Roman Elegy

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2008:

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

This subject examines the genre of elegiac poetry which flourished at Rome in the late first century BCE. Elegy's expressions of devoted yet unrequited love seem to emphasise passionate desire for its own sake. But at the same time, the elegists' apparent rejection of conventional Roman masculinity seems to present a deeper challenge to the social, and even political, status quo. Students will study one of the books of first-person love poetry written by the major elegists: Propertius, Tibullus and Ovid. The subject will address the key elements of elegiac style, the nature of the first person elegiac persona, the characterisation of amor in the elegiac text, and the involvement of the text with contemporary political and social ideology. Students who successfully complete this subject should be able to read Roman elegy, identify its stylistic features, and analyse its central themes and relationship to conventional Roman culture.

This subject potentially can be taken as a breadth subject component for the following courses:

• Bachelor of Biomedicine
• Bachelor of Commerce
• Bachelor of Environments
• Bachelor of Music
• Bachelor of Science
• Bachelor of Engineering

You should visit learn more about breadth subjects and read the breadth requirements for your degree, and should discuss your choice with your student adviser, before deciding on your subjects.

• be skilled in critical thinking and analysis;

• possess effective written communication skills;

• have an understanding of social, ethical and cultural context.

This is an Intermediate Level Latin subject.