Fall 2008
Course Website: http://w3.coh.arizona.edu/classes/mskinner/clas362/home.html
Marble image of married couple from Via Statilia. Second quarter of first century
Instructor:
Marilyn B.
Skinner (mskinner@u.arizona.edu)
Office: LSB 214
Messages: 621-7418 or
621-1689
Office
Hours: MWF
Other times by appointment, or e-mail me at any time
Graduate Assistant: Leigh
Perry (
Office: LSB 209
Messages: 621-1689 or
621-3025
Office Hours: TH
Assigned
1. Robins, Gay. Women in Ancient
2.
Pomeroy, Sarah B. Goddesses, Whores,
Wives and Slaves: Women in Classical
Antiquity.
2nd ed.
3. Euripides,
Four Tragedies I, ed. David Grene and
4.
A Course Packet of additional required readings and writing assignment
directions may be purchased from Fast Copy. Materials are also available
on-line through the course website.
Requirements
Met by This Course
This course presupposes
that you are able to write at a level appropriate for a student with junior
or senior class standing. All students taking the course for credit will be
expected to meet an upper-division
level of writing proficiency. However, you will be given ample opportunity to
improve your writing skills through personalized assistance from the instructor
or the GAT followed by an opportunity to rewrite for a higher grade.
Objectives
and Scope of the Course
Ancient Mediterranean gender systems provide a
historically distanced model for understanding how social constructions of
masculinity and femininity necessarily reflect a wide array of other cultural
assumptions and how gender roles affect the lives and behaviors of individuals.
This course is aimed at introducing you to classical Egyptian, Greek and Roman
views of gender and sexuality and demonstrating their function in shaping the
historical circumstances of women’s existence, in the hope that you will gain
new insights into sexual difference as it operates within our own culture. A
secondary objective is to provide practice in critical thinking through class
discussion and writing reports and essays.
You will be asked to apply a spectrum of
archaeological, historical, and literary approaches to Egyptian, Greek, and
Roman materials. At the same time, you will practice critical thinking skills
by analyzing both the content of gendered representations in public discourse
and the questions normally asked of ancient evidence dealing with sex and
gender issues.
Course
Requirements
ATTENDANCE
WRITING ASSIGNMENTS. All written assignments
must be typed or word processed.
Handwritten submissions will not be accepted. Papers that do not meet minimum
length requirements or do not otherwise conform to guidelines for reports and
essays contained in the Fast Copy packet and posted on the website will be
returned ungraded. Provisions for rewriting graded assignments in order to
receive a higher grade are also contained in the Fast Copy packet. At the
instructor’s discretion, unexcused late assignments may be penalized by
lowering the grade. Late grades cannot be subsequently adjusted.
1. Short Papers. Four short papers
will be assigned during the semester. Each paper must be at least 750 words long. You will be asked to view an ancient work
of art or to read original Egyptian, Greek and Latin texts in translation. To
assist you in interpreting these materials, you will also be expected to read
one scholarly essay and then participate in a group discussion of the text or
art work and the related article. During the following week, you will hand in
an essay responding to a question set by the instructor.
2. Group Work. At the beginning of
the semester, the class will be divided into two discussion groups, one led by
the instructor and one by the GAT. You will continue to work with the same group
throughout the semester. On designated discussion days, groups will meet to
exchange insights about assigned materials and work out strategies for
responding to the essay question. Attendance at discussion sessions is
mandatory. An unexcused absence will lower your paper grade.
3. Book Reports. With the permission
of the instructor, and for good reason (for example, prior conflict making it
impossible to participate in a discussion group), a student may substitute a
report on a scholarly book for one of the paper assignments. Arrangements for substituting a book report
must be made in advance with the instructor or the GAT, or the report will not
be accepted. Book reports must be handed in no later than the same day the paper assignment is due and will
count the same as the paper assignment. The report must be on a book dealing with the same general topic as the paper
assignment: that is, for the paper assignment on Roman marriage a student has to
substitute a report on a book dealing with Roman women, not one dealing with
Egyptian or Greek women. A list of acceptable books in each subject area is
contained in your course packet and posted on the website. Guidelines and a
sample report may also be found there. Reports must be of no less than 500 words and must demonstrate thorough
understanding of the book in question.
EXAMINATIONS. There will be
a one-hour midterm examination and a two-hour final examination. Examinations
will be objective, testing knowledge of factual material learned from readings
and class lectures. The final may include materials previously covered on the
midterm. Test format could contain any or all of the following: brief
identifications, true or false and multiple choice questions, matching columns,
and short answer questions.
GRADING. Each student will be given a writing
assignment grade based upon the average of the four individual paper grades,
with each paper counting 25%. A grade for the outcomes of the midterm and final
examination will also be assigned, with higher weighting given to the final.
The course grade will be the average of those two components. Attendance,
preparation, and class participation will be taken into account in borderline
situations. I reserve the right to modify the grading procedure described above
in the interests of overall fairness.
To
pass this course, you must complete all written
assignments. Even though you may have received a satisfactory grade on your
tests, failure to hand in one or more papers will result in an automatic
failing grade in the course.
