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Classical Culture I

Code: 100015 ECTS Credits: 6
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
2502758 Humanities OB 2

Contact

Name:
Gerard Gonzalez Germain
Email:
gerard.gonzalez@uab.cat

Teachers

Francisco Carbajo Molina

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

This course has no prerequisites.


Objectives and Contextualisation

At the end of the course the student should be able to:

  • Interpret the classical culture.
  • Apply the historical, institutional, cultural and literary knowledge of the Graeco-Roman civilisation to the analysis of texts.
  • Analyse the process of textual transmission and the formation of the Romance languages.
  • Comment passages of the main genres of classical literature, and explain their main features.
  • Identify the presence of the classical tradition in European culture.

Competences

  • Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  • Identifying the historical processes of contemporary culture.
  • Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Analysing the recycling of classical motifs in new contexts.
  2. Applying the historical, institutional, cultural and literary knowledge to the commentary of texts.
  3. Assessing the reception in the West of the thought and history of the classical world.
  4. Communicating in a properly, organised, and suitable manner in an oral conversation or presentation.
  5. Criticising the film adaptations of the classical mythological legends.
  6. Enumerating concepts of classic culture that have survived to the present society.
  7. Identifying the Greco-Roman sources that have inspired artists and literary people through history.
  8. Identifying the results of the projection of the classical world to the Western culture on various levels and in several eras and territories.
  9. Interpreting the material and cultural context of transmission of ancient texts.
  10. Relating the contemporary myths with the classical antiquity.
  11. Summarising characteristics of a written text according to its communicative purposes.

Content

 

UNIT 1: INTRODUCTION.

1.1. Geography and chronology.

1.2. What are the classics? What is tradition?

1.3. What are the classics whose transmission we are going to study?

· REQUIRED READING: Italo Calvino (2009), Por qué leer a los clásicos, Madrid: Siruela (selection).

 

UNIT 2: BOOKS, EDITORIAL MARKET AND LIBRARIES IN ANTIQUITY.

2.1. Writing materials and systems in Antiquity.

2.2. The book in Greece and Rome.

2.3. Circulation of the book in Antiquity.

2.4. Archives and libraries.

· SUGGESTED READING: Irene Vallejo (2019), El infinito en un junco. Madrid: Ciruela (selection).

 

UNIT 3: THE TRANSMISSION OF CLASSICAL CULTURE FROM THE MIDDLE AGES UNTIL MODERN EDITIONS.

3.1. The process of transmission of texts: where, how and why.

3.2. Medieval monasteries.

3.3. Carolingian Renaissance.

3.4. Humanism.

3.6. The development of the printing press.

 

UNIT 4: ALEXANDER AND THE HELLENISTIC WORLD.

4.1. Alexander's life and campaigns.

4.2. Mythification of Alexander's figure. 

4.3. The Alexander tradition.

4.4. The Hellenistic world.

 

UNIT 5: SPARTACUS AND SLAVERY IN ANCIENT ROME.

5.1. Slavery in ancient Rome.

5.2. Slave rebellions in Rome.

5.3. Spartacus's rebellion.


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Analysis and debate of readings and films 6 0.24 2, 5, 4, 9, 11
Lectures 30 1.2 1, 5, 6, 8, 7, 9, 10, 3
Type: Supervised      
Group work and oral presentation 31.5 1.26 2, 4, 7, 9, 11, 3
Type: Autonomous      
Compulsory readings 25 1 2, 9, 3
Study and personal work 35 1.4 2, 6, 7, 9, 10
Supplementary readings 11 0.44 2, 9, 3
Watching of movies 4 0.16 5, 3

This is an on-site course. Students are expected to work throughout its duration. Attendance to the lectures will allow the students to properly contextualise the course readings. Although there will be no attendance monitoring, attending to the lectures is key to successfully complete this subject.

Students must carry out a course work on some aspect of the subject's program, in group, that is demonstrative of the contents taught and studied. This work will be defended orally.

Please refrain from checking your mobile phone during the class.

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Oral presentation in group on a subject determined by the professor 20% 4.5 0.18 4, 7, 9, 10
Written test consisting of short answer and essay questions 40% 1.5 0.06 1, 2, 6, 8, 7, 9, 10, 11, 3
Written test consisting of short answer and essay questions 40% 1.5 0.06 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 7, 9, 10, 11, 3

CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT 

On carrying out each evaluation activity, lecturers will inform students (on Moodle) of the procedures to be followed for reviewing all grades awarded, and the date on which such a review will take place.

 

Weight of assessable activities:

40%: Written test consisting of short answer and essay questions (UNITS  1, 2 & 3). Week 8. 

40%: Written test consisting of short answer and essay questions (UNITS 4 & 5). Week 16. 

20%: Oral presentation in group on a subject determined by the professor. Weeks 14 & 15.

 

SINGLE ASSESSMENT.

Single assessment will consist of two activities:

75%: Written test consisting of short answer and essay questions (UNITS  1, 2, 34 & 5). Week 16. 

25%:  Oral presentation in group on a subject determined by the professor.

 

IMPORTANT REMARKS

  • Taking part in any assessable activity precludes the possibility of being classified as "not assessable".
  • An average can only be calculated if the overall grade of the tests is equal to or higher than 3.5.
  • In the re-evaluation process, students may retake ONE of the two written tests, but they cannot retake both.
  • Untaken tests (due to medical emergencies justifiable with a doctor's note) willbe taken during the re-evaluation period.
  • In special circumstances, the possibility of improving the final mark during the re-evaluation process may be considered. It will be necessary to talk previously with the professor, since the re-evaluation tests are intended for students who need to retake one of the assessable activities (for a maximum weight of 40%).
  • Recovery of the single assessment: the model of the recovery exam will have the same format as the previous examination with two theoretical tests and one practice.

PLAGIARISME

  • In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.

VIRTUAL OR HYBRID TEACHING

  • In the event that tests or exams cannot be taken onsite, they will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools (original weighting will be maintained). Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these virtual tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives.

Bibliography

INTRODUCTION AND GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

AGHION, Irène et al. (1997). Guía iconográfica de los héroes y dioses de la antigüedad, Madrid: Alianza.

BEARD, Mary (2013). La herencia viva de los clásicos, Barcelona: Crítica. 

BEARD, Mary (2016). SPQR: Una historia de la Antigua Roma, Barcelona: Crítica.

CALVINO, Italo (2016), Per què llegir els clàssics, Barcelona: Edicions 62.

CANCIK, Hubert et al. (2002-2016). Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill. [with specific volumes for Classical tradition. Online access through UAB's catalog].

GRAFTON, Anthony et al. (2010), The Classical Tradition, Cambridge/London: Belknap.

GRIMAL, Pierre (2008).  Diccionari de mitologia grega i romana, Barcelona: Edicions de 1984.

JENKINS, Richard (ed.) (1995). El legado de Roma. Una nueva valoración, Barcelona: Crítica. 

JENKINS, Richard (2015). Un paseo por la literatura de Grecia y Roma, Barcelona: Crítica. 

JERPHAGNON, Lucien (2007). Historia de la Roma antigua, Barcelona: Edhasa. Ensayo histórico.  

JONES, Peter (2013).  Veni, vidi, vici. Hechos, personajes y curiosidades de la antigua Roma, Barcelona: Crítica. 

LANE FOX, Robin (2007). El mundo clásico. La epopeya de Grecia y Roma, Barcelona: Crítica. 

ORDINE, Nuccio (2017). Clàssics per a la vida, Barcelona: Quaderns Crema. 

RUZÉ, Françoise - AMOURETTI, Marie-Claire (2000). El mundo griego antiguo: de los palacios cretenses a la conquista romana, Madrid: Akal. 

 

UNITS 2& 3: BOOKS IN ANTIQUITY. THE TRANSMISSION OF CLASSICAL CULTURE 

REYNOLDS, Leighton D. – WILSON, Nigel G. (20144). Scribes and Scholars. A Guide to the Transmission of Greek and Latin Literature, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

VALLEJO, Irene (2019). El infinito en un junco, Madrid: Ciruela.

 

UNIT 4: ALEXANDER AND THE HELLENISTIC WORLD

CARTLEDGE, Paul (2009). Alejandro Magno. La búsqueda de un pasado desconocido, Crítica/Ariel 2009.

LANE FOX, Robin (2007). Alejandro Magno. Conquistador del mundo (Maite Solana, trad.). Barcelona: El Acantilado.
 
ROMM, James (2011). Ghost on the Throne. The Death of Alexander the Great and the Bloody Fight for his Empire, Vintage Books, Nova York.
 
  

UNIT 5: SPARTACUS AND SLAVERY IN ANCIENT ROME

FAST, Howard (2003) [19511]. Espartaco, Barcelona: Edhasa. 

HOPKINS, Keith & BEARD, Mary (2005). The Colosseum, London: Profile books.
 
JOSHEL, Sandra R. (2010). Slavery in the Roman World, New York: Cambridge University Press.

STRAUSS, Barry (2009). The Spartacus War, London: Phoenix. 

 

WEB RESOURCES

http://www.xtec.cat/~sgiralt/

http://www.culturaclasica.com

 


Software

None.


Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Catalan first semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan first semester morning-mixed