Gender and Sexuality in Ancient Greek Literature

Catalog description

This class will consider representations of gender and sexuality in the literature of Ancient Greece from the Archaic to the Imperial periods, with an eye to comparing and contrasting ancient ideas with more contemporary discourses of gender and sexuality. We will explore how gender and sexuality are constructed in a variety of written genres in antiquity; how and when this literature has impacted modern conceptions of gender and sexuality; and how ancient ideas about gender and sexuality might offer alternative ways of thinking about gender and sexuality today. Broad topics will include (but will not be limited to) marriage, queerness, sex work, childbirth, abortion, and sexual politics, which will be considered in light of intersecting issues of religion, race, class, ethnicity, and ability. Classes will be discussion and group activity based. THERE ARE NO PREREQUISITES FOR THIS COURSE.