GK4109 Greek Literature in the Roman Empire

Further information on which modules are specific to your programme.

Module description

The first to third centuries CE was one of the most prolific periods of Greek literary production: we have more Greek literature surviving from that period than from all the previous centuries put together. The Roman empire saw the development of a breathtaking range of new genres and literary forms, side by side with new ways of imagining and narrating individual experience and cross-cultural interaction. This module samples a range of prose authors, with a particular focus on novelistic, (auto-)biographical and satirical texts and their playful manipulation of the Greek literary tradition. Highlights include Dio Chrysostom’s novelistic account of being shipwrecked on the island of Euboia in his Euboicus; the writing of Lucian, especially his satire of Roman elite culture in the Nigrinus, and his brilliantly denigratory biography of the religious fraudster Alexander of Abonuteichos, in the Alexander; and Philostratus’ reimagining of Homeric epic in his Heroicus.

Intended learning outcomes

• Develop Greek language skills by reading a large volume of text both from the set text prescriptions and from other authors in practice unseens classes.
• Develop a sophisticated understanding of Greek imperial prose writing within its wider literary and cultural context.
• Develop skills of analysing specific passages from the set text prescription in their wider context.
• Develop skills of reading, processing and analysing large volumes of primary and secondary material.
• Describe and evaluate a range of scholarly approaches to the topic.
• Formulate sophisticated arguments about the Greek literature of the Roman Empire using appropriate evidence and demonstrating awareness of the broader debates in the scholarship on the topic.