Course for international guest/part time students
- Faculty
- Faculty of Humanities
- Organization
- BTK Institute of Hungarian Literature and Cultural Studies
- Code
- BBI-MIR-865E
- Title
- The History of Ancient Literatures
- Usual semester
- Spring
- ECTS
- 3
- Language
- en
- Learning outcomes
- Knowledge: - The student is knowledgeable about the periods of the literatures of the ancient world, the most important poetic features of these periods, the characteristic genres, the influential authors and the most important works. Skills: - The student is able to recognize the most important tendencies of the literatures of the ancient world. The student is able to analyse the literary works and to situate them into cultural-historical context. Attitudes: - The student is able to understand the literary traditions of the ancient world (incl. the Greco-Roman literature, the literatures of the Ancient Near East, and the Bible) as fundamental concepts of the European identity. The student is required to develop critical perspectives towards literary approaches and cultural concepts. Autonomy, responsibility: - The student takes (partial) responsibility for her own scholarly development, and sees her (partial) responsibility in helping other students to have access to their scholarly developments. This responsibility is, of course, partial: it is shared by the institution, the teachers, and fellow students as well.
- Course content
- The course introduces the fundamental characteristics and periods of the ancient literatures, with special emphasis on problems and authors considered as exemplary. The course discusses the history of the most important forms and genres of the literatures of the ancient world. Furthermore, the class emphasizes the way how later traditions of the European literature are based on and can be reinterpreted by ancient precedents, revealing that ancient literature is not a closed and authoritative textual canon, but rather a source of permanent innovation.
- Assessment method
- Oral exam.
- Bibliography
- Selected works of Homer, Sophocles, Horace, Vergil, Ovid, and excerpts from the Bible
- Recommended bibliography
- Encyclopedia of the Ancient World, ed. Shona Grimbly, Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, London – Chicago, 2000.