Classics MA

What was the role of religion in ancient Greece and Rome? What do we know about their gods and myths? Are myths simply entertaining stories, or do they serve other purposes? What could these be?

We explore a range of primary sources for studying myth and religion in ancient Greek and Roman societies, with particular emphases on their religious and social significance.

As well as investigating sources in detail, you will explore the following:

• different approaches to analysing myth and religion
• how the Greeks and Romans understood their myths and religion
• the role of religion and the gods in ancient societies
• a range of modern theories and scholarship on ancient religion

You will focus on literary, visual or historical aspects of myth (according to your own interests), while examining how these different narrative forms may overlap and interact. By the end of the module, you will have gained valuable interdisciplinary research skills.

This module is worth 20 credits.

Discover how the stories we tell shape the things that we think.

On this module we’ll explore literary, historical and visual narratives and their workings. We will also look at constructions of history, society and culture - both Greek and Roman, ancient and modern.

Topics that might be covered, include:

• plot in ancient novels
• narratology
• rhetoric
• historiography
• narrative art
• ekphrasis
• silence
• literary self-positioning
• dealing with fragmentary sources

This module is worth 20 credits.

You will select, research and write a 12,000-15,000-word dissertation on a topic of your choice. This must be in the field of Classics and Ancient History.

The Course Director and module convenor can offer support and guidance when choosing your research topic.

Recent dissertation titles include:

• Narratives of Fear in the Early Roman Republic
• Arsinoe II and the Hellenistic Ruler Cult in Ptolemaic Egypt
• A Study on the Theme of Revenge in Ovid's Metamorphoses
• The Representation of Sparta in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey
• Crossing the Boundaries: Reflections of Gender Anxieties in Roman Domestic Art
• Horns and Hunting: An Analysis of Iconographic Motifs from the Bronze Age Aegean

This module is worth 60 credits.

We will help you to apply your arts MA across society to enhance your career and contribute to wider society.

We'll demonstrate how the arts can be used to:

• transform society, politics and culture
• enhance the careers of arts and humanities MA students.

You'll be able to explore, explain and then detail how your disciplinary skills can impact upon wider issues to emphasise the applicability of the arts and humanities. From the role of the scholar activist to understanding ‘knowledge transfer’ and ‘public engagement’, you'll develop professional skills in preparation for a career within academia or across a range of sectors.

You will:

• harness the ways in which the arts and humanities enable us to think differently and to innovate
• work on issues of research, networking, grant-writing and cultural exchange
• learn how to engage, communicate and create.

This module is worth 20 credits.

This module has been developed to introduce you to a range of research techniques and methodologies. It will also help you develop a variety of valuable transferable skills for your future career.

You will achieve:

• greater confidence in dealing with original research
• a recognition of the huge range of approaches that can be used to address research questions.

We build on the research skills you have already developed during both your undergraduate degree and discipline-specific MA modules. The emphasis is on:

• ensuring you are possessed of a range of practical ways to approach research
• making you think about the nature of your discipline-specific approaches within a context of growing interdisciplinarity.

You will have the chance to consider topics as varied as:

• academic publishing
• digital transformations
• use of illustrations in dissertations.

You will also have the opportunity to hear academics from across the Faculty talk about the problems they have confronted and how they overcame them.

This module is worth 20 credits.

Mastering the Arts introductory video 

This is an advanced module where you will:

• acquire detailed knowledge and understanding of the subject
• gain close familiarity with relevant ancient sources and material evidence, and engage critically with them
• gain close familiarity with modern scholarship and approaches to the subject, and engage critically with them

The topic will be based on a module from our undergraduate third year programme. You will attend the same lectures as an introduction to the subject but will have an MA specific seminar group. The focus and assessment will be at an appropriately advanced MA level.

This is an advanced module where you will:

• acquire detailed knowledge and understanding of the subject
• gain close familiarity with relevant ancient sources and material evidence, and engage critically with them
• gain close familiarity with modern scholarship and approaches to the subject, and engage critically with them

The topic will be based on a module from our undergraduate third year programme. You will attend the same lectures as an introduction to the subject but will have an MA specific seminar group. The focus and assessment will be at an appropriately advanced MA level.

This module provides an introduction to the grammar and vocabulary of Latin; no previous knowledge is assumed. Emphasis is placed on acquiring the ability to analyse and understand basic Latin sentences and short passages.

This module continues the introduction to Latin begun in Beginners' Latin: 1. Study of the structure of the language continues, and reading skills are further developed until almost unadapted passages from Latin texts are read.

This module continues the study of Latin from the level reached in Beginners' Latin 2. You will have the opportunity to revise basic aspects of the Latin language and proceed to the reading of Latin texts.

This module continues the study of Latin from the level reached in Intermediate Latin 1, consolidating your ability to read Latin texts.

Detailed guided study in Latin of a prose or verse text designed for those who have begun the study of Latin as part of their University course. Careful attention will be paid to the development of translation skills, but the focus of the module will not be merely linguistic. Students will also be encouraged to explore the set text's interrelation with its literary tradition and its background as well as to appreciate style and imagery through their access to the text in the original language.

Detailed guided study in Latin of a prose or verse text designed for those who have begun the study of Latin as part of their University course. Careful attention will be paid to the development of translation skills, but the focus of the module will not be merely linguistic. Students will also be encouraged to explore the set text's interrelation with its literary tradition and its socio-political background as well as to appreciate style and imagery through their access to the text in the original language.

This module provides an introduction to the grammar and vocabulary of classical Greek; no previous knowledge is assumed. Emphasis is placed on acquiring the ability to read Greek; the basis of the course is the study and translation of passages adapted from classical Greek texts.

This module continues the introduction to classical Greek begun in Beginners’ Greek: 1. Study of the structure of the language continues, and reading skills are further developed until almost completely unadapted passages from classical Greek texts are read.

This module continues the study of classical Greek from the level reached in Beginners' Greek: 2. It completes instruction in the basic aspects of the Greek language. You will undertake the detailed linguistic and literary study of a simple Greek text.

You will continue the study of classical Greek from the level reached in Intermediate Greek 1, studying Greek grammar and focusing on the reading of one or more classical Greek texts.

This module examines, in the original Greek, a range of texts representative of an author, genre, period or style of Greek literature, paying special attention to matters of language and style. Literary appreciation and linguistic skills are developed through detailed analysis of the original Greek. The position of the texts in the development of the genre will be explored, as well as their relationship with their social context.

This module examines, in the original Greek, a significant literary text, paying special attention to matters of language and style. It completes the systematic revision of Greek grammar begun in Greek Texts: 1, but also devotes attention to the text's literary and broader contexts. The module reinforces students' knowledge of the Greek language and develops students' ability to read Greek with fluency and understanding.In Spring 2020 we will study Iliad 11 and Odyssey 3, including the relationship of Homeric and Mycenaean Pylos and of Homeric and Mycenaean Greek.