Women performing a ritual
The poet Katerina Angelaki-Rooke

Female Authors, Female Perspectives.

Outline       Schedule       Resources       Electronic Resources       Class Handouts

Outline

Does it matter whether an author is male or female? Is there a difference between a book written for a male readership and one written for a female readership? To what extent any existing differences are the product of cultural stereotypes? The purpose of this course is to explore these important questions. The course presents a number of female authors through the last two and a half thousand years of Greek literature and assesses their contribution. It also explores the question whether female Greek authors have added to Greek literature as a whole alternative perspectives, dimensions and points of view. Students will have the opportunity to explore erotic poetry, realism, historiography, theatre, novel, city and country life, modern day angst, mysticism and existentialism as experienced and presented by the female authors included here. This course is expected to give rise to some interesting discussions in the class, raise further awareness on some important social issues of our times, provide some original insights into Greek literature and culture over the centuries, and serve as an opportunity to read engaging and entertaining literature

Schedule

W1:  Introduction

W2:  Gender and literary perspective.
The myth of Teiresias: male and female view of the world. Ordinary women and literary figures.

(NO READING THIS WEEK)

W3:  Images of women in male Greek literature, from antiquity to the present day.

Women poets in Antiquity: eroticism and myth

W4:  Sappho
The first female poet known to us.
How was Sappho perceived by ancient male authors?
Is there a female perspective in Sappho’s poetry
Korinna and Telesilla two more female voices from antiquity.
Female homosexuality.

Reading: (all the readings of the list: follow the links) http://www.stoa.org/diotima/anthology/rayor.shtml

Faith, sin and repentance

W5:  Kassiane
God, women and sin.
The hymn of the repenting prostitute.
Reading: http://home.infionline.net/~ddisse/kassia.html (Including the poems in the links)

Power games, intrigue and women’s scholarship

W6:  Anna Komnene (Book 2, 79 ff)
Historiography and imperial propaganda.
Power-thirsty princesses and female scholars in the Byzantine court.

The modern Period: Politics and feminism

W7-8:  Rita Boumi-Papa, Victoria Theodorou, Jenny Mastoraki, Eleni Fourtouni
The politics of gender confrontation
 Political opposition to dictators, exile and imprisonment.
 Women on death-row for their political views
 Zoe Karelli: Lamenting the expulsion of the Salonica Jews

 (MIDTERM TEST: FRIDAY OF WEEK 8)

W9: An overview of Eva Vlami's The Skeletovrachos
The individual against the world
The disappearance of an idyllic past
The dreamer and the real world
Powerpoint

Women’s bodies, eroticism and female sexuality
W10-11: Maria Polydouri, D. Zevgoli-Glezou, Zoi Karelli, Lili Bita, M. Aravantinou
 Men, women and family relations
 Female sexuality and sensuality
 Love and rejection
 Mourning the dead and the living

Existentialism

W12-13: Zoe Karelli, Olga Votsi, Katerina Angelaki-Rooke, I. Tsatsou, Y. Pengli
 Existentialism and Greek Mythology
 A search for Paradise
 Women and religion

W14: Thanksgiving week (no classes, Study Time)

W15:  Loula Anagnostaki, The overnight visitor: Greek Theatre

W16:  FINAL TEST

Assessment:
Midterm Test = 35%
End of Term Test = 35%
Essay (c. 2000 words) = 20%
Class participation = 10%

Format: Selections from the authors will be read and discussed in class. Students will be expected to participate in the discussion, express their opinions and contribute towards a better understanding of the texts that we will study.

Resources: