A study of ancient prose fiction with a focus on its multi-cultural scope, the use of literature as entertainment and the interplay of fictionality and historicity. Students will read the most important examples of ancient Greek and Roman prose fiction in translation while developing skills in literary analysis and interpretation. These include tales of extraordinary adventures, travel to distant lands, romance and fantasy. Reading include works by Lucian, Longus,  Achilles Tatius, Apuleius and Petronius.

Course Goals

♣Students will learn how to read these texts closely and to apply both traditional and contemporary approaches of literary analysis.

♣Students will learn the vocabulary of literary criticism by reading secondary scholarship on these texts and they will be able to use it accurately in their own descriptions and analyses of the texts, both their oral presentations and written essays.

♣Students will learn to appreciate the fluidity and ambiguity of these literary texts by examining multiple interpretative possibilities.

♣Students will also be able to understand better the scope and potency of novels, their plots and significances, especially how novels may be considered the outcomes of common human desires to explore and expound upon vital individual and collective social, cultural, historical, and psychological concerns and questions.