090048 VO Area of Roman Literature (Prose) (2018S)

This lecture course will be taught in English with Latin readings in the original language and (as needed) Greek readings in translation (English and/or German). I propose an historical as well as creative examination of problematic personalities and pathologies of character in Latin texts. Some of the types will be ones that were recognized as such in antiquity and thematized there (for example in Theophrastus' Characters). Others may be more conjectural attempts to work back from later phenotypes to possible ancient examples. All will be examined within a historical context (when possible) and in their literary generic habitats. Students will read some amusing and some dismaying descriptive and narrative literature that shows and tells in satire, anecdote, historiography, declamation, and the novel. They will also read more scholarly treatments of and attempts to explain and alleviate the pathological behavior drawn from philosophical and theological texts, including sermons. In some cases there may be occasion to use epistolary and physiognomic texts too.

Students will be examined in a tri-partite exam, consisting of an essay, translations, and shorter identifications. Answers to the exam may be written in German or in English (or French or Italian).