CL4474 In Search of Greece

Academic year

2025 to 2026 Semester 2

Further information on which modules are specific to your programme.

Key module information

SCOTCAT credits

30

The Scottish Credit Accumulation and Transfer (SCOTCAT) system allows credits gained in Scotland to be transferred between institutions. The number of credits associated with a module gives an indication of the amount of learning effort required by the learner. European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits are half the value of SCOTCAT credits.

SCQF level

SCQF level 10

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) provides an indication of the complexity of award qualifications and associated learning and operates on an ascending numeric scale from Levels 1-12 with SCQF Level 10 equating to a Scottish undergraduate Honours degree.

Availability restrictions

Available to General Degree students with the permission of the Honours Adviser.

Planned timetable

To be arranged.

This information is given as indicative. Timetable may change at short notice depending on room availability.

Module coordinator

Dr S A Marshall

Dr S A Marshall
This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module Staff

Dr Sebastian Marshall

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module description

All countries are burdened by history, but the past weighs particularly heavily on Greece. How many countries need to add the label ‘modern’ to distinguish their culture from that of antiquity? This module explores how outsiders came in search of Greece from the 18th century on as scholars, artists, soldiers, and tourists. In turn, it considers how Greece’s inhabitants have responded to foreigners’ obsession with the classical past. We shall explore how Hellenism has often relied on contrasts between Europe and Asia, antiquity and modernity, or an ideal classicism versus an Orientalist vision of the ‘East’. To move beyond these binaries, seminars will address topics like the contested status of Greece’s material heritage and landscapes, the Greek nation’s development, and the relationship between classical, Byzantine and Ottoman pasts. Looking to the origins of mass tourism that prevails today, the module confronts how we as classicists search for Greece’s past through its present.

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisites

AS STATED IN THE SCHOOL OF CLASSICS UNDERGRADUATE HANDBOOK.

Assessment pattern

Coursework = 50%, Examination = 50%

Re-assessment

Examination = 100%

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact

2-hour seminar (X11 weeks)

Scheduled learning hours

22

The number of compulsory student:staff contact hours over the period of the module.

Guided independent study hours

278

The number of hours that students are expected to invest in independent study over the period of the module.

Intended learning outcomes

  • Identify and describe major ways in which travel to Greece has influenced ideas about classical antiquity between the eighteenth century and the present
  • Discuss the relationship between classical, Byzantine, and Ottoman pasts and constructions of Hellenic, European, local, and supranational identities
  • Analyse and discuss interdisciplinary scholarship which illuminates the relationship between European travellers and the inhabitants of Greece
  • Analyse and critically evaluate textual and visual sources produced by insiders and outsiders to Greece in terms of their social and cultural contexts
  • Devise sophisticated arguments about the history of travel, heritage, and political relations between Greece and western Europe