| Unit name | The Senses |
|---|---|
| Unit code | CLAS30015 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Professor. Shane Butler |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
NONE |
| Co-requisites |
NONE |
| School/department | Department of Classics & Ancient History |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit will offer immersion in the rapidly expanding interdisciplinary field of sense studies, with an emphasis on the questions posed thereby to classicists and the humanities generally. It should be useful both to students of antiquity with an interest in the senses and to others who want to explore the role of antiquity in shaping sensory theories. The unit will have a strong focus on literature and art, broadly conceived, but should also appeal to anyone with an interest in the history of media. As a kind of sensory test case, the unit will devote particular attention to the relationship of the voice to literature, exploiting thereby the likewise rich body of recent work in voice studies. Other senses, however, will not be neglected.
• On successful completion of this unit students will have (1) developed a detailed knowledge and in-depth critical understanding of the interdisciplinary field of sense studies (2) had experience in sensing and evaluating extracts from key pieces of literary, cinematic, musical, and historical sources concerning the senses. (3) demonstrated the ability to identify and evaluate pertinent evidence/data in order to illustrate/demonstrate a cogent argument.
10 x 2 hour seminars
One summative coursework essay of 3,000 words, plus a 90 minute exam, both assessing: (1) students’ knowledge and understanding of the interdisciplinary field of sense studies, (2) evaluation of extracts from key pieces of literary, cinematic, musical, and historical sources concerning the senses; (3) the ability to identify and evaluate pertinent evidence/data in order to illustrate/demonstrate a cogent argument.
Selected essays from Shane Butler and Alex Purves, Synaesthesia and the Ancient Senses (forthcoming 2013). Michel Serres, The Five Senses: a Philosophy of Mingled Bodies (London; New York: Continuum, 2008). James I. Porter, The Origins of Aesthetic Thought in Ancient Greece: Matter, Sensation, and Experience (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010), selections. Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 19.9. Two of the following: Euripides, Herakles; Sophocles, Trachinian Women; Seneca, Hercules [Furens]; Ps.-Seneca, Hercules on Oeta.
