in Classics): https://classics.washington.edu/undergraduate-textbook-fund
• Disability Resources for Students: http://depts.washington.edu/uwdrs/
  • If you have already established accommodations with Disability Resources for Students (DRS), please communicate your approved accommodations to me at your earliest convenience so we can discuss your needs in this course.
  • If you have not yet established services through DRS, but have a temporary health condition or permanent disability that requires accommodations (conditions include but not limited to: mental health, attention-related, learning, vision, hearing, physical or health impacts), you are welcome to contact DRS at uwdrs@uw.edu or uw.edu. DRS offers resources and coordinates reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities and/or temporary health conditions.  Reasonable accommodations are established through an interactive process between you, your instructor(s) and DRS.  It is the policy and practice of the University of Washington to create inclusive and accessible learning environments consistent with federal and state law.
• Religious Accommodations:
  • Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy . Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form .

Required Readings:

The required texts for this class are listed below and can be purchased from the University Bookstore (https://www.ubookstore.com/student) as well as through online retailers (the total cost is about $40). There is also a copy of each on Course Reserves in Odegaard Library. Other required readings can be found on the course Canvas site. Each meeting in the schedule below has one or more readings to be read before that class session.

Nehamas, Alexander and Paul Woodruff, trans. 1989. Plato Symposium. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing. [ISBN: 978-0872200760]

Sulprizio, Chiara, trans. 2020. Gender and Sexuality in Juvenal’s Rome. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. [ISBN 978-0806164885]

These readings are a starting point for class discussion. I strongly recommend careful reading of the assigned material as well as attending class.

Learning Objectives:

• Situate ancient gender and sexuality within wider historical, literary, and cultural contexts [assessed through quizzes and final exam]
• Reflect upon the intersections of the past and present [assessed through reaction/responses]
• Discuss the strengths and limitations of our primary source evidence for ancient gender and sexuality [assessed through final exam]

Assignments and Grading:

• 2 Canvas Quizzes (due Monday April 3 and Monday May 8 by 9:30am): 15%
• 4 Reaction/Responses (due via Canvas by 9:30am on Friday April 14, Monday May 1, Monday May 15, and Wednesday May 31): 45%
• Take-home Final Exam (due via Canvas Wednesday June 7 10:20am): 40%

More information about each assignment will be made available on Canvas. Your final course grade is calculated from these assignments in the proportions given. Please prepare carefully for these assignments and please contact me in advance if you have any questions about how to best prepare. There is no extra credit.

Further Expectations:

• COVID and Wellness
  • The University recommends wearing a high-quality mask are available at no cost at locations on each campus inside UW facilities; High-quality masks .
  • If you are sick with any illness, you must stay home, even if you are fully vaccinated. Keep up-to-date with the course google doc and come see me if you have questions.
  • Please remember to follow the University’s COVID-19 Public Health Flowchart if you test positive, if you are exposed to COVID-19, have an exposure or develop symptoms. If you have COVID-19 questions, see these resources for students.
• No recording, photographing, posting, or distributing of course materials of any kind is permitted without my written authorization.
• The University of Washington prohibits the selling of notes online or through any other channels.
• Getting in touch with each other
  • Please check Canvas and your UW email daily; this is how I will communicate with you about pertinent information. You are responsible for all information disseminated over email, through the course website, and in class.
  • I’m available in office hours for you! If you are anxious about assignments, please set up a time well in advance of the assignment or exam so we can discuss strategies. I’m also happy to chat about any other class-related concerns you have, or how to follow your interests in gender studies or Classics!
  • I am happy to answer questions over email, but please check the syllabus first to see whether the answer is there.
  • I will respond to emails by the end of the next working day (which means that if you email me on Friday afternoon, I may not respond until Monday afternoon).
• Grading
  • Students are expected to adhere to ethical behavior in their work, including following guidelines posted for each assignment concerning group work and plagiarism/cheating. Failure to adhere to these policies will be considered an academic integrity violation and can be reported to the Office of Student Conduct, and you might receive a zero on the assignment. If you have any questions about what is or is not allowable for an assignment, I’d be more than happy to clarify!
  • I’d be happy to discuss any of your graded work with you, but I ask that you wait twenty-four hours after receiving your assignment back in order to begin to process my feedback. After the twenty-four-hour period, please feel free to email me to set up a time for a meeting. Due to University policy, I cannot discuss grades over email.
• Creating and supporting our community
  • Students are expected to adhere to the code of conduct established on the first day of class.

Schedule of Topics and Required Readings:

Week 1

M March 27: Introduction to Gender and Sexuality

W March 29: Introduction to Ancient Greece (no homework!)

F March 31: Mythologizing Gender and Sexuality in the Homeric Epics

• Homer Iliad1-481 in Ian Johnston, trans. 2007. Homer The Iliad. Arlington: Richer Resources Publications. [note: wartime sex trafficking in this passage]
• Homer Odyssey 277-416, 442-514; 2.106-173 in Ian Johnston, trans. 2007. Homer The Odyssey. Arlington: Richer Resources Publications.

Week 2

M April 3: QUIZ 1 DUE by 9:30am; Reception of Homeric Gender and Sexuality

• Nguyen, Kelly. 2021. “Queering Telemachus: Ocean Vuong, Postmemories and the Vietnam War.” International Journal of the Classical Tradition 29: 430-448. [note: parental death]

W April 5: Socializing Gender and Sexuality in Archaic Greece

• Bing, Peter and Rip Cohen, trans. 1991. Games of Venus: An Anthology of Greek and Roman Erotic Verse from Sappho to Ovid. New York and London: Routledge. [Sappho introduction and poems 1, 16, 31, 94, 96; Anacreon introduction and poems 360, 417; Theognis introduction and poems 1271-74, 1327-1334]
• Kamil, Miriam. 2019. “‘I shall -#$% You And *@$# You’: Grappling with Censorship as a Queer Classicist.” Eidolon Jan 17 2019. https://eidolon.pub/i-shall-you-and-you-a3841d4c5e33

F April 7: Staging Gender and Sexuality in Classical Athens

• Aristophanes’ Lysistrata in Ian Johnston, trans. 2020. Lysistrata. Arlington: Richer Resources Publications. Accessed through http://johnstoniatexts.x10host.com/aristophanes/lysistratahtml.html [reading contains references to physical and sexual abuse against women]

Week 3

M April 10: Staging Gender and Sexuality in Classical Athens

• Morales, Helen. 2020. Antigone Rising: The Subversive Power of the Ancient Myths. New York: Bold Type Books. [chapter 2: No Peace, No Piece!] [reading contains references to physical abuse and rape against women by their partners]

W April 12: Staging Gender and Sexuality in Classical Athens

• Euripides’ Bacchae in Ian Johnston, trans. 2014. Bacchae. Arlington: Richer Resources Publications. Accessed through http://johnstoniatexts.x10host.com/euripides/bacchaehtml.html [includes graphic violence towards the end; if you have wartime experience or have lost someone in wartime or 9/11, be especially careful/protective of your mental health]

F April 14: REACTION/RESPONSE 1 DUE by 9:30am; NO CLASS

Week 4

M April 17: Staging Gender and Sexuality in Classical Athens

• Euripides’ Medea in Ian Johnston, trans. 2008. Medea. Arlington: Richer Resources Publications. Accessed through http://johnstoniatexts.x10host.com/euripides/medeahtml.html

W April 19: Reception of Greek Gender and Sexuality on the Modern Stage

• Alfaro, Luis. 2020. “Mojada: (Dramatizing Latinx Migrations)”. In The Greek Trilogy of Luis Alfaro, ed. Rosa Andújar. London and New York: Methuen Drama. [note: rape scene and trauma related to border crossing]

F April 21: Legalizing Gender and Sexuality in Classical Greece

• Ormand, Kirk. 2018. Controlling Desires: Sexuality in Ancient Greece and Rome. Second Edition. University of Texas Press. [chapter 5: Legal and Illegal Sex in Ancient Greece] [brief discussion of rape, child prostitution]

Week 5

M April 24: Philosophizing Gender and Sexuality in Classical Greece

• Plato Symposium in Alexander Nehamas and Paul Woodruff, trans. 1989. Plato Symposium. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing. [read from "Introductory Dialogue" through the speech of Aristophanes, pp. 1-31; contains references to/disavowal of sex with children]

W April 26: Philosophizing Gender and Sexuality in Classical Greece

• Plato Symposium in Alexander Nehamas and Paul Woodruff, trans. 1989. Plato Symposium. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing. [read from the speech of Agathon until the end, pp. 32-77]

F April 28: Medicalizing Gender and Sexuality in Greece and Rome

• Selections from Blundell, Sue. 1995. Women in Ancient Greece. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. [read from the beginning of the chapter to p. 102, stopping before the paragraph beginning “no discussion”; read the section on “Conception” on pp. 105-107]
• Selections from Lefkowitz, Mary and Maureen Fant, eds. 1992. Women’s Life in Greece & Rome: A source book in translation. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. [selection (not page) numbers: 338, 339 [read sections on “male and female defined” and “the role of heat”], 341 [read section on “male and female sperm”], 349 [note: discussion of mental illness and suicide], 351, 361-2]

Week 6

M May 1: REACTION/RESPONSE 2 DUE by 9:30am; Introduction to Ancient Rome (no homework other than the reaction/response)

W May 3: Cursing Gender and Sexuality in Greece and Rome

• Gager, John, ed. 1992. Curse Tablets and Binding spells from the Ancient World. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [e-book available through UW library; read beginning of chapter 2 on Sex, Love, and Marriage (pp. 78-83) and catalogue #20, 24, 25, 27]

