Ancient Popular Topoi and Motifs in Culture and Literature

Timetable

Module aim (aims)

• to obtain state-of-the-art knowledge of the subject matter of the lecture;
• to deepen one’s knowledge of selected problems of classical culture;
• to obtain knowledge of the coexistence of methodological trends;
• to obtain the knowledge of basic terminology and methods typical of several methodologies;
• to develop the ability to recognize and assess methods used in earlier and recent research;
• to develop skills at applying the tools typical of specific methodological trends.

Pre-requisites in terms of knowledge, skills and social competences (where relevant)

General familiarity with classics; basic familiarity with the terminology of history of arts and theory of literature; having read a number of classical texts, original or translated; attending other lectures on classical culture.

Syllabus

Course learning content:

1. Concepts and ideas: motif, commonplace, theme, symbol, archetype, myth;
2. Classical motifs reworked in modern culture;
3. Homeric epic about war and travelling: short history of the universal metaphors of human life;
4. Ancient bestiary and modern posthuman reflections;
5. Astral imagination, ancient and modern;
6. Ancient poleology in modern guise: motif of the city (and its ruins) in contemporary art and literature;
   Ancient motifs in contemporary cinema.

Reading list

to be announced in class (e.g. E. Curtius, European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages. Oxford 2013 [1953]; M. Beard, J. Henderson, Classics. A Very Short Introduction. Oxford 1997; Classical Myth and Culture in the Cinema. Ed. M.M. Winkler. Oxford 2001; Living Classics: Greece and Rome in Contemporary Poetry in English. Ed. S.J. Harrison. Oxford 2009; Classics for All: Reworking Antiquity in Mass Culture. Ed. D. Lowe, K. Shahabudin. Newcastle 2009).