CSLC 303 Genres in Classical Literature

This course examines the meanings, effects, social contexts, and historic development of some of the major classical genres: epic, lyric, tragedy, comedy (to name but a few). The course will focus on the explosion of new literary genres (romantic comedy in particular, but also biography, the anecdote, and philosophic dialogue) that followed in the wake of Alexander the Great's conquest of Greece and the subsequent demise of the autonomous Greek city state. Attention will also be given to the long term effects of these new "Hellenistic" genres on subsequent European literary and cultural history as it was primarily the Hellenistic sensibility (not the archaic or classical) that, for the next 2000 years, was understood to be representative of the "ancient Greek" perspective.