humanities 101
Expanded course description and learning objectives
The mythical narratives of the ancient Greeks and the Romans constitute a continuous tradition that extends from before the reach of history to the present day. Myths survive in literary texts and visual art because their narratives have continued to prove compelling and fascinating in different languages, historical eras, and social contexts (the myths of Odysseus, Heracles, and Oedipus are just a few examples). Literature and art of all kinds have been inspired to retell and represent their stories, while the search for the meaning of mythic stories has informed and profoundly influenced a great range of intellectual disciplines including literary criticism, anthropology, and psychoanalysis. In these ways, myths have and continue to exercise a fundamental influence on western culture and, in consequence, even today they maintain a certain cosy familiarity. On the other hand, the historical contexts in which the Greeks and Romans told and retold these mythical narratives are to us in the twenty-first century culturally alien and unfamiliar. The aim of the course is two-fold: insofar as Greek and Roman culture is fundamental to the development of western culture, students will achieve a deeper historical understanding of the latter; yet because the world of the Greeks and Romans is in many ways radically different to our own, students will develop the conceptual tools for comprehending another culture and so enhance their ability to understand and critique their own cultures. The course is also one of the Foundations courses and as such is intended to provide students with a solid grounding for undergraduate study by cultivating generally applicable and transferable skills; these include the development of clear and logical academic writing, critical and analytical skills for reading and understanding texts, constructive participation in group discussion and debate (in tutorials), and basic methods
The mythical narratives of the ancient Greeks and the Romans constitute a continuous tradition that extends from before the reach of history to the present day. Myths survive in literary texts and visual art because their narratives have continued to prove compelling and fascinating in different languages, historical eras, and social contexts (the myths of Odysseus, Heracles, and Oedipus are just a few examples). Literature and art of all kinds have been inspired to retell and represent their stories, while the search for the meaning of mythic stories has informed and profoundly influenced a great range of intellectual disciplines including literary criticism, anthropology, and psychoanalysis. In these ways, myths have and continue to exercise a fundamental influence on western culture and, in consequence, even today they maintain a certain cosy familiarity. On the other hand, the historical contexts in which the Greeks and Romans told and retold these mythical narratives are to us in the twenty-first century culturally alien and unfamiliar. The aim of the course is two-fold: insofar as Greek and Roman culture is fundamental to the development of western culture, students will achieve a deeper historical understanding of the latter; yet because the world of the Greeks and Romans is in many ways radically different to our own, students will develop the conceptual tools for comprehending another culture and so enhance their ability to understand and critique their own cultures. The course is also one of the Foundations courses and as such is intended to provide students with a solid grounding for undergraduate study by cultivating generally applicable and transferable skills; these include the development of clear and logical academic writing, critical and analytical skills for reading and understanding texts, constructive participation in group discussion and debate (in tutorials), and basic methods