NOTE : Readings not available in our textbooks can be found in Scribner Library’s Online Course Reserves.
INTRODUCTIONS : January 21 – 30
Tuesday, January 21 — Welcome
TOPICS
- Introducing Ovid & the English Renaissance
- Course materials & modes
Thursday, January 23 — Introducing Ovid
TOPICS
- Ovid : Life & works
- Imperial Rome : Urban / urbane space
DUE
- Ovid, Tristia 4.10 : The poet’s autobiography
Tuesday, January 28 — Introducing Early Modern England
TOPICS
- Re-inventing the Classics
- How Shakespeare read his Ovid
DUE
- Sarah Hutton, “Platonism, Stoicism, Scepticism, and Classical Imitation”
- Jonathan Bate, Shakespeare and Ovid, 19–32
Thursday, January 30 — Poetics: Ancient & (Early) Modern
TOPICS
- Latin & English verse
- Genres : Elegy, epic & tragedy
- Publication : What are we talking about?
- The art of reference
DUE
- Amores Epigram : The poet as editor
- Am. 1.1 : Ovid’s investiture
- Colleen Rosenfeld, Indecorous Thinking: Figures of Speech in Early Modern Poetics, 1–13
ELEGY & WRITING EROS : February 4 – 22
Tuesday, February 4 — Introducing Elegy
TOPICS
- Elegy for beginners
- Poet vs. mistress, subject vs. object
- Metaphors of desire
DUE
- Am. 1.3 : In praise of Corinna
- Am. 1.5 : Afternoon delight
- Am. 1.9 : Every lover is a soldier
- Am. 1.6 : The locked-out lover (paraclausithyron)
Thursday, February 6 — Elegiac Inventions & Inflections
TOPICS
- Advanced elegy
- The violence of desire
DUE
(Content warning : ribald sexuality, assault, reproductive rights)
- Am. 2.15 : Corinna’s signet ring
- Am. 3.7 : The impotence of being earnest
- Am. 3.14 : Corinna unfaithful
- Am. 1.7 : Corinna assaulted
- Am. 2.13 : Corinna’s abortion
Thursday, February 11 — Marlowe’s Amores:
TOPICS
- What’s lost & gained in translation
- Latin vs. the vernacular
- The erotics of impotence
DUE
- Ovid’s Elegies 1.1
- Ovid’s Elegies 2.15
- Ovid’s Elegies 3.6
- Jenny C. Mann, “Marlowe’s Translations”
Thursday, February 13 — English Renaissance Elegy
TOPICS
- Echoes of Ovid
- Elegy : ancient vs. early modern
DUE
- Marlowe, “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”
- Raleigh, “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd”
- Donne, “The Bait”
- Donne, “The Flea”
- Donne, “Elegy 16. On His Mistress”
- Donne, “Elegy 19. To His Mistress Going to Bed”
Tuesday, February 18 — Sex & the Cities, pt. I
TOPICS
- Topographies of power & desire
- The poet as teacher
DUE
(Content warning : patriarchy, rape, sexual objectification)
Selections from the Ars amatoria (The Art of Love) :
- Men seeking women : 1.1–176, 263–321
- Men seeking women, redux : 2.1–20, 145–254, 493–534, 733–end
- Women seeking men : 3.1–32, 251–348, 577–610, 719–end
Thursday, February 20 — Sex & the Cities, pt. II
TOPICS
- Echoes of Ovid
- Hero’s subjectivity
- Queer eroticism
DUE
- Marlowe, Hero and Leander
Saturday, February 22
DUE
- Essay I (email by 11:59 PM)
EPIC & NARRATING SPECTACLE : February 25 — April 9
Tuesday, February 25 — Introducing Epic & the Metamorphoses
TOPICS
- Epic for beginners
- Metamorphosis : What are we talking about?
- Spectacularity
DUE
(Content warning : attempted rape)
- Met. 1.1–5 : Proem
- Met. 1.6–125 : Creation
- Met. 1.126–204 : The Four Ages
- Met. 1.222–335 : Lycaon
- Met. 1.336–431 : The Great Flood
- Met. 1.607–627 : Apollo & the Python
- Met. 1.628–783 : Apollo & Daphne
Thursday, February 27 — Gender & Genre Fluidity
TOPICS
- Theorizing ancient gender
- So you call this an epic?
