Learning outcomes

- By the end of the course, students will have an overview of: the history of early poetic genres and their codification; the most influential Greek and Latin poets; and the conditions of reception of this literary heritage through time, up to the present day.


- Students will be equipped to refer to an ancient work according to the rules of the art.


- Through the various incarnations of a source text (its translations, adaptations, transpositions, etc.), they will be equipped to comment the reappropriating of ancient material.

Goals

- The course is intended to be an opening onto classical culture as such, but also as a "matrix" of innumerable cultural and artistic manifestations throughout the ages and across the world. The emphasis will therefore be on the presentation of the major authors and genres of Greek and Latin literature, but also on their reception and posterity. - In this way, it will also be possible to glimpse the complexity of the processes of reception and reinvention of models (concepts of imitatio, emulatio, etc.), the vivacity of classical culture as a source of new inspiration. - A methodological objective is to equip students who undertake to study any work through the prism of ancient literature. How to find and reference these texts adequately? How to orientate one's research in such a field?

Content

After an introduction to the very notion of "literature," the major genres and authors of Greek poetry are addressed according to a structure that is both generic and chronological: the first genre covered is epic poetry (Homer, Hesiod), followed by so-called "lyric" poetry (Sappho, Pindar) and the dramatic genres (tragic and comic). The Greek section concludes with a presentation of Hellenistic literature and the intellectual context, which anchors the second part of the course: Latin poetry (and its major authors such Catullus, Vergil, Horace, Ovid), presented as a literature of imitation (and thus mirroring the Greek authors encountered). The course then addresses the reception of ancient literature from a different perspective and with different objectives each year.

Teaching methods

The encyclopaedic approach to ancient literature (frameworks, authors, genres and main currents) will be coupled with a critical approach to the constitution of what is known as classical culture (from classicus, "that we learn in the classroom"): the aim will be to unravel the mechanics of literary canonisation, to show that tradition is always reconfigured by the evolution of ideas and customs. A collection of extracts and documents will serve as a support for the course: it will compile passages from ancient texts as well as commentaries on these texts. As for the posterity of works, genres and authors, it will be approached by means of a few case studies (2 or 3 max.), evolving from year to year, so as to offer overlaps with other courses in the faculty or to address themes that may find a particular resonance with current events (cultural or otherwise). For example, it will be a question of examining the survival of an author or an ancient work through the ages, or conversely of examining a work (literary, pictorial, etc.) that is "modern", or at least posterior to the ancient period, through the sieve of a study of its ancient substrates.

Assessment method

Written examination comprising: a series of knowledge questions (situate / present / ... a work / a trend / an author); the application of a critical approach to extracts of text (or other types of work) seen or not seen in the course.

Sources, references and any support material

The course material consists of a syllabus and a portfolio of documents. Useful references : • S. Saïd, M. Trédé, A. Le Boulluec, Histoire de la littérature grecque, Paris, PUF. • H. Zehnacker, J.-C. Fredouille, Littérature latine, Paris, PUF. • J. Gaillard, R. Martin, Les genres littéraires à Rome, Paris. • P. Laurens, Histoire critique de la littérature latine. De Virgile à Huysmans, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 2014. • Depending on the theme: the series of collective works Présence de..., collection Caesarodunum. E.g.: Présence de Virgile, d'Ovide, de Cicéron, de Tite-Live...

Language of instruction

French