CLAS3571: The World of Catullus

• Prior study of literature at University

• None

• None

• Final year students should: develop a sophisticated understanding of the poetry of Catullus and selected models and contemporaries in its social and literary-historical context.
• In terms of departmental degree programmes, the module will allow students to hone further skills at interpreting literature developed at Levels one and two.

• Students will explore a broad and diverse body of poetry written in genres including lyric, elegiac, iambic, epigram, and the so-called 'epyllion' (or miniature epic) and the way in which it draws upon and develops earlier verse and has had a significant influence upon later poetry.
• Students will consider this poetry in its socio-historical as well as its literary context.
• Students will also explore the transmission and the modern reception of the poetry of Catullus.
• Students will read the poetry of Catullus in translation as well as selected fragments of poems by contemporaries including Calvus, Cinna, Cornificius, and Valerius Cato.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• A detailed knowledge of key genres in the corpus of ancient poetry and their development by Catullus and his contemporaries.
• A detailed knowledge of the main approaches to and interpretations of this poetry.
• A detailed knowledge of how this poetry responds to its socio-historical context.
• A detailed knowledge of the literary, socio-historical, political and methodological issues raised by the set texts.
• A detailed knowledge of the history of the transmission and the reception of the poems of Catullus.

Subject-specific Skills:

• The ability to handle a group of complex and diverse texts in such a way as to reach a coherent picture of the poetic programme of the verse of Catullus and his contemporaries.
• The ability to gain a sophisticated understanding of the literary-historical and socio-historical contexts of late Republican poetry.
• The ability to combine literary and cultural analysis of the texts in question.
• The ability to appreciate how the transmission of Catullus' poetry affects our interpretations of the poetry
• The ability to appreciate how the poetry of Catullus has had an enduring influence.

Key Skills:

• The ability to comprehend and evaluate alien cultural starting-points.
• The ability to handle a wide range of written materials at a sophisticated level.
• The capacity to construct a clear and well-structured argument in written form, displaying an awareness of different scholarly approaches.
• The skills to analyse, evaluate and synthesise a wide range of evidence and to select and apply the appropriate methodologies.
• Close reading of the set texts.
• Oral presentation skills.
• The ability to articulate nuanced and independent interpretations of the texts studied.

• Lectures will provide content and a theoretical framework for the primary works studied, and demonstrate techniques of close reading
• This provision will be enhanced by required readings in secondary literature keyed to each lecture.
• Students will gain practice in close reading in seminars.
• Formative and summative commentaries and essays will give students the opportunity to put their knowledge into a broader context and to synthesise the knowledge gained from different parts of the module
• The summative commentary will assess students' ability to analyse texts in detail, practising the techniques of close reading refined in seminars.
• The summative essay will assess students' familiarity with the texts and period studied, the broader literary-social context, and the transmission and reception of Catullus' poetry, their ability to draw material together and make connections between it, and the sophistication of their analyses.

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