Unit information: Time, Temporality and Texts in 2015/16

Unit name	Time, Temporality and Texts
Unit code	CLAS37019
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Professor. Liveley
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

Time is one of the basic categories of human experience, but is peculiarly subject to cultural construction. In particular, our differing senses of time are encapsulated in the stories we tell. In this unit, as well as looking at the ways in which time has been conceptualized, past and present, we shall be examining a variety of texts, visual as well as written, ‘modern’ as well as ‘ancient’, to see how different types of writing and representation at different periods play with notions of time (speeding it up, slowing it down, even reversing it) and with the human experience of time to create different effects (e.g. inevitability, irony, suspense, pathos). Therefore we shall be looking at ancient epic, tragedy, historiography and philosophy and in more recent treatments of time in the novel, film and in ‘counterfactual’ history.

The aims of this unit are:

• to familiarise students with the differing ways in which time has been configured in various ancient and modern texts, and the uses to which these have been put by different authors and in different genres.

• to develop skills in reading and interpreting different kinds of texts in relation to issues of time and temporality.

• to enable students to use the knowledge acquired in seminars and through independent research to construct coherent, relevant and critical arguments concerning the interpretative issues raised by the representation of time in the texts studied.

• to develop student skills in oral and written communication.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students should:

• be familiar with the differing ways in which time has been configured in the texts studied, and the uses to which these have been put.

• have developed their skills in reading and interpreting different kinds of texts in relation to issues of time and temporality.

• be able to use the knowledge acquired in seminars and through independent research to construct coherent, relevant and critical arguments concerning the interpretative issues raised by the representation of time in the texts studied.

• have had the opportunity to develop their skills in oral and written communication, by making seminar presentations, taking part in seminar discussions, and producing an essay and a written examination.

Teaching Information

Seminars

Assessment Information

One essay of 3,000 words (50%) and one examination of 2 hours (50%).

Reading and References

Homer, Odyssey (Lattimore tr.)

Sophocles, Oedipus the King (Fagles tr.)

Virgil, Aeneid (Penguin, West tr.)

Augustine, Confessions 8 and 11 (Chadwick, tr.)

Selections from Aristotle, Livy, Hesiod

Saul Morson, G. Narrative and Freedom: The Shadows of Time (New Haven and London, 1994)