Advanced Latin: Didactic Poetry

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2012:

Standard

Total of 10 hours per week; 120 hours across the semester.

One of CLAS10010/ CLAS20027/ CLAS30010/ CLAS40023 Intermediate Latin Language and 50 points of any other Intermediate Level Latin subjects, or an approved equivalent;

or admission to fourth year Honours or Postgraduate Diploma in Classics

None.

None.

Formerly available as 107-456. Students who have completed 107-456 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements of this entry.The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

This is a specialised reading subject, with analysis of Roman didactic poetry, focusing on a specific text such as Lucretius"s De Rerum Natura, Virgil"s Georgics, Horace"s Ars Poetica or Ovid"s Ars Amatoria. Advanced stylistic and thematic analysis of these texts will address issues such as the context of literary production. the range, nature and development of the genre and style of didactic in the Late Republican and Early Imperial periods. the seriousness of the didactic mission in these texts. the representation of the poet as praeceptor. and the possibilities of didactic as a vehicle for commentary on the poets" contemporary worlds. Students who complete the subject should have reached a high standard in reading and interpreting Latin texts, specifically Roman didcatic poetry.

Students who successfully complete this subject should:

• be familiar with a major Latin didactic text.
• be able to analyse the text in its cultural context and understand its place in the development of Latin literature.
• recognise the peculiarities of Latin poetic style.

A 1000-word practical criticism presentation 20% (due during the semester), a 1750-word assessment test 35% (due in the final week of semester), and a 2250-word essay 45% (due in the examination period).

Hurdle requirement: Students must attend 75% of classes in order to pass this subject. Assessment submitted late without an approved extension will be penalised at 2% per day; after 5 working days late assessment will not be marked. In-class tasks missed without approval will not be marked. All pieces of written work must be submitted to pass this subject.

• R.F.Thomas (ed) (Virgil, Georgics, Volume 1: Books I-II) Cambridge University Press 1988

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

• be skilled in research.
• possess advanced skills of critical thinking and analysis.
• possess an ability to communicate knowledge intelligibly, economically and effectively.
• have an understanding of social, ethical and cultural context.