Projects for the Latin elegy class

Me, doing my homework

My grade in this class will come from four sources: class participation, including the weekly translations, and three projects.

Course Grading

Class work (translation, participation in discussion) 35%
Class Presentation 15%
Catullan Commentary 15%
Final Paper 35%

Class Presentation

Organize and lead the class in a discussion of an article, book chapter, or book from the bibliography. During the presentation, be sure to do the following:

• Identify the interpretive approach adopted by the study in question
• Summarize the author's major arguments
• Specify the scholarly contribution that the study makes
• Offer a brief critique

In preparation for the discussion, circulate five questions about the article to the class by email for them and have them send their answers to you. Organize their answers.

Catullan Commentary - due October 4

Write a commentary on a Catullan elegy passage, circa 50 lines, that is not included in the textbook. Follow the Prentice Hall textbook format for a commentary and include notes on the following:

• Meter
• Vocabulary (all words not ordinarily included in a first-year Latin textbook)
• Forms
• Grammar and style, including the poetic devices and rhetorical figures of speech
• Four comprehension questions, proceeding in a linear fashion

The comprehension questions should not only make certain that readers understand the literal content of the line or group of lines. They should also draw readers' attention to the following:

• Metrical and sound effects,
• Significant word placement (syntactival enactment),
• Use of figurative language
• Tone
• Thematic development
• Relationship between this line/group of lines and other lines/groups of lines (intertextuality). Provide the passage for comparison from Greek, Latin, or English poetry (including Catullan sources, echoes, and translations). Intertextuality must be the focus of one comprehension question.

Written Sight Translation - November 22

There will be a written sight translation. It will not count towards my grade unless it improves it.

Final Paper - due December 19

I will choose from several essay questions and answer 5 or 6. The paper will run 20-25 pages. Possible topics for the essay questions include the following:

• Linguistic, metrical, and stylistic analysis of Latin elegiac texts, including the composition of "original" Latin elegiac verses and the comparision of two translations of a specific Latin passage with one another and with the Latin. Possible writers include Propertius, Tibullus, Sulpicia, Lygdmaus, Ovid and Latin inscriptions written in elegiac verse
• Staging of Latin elegiac texts (this question will be answered in performance form)
• Comparison of the representation of homoerotic and heteroerotic passion in Roman elegy
• Investigation of the portrayal of Latin love elegy and scholarship on it in Tom Stoppard's play The Invention of Love, a play about the poetry and Latin textual critic (and Latin Dilettante perennial favorite) A. E. Housman
• Comparison of the elegies of Sulpicia with other evidence on and from ancient Greek and Roman woman poets