'Otherness' in Classical Art
| Code | School | Level | Credits | Semesters |
| CLAR3048 | Classics and Archaeology | 3 | 40 | Full Year UK |
- Code
- CLAR3048
- School
- Classics and Archaeology
- Level
- 3
- Credits
- 40
- Semesters
- Full Year UK
Summary
The concept of the “Other” has proved extremely influential in Western culture from antiquity until the present. Societies create the “Self” and the “Other” using their own set of categories, including race, ethnicity, culture, gender, sexuality, age and religion. This course explores the notion of “Otherness” in Greco-Roman visual culture from the eighth century B.C. to the fifth century A.D., discussing how artistic representation and self-representation contributed to constructing and challenging ideas about Greek and Roman identity. How did the Greeks and Romans use art to construct the “Other” and what can we learn from these representations about the relationships between in-groups and out-groups in the ancient world? The course also investigates the ways in which Classical art escapes the structuralist binary model of Self-and-Other, merging or inverting these categories. In a brief introduction we will discuss a variety of theories and methodologies that will help students to engage effectively with the visual evidence. The first part of the course will focus on how different categories of “Other” were gradually shaped in ancient Greek art, reflecting contemporary political, social and cultural developments. We will look at images of hybrid creatures, foreigners, women, slaves, disabled and elderly people, analysing positive and negative connotations of their apparent “Otherness”. In the second part of the course, we will explore the diversity of Roman visual culture from the Late Republican period to Late Antiquity. As the Empire expanded, images of “Otherness” acquired a broader spectrum of meanings. Sculpture, painting and mosaic decoration from public and private contexts show how “Otherness” could be either repressed or embraced in order to impose, resist or manipulate traditional views of Romanness.
Target Students
Only available to Undergraduate level 3 students in the Department of Classics and Archaeology.
Classes
- One 1-hour seminar each week for 20 weeks
- One 2-hour seminar each week for 20 weeks
Assessment
- 40% Coursework 1: 1 x 3,000 word essay (Spring)
- 25% Presentation: 1 x 20-minute presentation (Spring)
- 35% Exam 1 (2-hour): 1 x 2 hour examination (Autumn)
Assessed in both autumn & spring semest
Educational Aims
(1) To explore how the notions of “Otherness” and “diversity” manifested themselves in the visual culture of Classical antiquity, by looking at a series of case-studies ranging from c. 750 B.C. to c. A.D. 400;(2) to focus on artistic representations of socially and/or culturally marginal figures, often overlooked in modern scholarship, and use them to challenge ideas about Greek-ness and Roman-ness;(3) to apply modern sociological, anthropological, archaeological and art-historical theories to the analysis and interpretation of Classical art;(4) to broaden our understanding of the Greco-Roman world by emphasising the complexity and diversity of its visual culture.Learning Outcomes
(1) consolidated knowledge and understanding of the major developments in Greek and Roman art from c. 750 B.C. to c. A.D. 400.
(2) ability to analyse and interpret Greek and Roman visual and material culture from archaeological and art-historical perspectives;
(3) ability to contextualise Greek and Roman artefacts, both culturally and historically;
(4) knowledge of the main modern approaches to the study and interpretation of Greek and Roman art;
(5) knowledge and understanding of how the Greeks and Romans represented “Otherness” and diversity in art;
(6) awareness of the different visual strategies that the Greeks and Romans used to construct identity;
(7) understanding of modern theories and methodologies that are used to discuss “Otherness” and diversity in relation to social, economic, cultural and political contexts;
(8) a wide variety of transferable skills, including: visual analysis, source analysis, critical thinking, oral discussion, written exposition of a logically structured argument combining primary and secondary evidence, and effective time-management.