CE5132: Voices of the Past: the Hidden History of the Ancient World

School Continuing and Professional Education
Department Code LEARN
Module Code CE5132
External Subject Code 100302
Number of Credits 10
Level L4
Language of Delivery English
Module Leader Dr Nicholas Jones
Semester Autumn Semester
Academic Year 2019/0

Outline Description of Module

The traditional story of ancient history focuses on the rise and fall of the empires of Greece and Rome, and the successes of extraordinary male rulers, who were ideally military leaders with a catalogue of victories in battle. The achievements of empire are often seen positively, but we do not see their impact in terms of expansion, conquest and the military subjugation of foreign people. This module explores an alternative history of the ancient world, considering the experience of marginalised people, particularly in Greece and Rome. We will look for the other side of empire: the victims of expansion whose lives were dominated, threatened or ended by the reach of imperial power. In what ways is it possible to hear the voices of the oppressed – women, slaves, disabled people, children, criminals, and the poor – in a history written almost exclusively by elite male victors? Participants will be introduced to modern ideas about empire and its aftermath, and learn how surviving written sources can be supplemented through analysis of material evidence, enabling us to explore not only the experience but also the representation of marginalised people in the ancient world.

On completion of the module a student should be able to

  • Demonstrate knowledge of an alternative history of the ancient world, focused geographically on Greece and Rome.
  • Identify the appropriate textual and material evidence for marginalised people.
  • Understand how to approach critically and interpret different evidence types, and recognise the difficulties of interpretation, particularly the limitations of the evidence.
  • Recognise and analyse the major scholarly debates and trends concerning the history of marginalised people in the ancient world.

Demonstrate a basic comprehension of postcolonial and feminist theory as applied to the study of the ancient world

How the module will be delivered

The module will be delivered through nine two-hour evening sessions. These sessions will consist of a fifty-minute lecture followed by group discussion and activities. Students will be expected to have read the relevant material provided and use that as the basis for contributions in class.

Skills that will be practised and developed

  • The ability to communicate ideas and arguments effectively, whether in class discussion or in written form
  • The ability to work effectively with others and to learn collaboratively through discussion and interaction
  • The ability to think critically, analyse sources, evaluate arguments, and challenge assumptions
  • The ability to formulate logical written and spoken arguments supported by appropriate evidence
  • The ability to research independently, in the library and online
  • The ability to engage meaningfully with modern critical theory
  • The ability to reason and conjecture theoretically
  • The ability to approach, comprehend and summarise complex material
  • The ability to independently organise study methods, manage time effectively, and prioritise workload to meet deadlines

 

How the module will be assessed

Assignment 1 (Source criticism)   30%    Exact nature of task will vary from year to year   700 words  Week 4

Assignment 2  (Essay)                 70%      Exact nature of task will vary from year to year  1000 words  Week 8

 

Students who fail one or both assessment elements will be given the opportunity to re-submit coursework in response to different titles over the summer once the Exploring the Past exam board has met.

Assessment Breakdown

Type % Title Duration(hrs)
Written Assessment 100 Coursework N/A

Syllabus content

Understanding of empire in antiquity and beyond

2. The evidence: what can we know about marginalised people? What can we guess? What language should we use? 

3. Resisting empire: conquered people, captives and aggressive territorial expansion

4. The oppressed within empire: soldiers and battlefield experience

5. Women and the classical legacy: domestic confinement and anti-female thought

6. Slavery, society, and owning a human

7. Disability in antiquity: responses and representations

8. The subjection and function of criminals

9. The forgotten majority? The poor in antiquity

Essential Reading and Resource List

Indicative Reading and Resource List:

 

Introductory Works

E. D’Ambra, Roman Women (Cambridge, 2006)

R.C. Knapp, Invisible Romans: Prostitutes, Outlaws, Slaves, Gladiators, Ordinary Men and Women. The Romans that history forgot

      (London, 2013).

D. J. Mattingly, Imperialism, Power, and Identity: Experiencing the Roman           Empire (Princeton, 2011)

M. Wyke, Gender and the Body in the Ancient Mediterranean (Oxford, 1998)

K. Bradley, Slavery and Society at Rome (Cambridge, 1994)

E. Bredberg, ‘Writing Disability History: Problems, Perspectives and Sources’, Disability & Society, vol. 14, 1999, 189-201

 

Background Reading and Resource List

Indicative Reading and Resource List:

 

Introductory Works

E. D’Ambra, Roman Women (Cambridge, 2006)

R.C. Knapp, Invisible Romans: Prostitutes, Outlaws, Slaves, Gladiators, Ordinary Men and Women. The Romans that history forgot

      (London, 2013).

D. J. Mattingly, Imperialism, Power, and Identity: Experiencing the Roman           Empire (Princeton, 2011)

M. Wyke, Gender and the Body in the Ancient Mediterranean (Oxford, 1998)

K. Bradley, Slavery and Society at Rome (Cambridge, 1994)

E. Bredberg, ‘Writing Disability History: Problems, Perspectives and Sources’, Disability & Society, vol. 14, 1999, 189-201

 

Further Reading:

S. P. Ahearne-Kroll, P. A. Holloway, J. A. Kelhoffer (eds.), Women and Gender in Ancient Religions: Interdisciplinary Approaches    

      (Tübingen, 2010)

M. Atkins, R. Osbourne, Poverty in the Roman World (Cambridge, 2006)

R. S. Bagnall, R. Cribiore, Women’s Letters from Ancient Egypt, 300 BC-AD 800 (Ann Arbor, 2006)

R. A. Bauman, Crime and Punishment in Ancient Rome (London, 1996)

S. Blundell, M. Williamson, The Sacred and the Feminine in Ancient Greece (London, 1998)

E. Boehmer, Colonial and Postcolonial Literature (Oxford, 1995)

K. Bradley, P. Cartledge, The Cambridge World History of Slavery, vol. 1 (Cambridge, 2011)

V. Dasen, Dwarfs in Ancient Egypt and Greece (Oxford, 1993)

L. D. Davis, The Disability Studies Reader (New York, 2013)

J. D. Edwards, Postcolonial Literature. A Reader’s Guide to Essential Criticism (New York, 2008)

M. L. Edwards, ‘Constructions of physical disability in the ancient Greek world: the community concept’, The Body and Physical

      Difference Discourse of Disability, D.T. Mitchell, S.L. Snyder (eds.), (2000, Ann Arbor) 35-50

J. Evans Grubbs, T. Parkin, The Oxford Handbook of Childhood and Education in the Classical World (Oxford, 2013)

P. S. Fass (ed.) The Routledge History of Childhood in the Western World (London, 2013)

P. Funari, R. Garraffoni, B. Letalien (eds.) New Perspectives on the Ancient World: Modern Perceptions, Ancient Representations    

      (Oxford, 2008)

R. Garland, The Eye of the Beholder: Deformity and Disability in the Greco-Roman World (London, 1995)

B. Goff (ed.), Classics and Colonialism (London, 2005)

A. Hiatt, ‘Mapping the ends of empire’, in Postcolonial Approaches to the European Middle Ages. Translating Cultures, A. J. Kabir, D.

      Williams (eds.) (Cambridge, 2005) 48-77

S. L. James, S. Dillon, A Companion to Women in the Ancient World (Chichester, 2012)

C. Laes, Children in the Roman Empire (Cambridge, 2011)

A. Loomba, Colonial/Postcolonialism (London, 1998)

J. McLeod (ed.), The Routledge Companion to Postcolonial Studies (London, 2007)

S. B. Pomeroy, Women’s History and Ancient History (Chapel Hill, 1991)

D. Punter, Postcolonial Imaginings: Fictions of a New World Order (Edinburgh, 2000)

A. Richlin, ‘Making Up a Woman: The Face of Roman Gender’, in Off With Her Head! The Denial of Women’s Identity in Myth, Religion,  

      and Culture, H. Eilberg-Schwartz, W. Doniger (eds.) (Berkeley, 1995)

——Arguments with Silence: Writing the History of Roman Women (Ann Arbor, 2014)

M. L. Rose, The Staff of Oedipus: Transforming Disability in Ancient Greece (Ann Arbor, 2003)

W. Scheidel, ‘Slavery’, in The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Economy, W. Scheidel (ed.) (Cambridge, 2012) 89-113

P. Schmitt Pantal, A History of Women in the West. From Ancient Goddesses to Christian Saints (Cambridge, 1992)

 


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