Majors Seminar: Why Classics?

Required of Classics majors and minors in junior or senior year; students contemplating honors should take this course in junior year. Advanced skills course involving close reading, critical thinking, editing, and writing. In-class and take-home writing and revising exercises. Final paper topic may be on any subject related to Classics. Fulfills WIM requirement for Classics. Winter Quarter Topic: Why Classics? The question is pressing both politically and intellectually and we will explore its long history, from the culture wars in ancient Greece and Rome, to modern conflicts about ownership of classical monuments and ideals, to the choice of whether to major in Classics today. Critical analysis, discussion, reading (all in English) and writing about case studies (Parthenon, Hadrian's Wall, Thucydides, Tacitus, ancient comedy and tragedy, textual transmission) exercising historical, literary and archaeological approaches.