CLASS 7734

The Ancient Senses

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2016-2017.

This course will take advantage of new scholarship on the history of the senses to explore Greek and Roman culture through the perceptual capacities of the body. We will examine ancient theories of embodiment and sense-perception (with a special focus on Aristotle), as well as the ways in which cultural artefacts invited, modeled, examined, or problematized sensory relations between humans and their environments. From the hero's voice in Greek tragedy to the smells of urban Rome, and from visions of the gods to the textural qualities of language, we will take a multi-disciplinary approach. There will be a special focus on sound, in order to prepare students who may wish to take part in the 2017 CorHaLi conference at the Center for Hellenic Studies in Nafplio, Greece, but the course is open to anyone with an interest in historical approaches to the senses. Special guests will visit our seminars, including Shane Butler, Chair of Classics at Johns Hopkins University, author of The Ancient Phonograph and editor of the Routledge series, The Senses in Antiquity.

When Offered Spring.

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