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Content: The module is structured in 2 parts.Ìý The first half of this module will address the intersection of bodies and texts in Greek and Roman literature and thought in key categories: birth and death, illness and health, gender and sexuality, politics and abused or enslaved bodies, monstrosity and beauty. Some of the questions we will consider are: how did writing about the body help to define the body’s boundaries in antiquity and its relation to the soul? How were bodies were written in different textual/cultural contexts and periods? How does literary genre impact on the body in literary texts? The second half will focus on how embodiment is depicted in ancient poetry and drama, focusing on its sensory, affective, metaphorical, and material aspects through the five senses: vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell.

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Set primary texts will include sections (in translation) from Homer’s Iliad, Plato’s Phaedrus, ancient medical texts, Sappho, Sophocles’ Philoctetes, Ajax and Oedipus, Euripides’ Hecuba, Virgil’s Aeneid, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Seneca’s Thyestes and Statius’ Achilleid.

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Skills:ÌýBy the end of this module students should be able to:

1. have a good understanding of how the human body has been represented in both Greek and Roman texts and how that relates to their literary and historical contexts

2. have engaged with a wide range of texts, genres, and theories with which they can reflect on the politics of bodies in both classical and modern representations, in terms of both how the body has been depicted and how it has become a trope employed to figure wider social and philosophical ideas.

3. have a sound knowledge of the relevant primary and secondary bibliography;

4. have developed their understanding of the methodological approaches and problem relevant to the field;

5. evaluate the relevance of existing research literature to the research question they are attempting to answer.

6. be able to deploy appropriate evidence and test arguments in oral discussion and written analysis.