F May 5: Legalizing Gender and Sexuality in the Roman Republic

• Ormand, Kirk. 2018. Controlling Desires: Sexuality in Ancient Greece and Rome. Second Edition. University of Texas Press. [chapter 11: Legal and Illegal Sex in Ancient Rome] [accusation of sibling incest on p. 235; discussion of law against sex with children on p. 240]

Week 7

M May 8: QUIZ 2 DUE by 9:30am; Socializing Gender and Sexuality in the Neoteric Poets of the Roman Republic

• Bing, Peter and Rip Cohen, trans. 1991. Games of Venus: An Anthology of Greek and Roman Erotic Verse from Sappho to Ovid. New York and London: Routledge. [Catullus Introduction and poems 5, 8, 32, 37, 48, 51]
• Lee, Tori. 2017. “To Me, You are Creepy: Excluded Lovers from Rome to Rom-Com.” Eidolon Feb 13 2017. https://eidolon.pub/to-me-you-are-creepy-3646cbadc8a3 [stop before the second section break, with the sentence “Is it really romantic for Zac Efron to show up on Vanessa Hudgens’s balcony at night and alert her only with an ominous “Turn around” phone call?”
• Sulpicia (a female poet!!!) poems I and IV-VI: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Tibullus.php#anchor_Toc532635331(Links to an external site.)
• Milnor, Kristina. 2014. Graffiti and the Literary Landscape in Roman Pompeii. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [read pp. 196, starting with section “No place for a Woman…”, -200 [skip paragraph beginning “On the surface” on pages 198-199], and stop on p. 200 before paragraph beginning “It is notoriously difficult”]

W May 10: Mythologizing Gender and Sexuality in the Roman Empire

• Ovid Metamorphoses: Tiresias (316-338(Links to an external site.)), Iphis (666-797 (Links to an external site.) read sections on The Birth of Iphis; Iphis and Ianthe; and Isis transforms Iphis) and Caeneus (12.146-209 (Links to an external site.) [note: contains brief mention of rape by Neptune]) in A. S. Kline, trans. 2000. Ovid’s Metamorphoses. http://ovid.lib.virginia.edu/trans/Ovhome.htm
• Morales, Helen. 2020. Antigone Rising: The Subversive Power of the Ancient Myths. New York: Bold Type Books. [chapter 8: Transmythology] [note: discussion of mythological rape in this chapter]

F May 12: Mythologizing Gender and Sexuality in the Roman Empire

• Gillies, Grace. 2017. “The Body in Question: Looking At Non-Binary Gender in the Greek and Roman World.” Eidolon 9 2017. https://eidolon.pub/the-body-in-question-d28045d23714

Week 8

M May 15: REACTION/RESPONSE 3 DUE by 9:30am; No In-Person Class today; Watch Panopto lecture on Gender and Sexuality in Real Life: The Case Study of Roman Pompeii, to be posted by classtime. (no homework other than reaction/response)

W May 17: Socializing Gender and Sexuality in the Roman Empire

• Ovid The Art of Love [book  3] in S. Kline, trans. 2001. Ovid: The Art of Love. https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/ArtofLoveBkIII.php
  
  • [note for book 3: section 10 presents sex as owed if a lover has given a gift; section 13 presents violence against women; section 17 justifies rape]

F May 19: Satirizing and Mocking Gender and Sexuality in the Roman Empire

• Juvenal Satire 2 in Sulprizio, Chiara, trans. 2020. Gender and Sexuality in Juvenal’s Rome. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. [pp. 39-46 with notes immediately following; note: homophobic language and themes; racism, abortion and incest also mentioned]

Week 9

M May 22: Satirizing and Mocking Gender and Sexuality in the Roman Empire

• Juvenal Satire 6 in Sulprizio, Chiara, trans. 2020. Gender and Sexuality in Juvenal’s Rome. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. [pp. 65-95 with notes following; note: entire satire is a misogynistic rant; also includes homophobia language, male genital mutilation, torture, xenophobia, animal sacrifice, abortifacients]

W May 24: Reception of Roman Gender and Sexuality in Modern Fiction

• Evaristo, Bernardine. 2001. The Emperor’s Babe. New York: Penguin Books. [pp. 3-50; note: fictional child marriage and sexual activity; brief mention of racial epithets].

F May 26: Philosophizing Gender and Sexuality in the Roman Empire

• Ormand, Kirk. 2018. Controlling Desires: Sexuality in Ancient Greece and Rome. Second Edition. University of Texas Press. [read pp. 326-334]
• Selection from Lefkowitz, Mary and Maureen Fant, eds. 1992. Women’s Life in Greece & Rome: A source book in translation. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. [selection 75]

• Selections from Richlin, Amy. Marcus Aurelius in Love: The Letters of Marcus and Fronto. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [pp. 1-9, and letters 2, 40-41]

Week 10

M May 29: NO CLASS

W May 31 REACTION/RESPONSE 4 DUE by 9:30am; Final Exam Q&A

F June 2: Extra office hours (for individual meetings) in Denny 227

Final Exam: upload to Canvas by Wednesday June 7 10:20am

The grading scale used in this class is as follows