DUE
(Content warning : attempted rape)
- Met. 3.318–408 : Juno, Jove & Semele
- Met 3.408–440 : The Judgment of Tiresias
- Met. 4.373–533 : The Fountain of Salmacis
- Met. 9.960–1147 : Iphis & Isis
Tuesday, March 3 — Staging Gender Fluidity, pt. I
TOPICS
- Lyly’s rewriting of Ovid
- Trans* identity on the early modern stage
DUE
- Lyly, Galatea
Thursday, March 5 — Staging Gender Fluidity, pt. II
TOPICS
- Lyly’s rewriting of Ovid
- Trans* identity on the early modern stage
DUE
- Lyly, Galatea
Tuesday, March 10 & Thursday, March 12 — Spring Break
- No classes held
Tuesday, March 17 & Thursday, March 19 — Extended Spring Break
- No classes held
- Gearing up for online instruction
- Skidmore student FAQ page
Tuesday, March 24 — Sexualities / Textualities
TOPICS
- Erotic artistry
- Crossing boundaries, joining narratives
- Visualizing revenge
DUE
(Content warning : incest, rape, mutilation, child murder, cannibalism)
- Met. 10.1–122 : Orpheus & Eurydice
- Met. 10.123–617 : Song of Orpheus (Ganymede, Hyacinthus, Pygmalion & Myrrha)
- Met. 6.590–977 : Tereus, Procne & Philomela
Thursday, March 26 — Shakespeare and the Spectacle of Revenge
TOPICS
- Shakespeare’s rewriting of Ovid
- Staging the consequences of sexual assault
DUE
(Content warning : sexual assault, mutilation, cannibalism)
- Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus
Tuesday, March 31 — “White-limed Walls”
TOPICS
- Shakespeare’s rewriting of Ovid
- Race & racism on the early modern stage
DUE
(Content warning : sexual assault, mutilation, cannibalism)
- Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus
Thursday, April 2 — Spectacle as Narrative
TOPICS
- Epic range & scale
- Landscapes with figures
DUE
- Met. 1.1038–2.495 : Phaëthon (& the Heliades)
- Met. 3.341–658 : Narcissus & Echo
- Met. 4.1–227 : Pyramus & Thisbe (& the Minyades)
- Met. 10.618–858 : Song of Orpheus (Venus & Adonis, Atalanta & Hippomenes)
Sunday, April 5
DUE
- Essay II (email by 11:59 PM)
Tuesday, April 7 — Spectacle & Desire at Court
TOPICS
- Shakespeare’s rewriting of Ovid (& himself)
- The politics of performance
- The erotics of looking
- Human-animal hybridity
DUE
- VIDEO: Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
- Watch via Scribner Library / Alexander Street
Thursday, April 9 — Narrative as Spectacle
TOPICS
- Seeing & being seen
- Being mortal, becoming a god
DUE
- Met. 3.163–317 : Actaeon & Diana
- Met. 6.1–208 : Arachne & Minerva
- Met. 15.920–1098 : The Apotheosis of Julius Caesar
POETIC CAREERS : April 14 – 26
Tuesday, April 14 — Introducing Poetic Careers
TOPICS
- Careers : What are we talking about?
- Vergil: A tough act to follow
- Recusing oneself from poetry
DUE
- Suetonius, Life of Vergil
- Am. 1.1 : Ovid’s investiture
- Am. 2.1 : Ovid’s Gigantomachy
- Am. 3.1 : The contest of Tragedy & Elegy
- Am. 3.30 : Goodbye Elegy, Hello Tragedy!
- Maggie Kilgour, “New Spins on Old Rotas,” 179–83
Thursday, April 16 — Caught in Mid-Career
TOPICS
- Upward poetic mobility
- Gendered & genred texts
- Self-transformation
DUE
- Am. 2.18 : I tried tragedy, but…
- Her. 18 : Leander to Hero
- Her. 19 : Hero to Leander
- Met. 9.662–959 : Byblis & Caunus
- Met. 1.1–5 : Proem
Tuesday, April 21 — Ovid in Early Modern England
TOPICS
- The role of the poet in early modern England
- Ovid as Jonsonian exemplar
DUE
- Jonson, Poetaster
Thursday, April 23 — Ovid in Exile
TOPICS
- Poetry & civic duty
- Jonson’s explanation for Ovid’s banishment
DUE
- Jonson, Poetaster
- Additional reading TBA
CONCLUSIONS : April 28 – May 5
Tuesday, April 28 — “My Work Is Finished Now…”
TOPICS
- Ovid, the poet of exile
- “Booking” the return to Rome
- Why Ovid matters
DUE
- Tristia, book 2 : Ovid to Augustus
- Met. 15.1099–1112 : The Poet of the Future
Sunday, May 3
- Essay III (email by 11:59 PM)
