Unit information: Citizenship and The Greek Polis in 2012/13

Unit name	Citizenship and The Greek Polis
Unit code	CLAS32333
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Professor. Fowler
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of Classics & Ancient History
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit, which is designed for students of both historical and literary interests, explores the nature of citizenship in 5th and 4th century Athens and relates it to the ongoing debate about citizenship in modern Western societies. Reading a range of texts in translation, we will discuss issues such as the concept of responsible citizenship in ancient and modern society, the connection between citizenship and identity, the function of reputation and appearances in determining citizenship status, and the role played by women in the construction of the male citizen ideal. We will consider how these issues inform and affect great works of ancient literature, and how these works in turn comment on and challenge the ideologies of their contemporary society.

Assessment Information

One essay of 3,000 words (50%) and one examination of 90 minutes (50%).

Reading and References

• Aristotle Politics, trans. T.A. Sinclair, revised and re-presented by T.J. Saunders (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981)

• Aeschylus Oresteia, trans. C. Collard (Oxford: Oxford World's Classics, 2003)

• Sophocles Theban Plays, trans. P. Meineck and P. Woodruff (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2003)

• Plato The Defence of Socrates, Euthyphro, Crito, trans. D. Gallop (Oxford: Oxford World's Classics 1999)

• Aristophanes Lysistrata and Other Plays, trans. A. Sommerstein (Harmondsworth: Penguin 1973)

• Kymlicka, W. Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Introduction, 2nd edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002)

• Boegehold, A.L. and Scafuro, A.C. Athenian Identity and Civic Ideology (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994)

• Joint Association of Classical Teachers, The World of Athens, 2nd edn (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2008)

• Loraux, N., The Children of Athena: Athenian ideas about citizenship and the division between the sexes (Princeton: Princeton University Press 1993)

• Ober, J., Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens (Princeton: Princeton

University Press 1989)