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Classical
Studies 125 - Community, Neighborhood and Family in Ancient Athens and
Modern Philadelphia
Dr. Ralph M. Rosen, rrosen@sas.upenn.edu
Subject/Discipline: Classical
Studies
School: University
of Pennsylvania
Project Area:
Spring 1996
1) January 17: Introduction
General discussion focusing on: what is
the point of studying antiquity? what does it mean to say that we can "learn"
from the past? what kind of knowledge can the humanistic disciplines, and
Classics in particular, offer us? We will consider the notion of "classical
culture" as a construct. How is the term "classical" used and abused in
our own discourse? What makes fifth-century Athens an appropriate period
to study for comparison to a modern urban culture? What is "interpretation?"
_________________________________________________________________
2) January 24: Democracy Ancient and
Modern
1) Pseudo-Xenophonís Constitution
of Athens ("The Old Oligarch"). [bulkpack]
2) Aristotle, Constitution of Athens
(selections).
[bulkpack]
3) Sagan, The Honey and the Hemlock:Democracy
and Paranoia in Ancient Athens and Modern America, pp. 1-34.
4) Sinclair, Democracy and Participation
in Classical Athens pp. 1-23
5) Strauss, "The Melting Pot, the Mosaic,
and the Agora," in Athenian Political Thought and the Reconstruction
of American Democracy [seminar room]
Short essay topic: Based on the above
reading assignments, what, if anything, is familiar to us as Americans
and Philadelphians in the Athenian conceptions of democracy? Pay particular
attention to practical, day-to-day manifestations of democracy.
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3) January 31: The Ideology of Citizenship,
Athenian and Modern
1) Thucydides, Periclesí "Funeral Oration"
[bulkpack]
2) "Share and Rights: ëCitizenshipí Greek
Style and American Style," text of lecture
by Martin Ostwald. [bulkpack]
3) Tyrrell and Brown, Athenian Myths
and Mythmaking, pp. 189-215.
4) Sinclair, Democracy and Participation
in Classical Athens pp. 24-48
5) Miscellaneous newspaper clippings on
recent War Memorials. [bulkpack]
Short essay topic: What are some of
the differences and similarities between Athenian and American forms of
commemorating war-dead, and what do they reveal about each cultureís concept
of citizenship?
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4) February 7: Demes and Neighborhoods
1) D. Whitehead, The Demes of Attica
, pp. 67-120. [bulkpack]
2) Sagan, The Honey and the Hemlock:Democracy
and Paranoia in Ancient Athens and Modern America, pp. 320-35.
3) Adams, Bartelt etc., ch. 3, "Housing
and Neighborhoods," pp. 66-99. [seminar room]
4) Muller, Meyer and Cybriwsky, Philadelphia:
A Study of Conflicts and Social Cleavages, pp. 1-33. [seminar room]
5) Miscellaneous clippings about "Philadelphia
Regionalism," including the "Peirce Report" [bulkpack]
Short essay topic: Describe the particular
interaction between local and central politics that you have experienced
in your own cultural background. Are the issues you have read about this
week in the context of Philadelphia and Athens redolent of your own experience
in any ways? Be as specific as you can within the framework of a short
essay.
_________________________________________________________________
5) February 14: "Human Nature," Morality
and Politics I
1) Plato, Gorgias, pp. 75-149
(end).
2) Thucydides, "Melian Dialogue" [bulkpack]
3) Sagan, The Honey and the Hemlock:Democracy
and Paranoia in Ancient Athens and Modern America, pp. 186-203, 228-47.
Short essay topic: Describe briefly
the criticisms both Callicles and Socrates have of democracy, as revealed
in the second half of the Gorgias. What do you think "citizenship"
means to each of them?
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6) February 21: "Human Nature," Morality
and Politics II
1) Plato, Republic, pp.227-319;
and editorís "Introduction," pp. xi-lxii.
2) Karl R. Popper, The Open Society
and its Enemies, ch. 6: "Totalitarian Justice", pp. 86-119. [bulkpack]
Short essay topic: Does Platoís philosopher-king
seem to you to be ideal ruler (as Plato would claim), or an uncompromising
and dangerous dictator, as Popper would? Try to imagine such a ruler in
Philadelphia: the mayor, e.g., as "philosopher-king." What are some of
the positive and negative effects this might have?
_________________________________________________________________
7) February 28: Interpersonal Relations
I
1) Sherry B. Ortner, "Is Female to Male
as Nature is to Culture?" [bulkpack]
2) K. J. Dover, "Classical Greek Attitudes
to Sexual Behaviour" [seminar room]
3) Fantham, et al., Women in the Classical
World, pp. 68-135
4) Xenophon, Oeconomicus (selections)
[bulkpack]
5) Wendy Kaminer, "Feminismís Identity
Crisis" (from The Atlantic Monthly, October 1993) [seminar room]
Short essay topic: Compare Athenian
conceptions of "family" and "household" to our own constructions of such
concepts.
Does Xenophonís Oeconomicus present a picture of marriage and family
life that we recognize in our own society, or is it entirely alien to our
sensibilities?
8) March 6: Interpersonal Relations
II
1) Homeric Hymn to Demeter, ed.
Helene Foley, pp. 2-75 (text with commentary), 103-37 (interpretive essay).
2) Essays in back of volume: Marilyn Arthur
Katz, "Politics and Pomegranates: An Interpretation of the Homeric Hymn
to Demeter", pp. 212-42; Nancy Chodorow, "Family Structure and Feminine
Personality," 243-65.
Short essay topic: Why is an essay
by Nancy Chodorow included in an edition of a Homeric Hymn? __________________________________________________________________
9) March 20: Interpersonal Relations
III
1) Plato, Symposium
2) D. Halperin, One Hundred Years of
Homosexuality, pp. 1-71. [bulkpack]
3) Interview with David Halperin in Favonius
[bulkpack]
4) Miscellaneous newspaper clippings on
homosexuality. [bulkpack]
Short essay topic: Compare modern American
with ancient Athenian attitudes towards homosexuality (male or female).
How "gay" was/is the same-sex experience in Athens/America?
__________________________________________________________________
10) March 27: Education I
1) Aristophanes: Clouds
2) Weiler (1974), Chapter 5: "Politics
and Education" (pp. 77-102) [seminar room]
3 G. B. Kerferd, The Sophistic Movement,
15-58. [bulkpack]
4) Susan C. Jarratt, Rereading the Sophists:
Classical Rhetoric Refigured: Ch 4
"Sophistic Pedagogy, Then and Now" pp.
63-117. [bulkpack]
Short essay topic: Is it possible to
describe an Athenian "ideology" of education? How about for the Philadelphia
public schools?
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11) April 3: Education II
1) Plato, Republic (sections to
be announced)
2) Selections from Benjamin Franklin on
education [seminar room]
3) Bellah, Madsen, Sullivan, Swidler, Tipton,
The
Good Society, Ch. 5: "Education: Technical and Moral", pp. 145-78.
[seminar room]
Short essay topic: "On the whole Americans
have done better in developing their educational resources for the transmission
of specialized knowledge and skills than they have for citizenship." Comment
briefly on this quotation. How did Plato address the conflict between "technical"
and "moral" knowedge, and its transmission through education?
12) April 10: Public Events
[Short abstract of paper topic due today]
The following will be available in the
seminar room:
1) R. Rehm, Greek Tragic Theater
,
pp. 1-30
2) S. G. Davis, Parades and Power: Street
Theatre in Nineteenth-Century Philadelphia, 1-48, 155-73.
3) Sophocles, Antigone [seminar
room]
Short essay topic: In todayís assignment
you have seen several manifestations of public events that carried with
them, in varying degrees, communitarian ideologies. What analogues to any
of these can you find in your own experience? How important are they to
your sense of well being as a member of a community?
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13) April 17: The Arts and Society
1) Aristophanesí Frogs
The following will be available in the Afro-American
Seminar Room (4th Floor van Pelt):
2) Houston Baker, Black Studies, Rap
and the Academy (1993) (E184.7.B3.1993; also available in Rosengarten
Reserve)
3) miscellaneous clippings
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14) Assignment for April 24, 1996: Presentation
of Papers
Return to some of the questions posed during
the first class. Students will write a paper on any of the specific issues
we studied during the semester, with particular focus on the general question
about whether the study of a remote, and in this case ancient, culture
can be useful for understanding our own culture, and possibly helpful in
effecting social progress. Each student will speak for about 15 minutes
about her/his paper topic.
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