PLEASE
NOTE: As a matter of policy, I do not give extensions on
assignments or grant incompletes except in documented cases involving a serious personal emergency (e.g.,
illness requiring hospitalization, death in family, etc.). You will be expected
to take examinations and hand in papers on the appointed dates as specified
below. Please plan your schedules accordingly.
Surf
and Turf
Dedicated Internet surfers should be aware of a
crucial electronic resource for the study of ancient women in the Near East
(including
I will give you additional credit on the short
papers and book reports if you include relevant
information you have gained from a DIOTIMA
web link (e.g., a quotation from a scholarly review of the book you are
reporting on). To insure that you receive credit for the citation, you must
footnote the “turf” where you found it, i.e., the precise URL. I will follow up on that.
The vast array of materials on DIOTIMA might
tempt you to download and hand in work not your own, especially if you’re writing
the assignment at three in the morning of the day it’s due (not a good idea
anyway). Don’t. I’m very familiar with what’s posted there, and I can always
recognize language that has been “patched in” from another source. For the
consequences if you’re found out, see below.
Cheating
and Plagiarism
Violations of the Code of Academic Integrity,
which prohibits students from cheating on examinations or attempting to earn
credit for written work not their own, will be punished by the instructor in
accordance with sanctions prescribed by the Code. Sanctions that may be imposed
by the instructor include a written warning, a grade reduction or loss of
credit for the work involved, and a failing grade in the course. Instructors
may also recommend probation, suspension or expulsion.
Disruptive
Behavior
Please show courtesy to your classmates at all
times and avoid behavior that makes it difficult for others to concentrate on
the lecture and discussion (such as talking among yourselves while someone else
has the floor, making noisy entrances and exits during class time, etc.).
Reading a newspaper during the lecture irritates instructors, who wonder why
you bothered to attend class. Turn off
cell phones before entering the classroom; beepers should be set to vibrate, not
sound. Please leave the classroom if you must respond to the beeper. Cell
phones must be switched off and put away
during tests. In cases of habitual, seriously disruptive conduct, the
instructor reserves the right to academically drop the offender.
Adult
Content
Analysis of medical writings and texts
concerned with sexual norms and behavior is an essential aspect of the study of
gender in the ancient Mediterranean world. Such texts form part of the assigned
reading for the course. I will make every effort to present them in an
objective and non-offensive way. For your information, I have also indicated
which books available for book reports deal with sexually explicit materials.
Needless to say, providing information about pre-modern notions of gender, sexuality,
and sexual mores does not constitute an endorsement of those notions!
Books on Reserve
Books available for book reports are held at
the reserve desk on the first floor of the main library on campus. They are on
7-day reserve. It is library policy, however, to put any book reserved for more
than one course on 2-hour reserve; I can’t do anything about that, so please
don’t complain to me. Books placed on
the list were chosen because they address issues specifically dealt with in
this course. Other books may not be substituted for those on the list.
Schedule
Week 1, Aug. 25–29:
Introduction; Women and Power in
Week 2, Sept. 3–6:
Biological and Familial Roles
Week 3, Sept. 8–12:
Women’s Labor
Group
Discussion Preparation: Introduction to First Paper; “New Kingdom
Love Poem” (ancient text assigned for first paper); Meskell,
“Love, Eroticism, and the Sexual Self” (Course Packet or Website).
GROUP DISCUSSION: September 12
Week 4, Sept. 15–19:
Economic and Legal Position of Women; Religion; Death
First paper due September 19
Week 5, Sept. 22–26: Female
Images in Egyptian Literature and Art; Greek Myth and Epic
Week 6, Sept. 29–Oct. 3: Greek
Gynecology and Greek Sexual Ideology
Group
Discussion Preparation: Introduction to Second Paper; excerpts from Xenophon’s Memoirs of
Socrates and Apollodorus, Against Neaera (ancient texts assigned
for second paper); Davidson, “A Purchase on the Hetaera” (Course Packet or
Website).
GROUP DISCUSSION: October 3
Week 7, Oct. 6–10: Women
in Archaic
Second paper due October 10
Week
8, Oct. 13–17: Women in Classical
Week 9, Oct. 20–24:
Women in Classical
Midterm Review October 24
MIDTERM—October 27
Week 10, Oct. 29–31:
Images of Women in Greek Literature
Week 11, Nov. 3–7:
Women in the Hellenistic World
Group
Discussion Preparation: Introduction to Third Paper; two epigrams by Anyte (ancient texts assigned for third paper); Greene,
“Playing with Tradition: Gender and Innovation in the Epigrams of Anyte” (Course Packet or Website).
GROUP DISCUSSION: November 7
Week 12, Nov. 10–14:
Women in Greco-Roman
Third paper due November 14
Week 13, Nov. 17–21:
Elite Women in Roman Law and Society
Week 14, Nov. 24–26:
Working-Class Roman Women
Note: there will be no group discussion for the
fourth paper.
Week 15, Dec. 1–5:
Women in Roman Religion
Week 16, Dec. 8–10:
Optional Extra Credit Paper and assigned fourth
paper will both be due December 10 (no extensions)
FINAL EXAMINATION: