090113 PS Gender and Sexuality in Ancient Greek (2010W)

Gender and sexuality remain among the most hotly debated aspects in the study of classical archaeology and history: areas to which I have been contributing to the debate since the 1990s with my work on rape in antiquity and on the goddess Athena. A notable focus has been the recovery of female voices in the patriarchal societies of the Greek world. This module will scrutinise the main scholarly positions - e.g. feminist, post-feminist, and Foucauldian - while maintaining a focus on the ancient evidence at our disposal. Cutting edge research will be presented in a way geared to first and second year students, including from a volume that I am currently co-editing on women's sexual experiences. Topics for lectures and student presentations would include: 'how to read against the grain: scholarly approaches and methodologies; 'ploughing legitimate children': marriage; official images: gendering the Parthenon; What was a Greek woman? 'wives' and 'whores'; Rape, sex and violence, and 'Greek love': same-sex relationships. The students would study a range of ancient source material - literary, visual and archaeological. Ancient Greek literature will all be studied in translation.