CCIV 272: Reading Roman Decadence
Molly Pasco-Pranger
e-mail: mpranger@wesleyan.edu |
 |
Weeks 6-9: Imagining Roman decadence
Reminder: Each student must complete one response paper during this unit.
For each of the discussions in this unit, please think back to previous readings as well. Which of our earlier authors participated in or drew on these particular rhetorics of decadence?
Also keep in mind that all of the subtopics in this section are closely interrelated. You'll find that many of the readings for one class session can be usefully brought to bear in the discussion of later topics as well..
Monday 10/7: Decadence and progress, Decadence as disruption
READING / VIEWING:
Thomas Cole, The Course of Empire (5 paintings, 1834-1836):
The Savage State (1834)
The Arcadian or Pastoral State (1834)
The Consummation of Empire (1835-1836)
Destruction (1836)
Desolation (1836)
Biographical infomation on Cole.
Thomas Couture, The Romans of the Decadence (1847):
One good, large image.
More photos of the painting, with some details.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 1. 89-150 (compare Hesiod, Works and Days, 106-201) (handout).
Horace, Epodes 16, Odes 3.6, 3.24; Hymn for the Centennial, Odes 4.15. (handout).
QUESTIONS: What is the relationship between progress and moral decadence in Ovid? Is the relationship the same in the Hesiod text on which he clearly bases his account? Note the dates of the Horace poems I've given you on the title page. Do you see any development in the poet's thinking on the question of moral decadence? In both texts, give some serious thought to the concept of a new "Golden Age".
Wednesday 10/9: The Politics of immorality and Decadence incarnate: Women
READING:
C. Edwards, The Politics of Immorality in Ancient Rome, "Introduction", 1-33 (reserve).
S. Dixon, "Woman as Symbol of Decadence," 56-65 in Reading Roman Women (reserve).
Cicero, Pro Caelio. This link is a bit of a hassle. It will take you to the first chapter of the Pro Caelio in the Perseus database. Before you attempt to print, look to the left of the text where there's a section that reads:
Display text chunked by:
text
chapter (default)
section
Choose "text", then print.
Re-read (or at least think over) for this section Juvenal 6, Sallust on Sempronia (Catilinarian Conspiracy pp. 192-193), Tacitus on Agrippina the younger (Nero's mother).
N.B. Sign of the Cross is playing 10/10 in Wesleyan Film Series
Monday 10/14: Fall Break, no class
Wednesday 10/16: Sexuality and invective
READING:
Catullus 29 and 57 (handout).
Juvenal, Satire 2 (handout)
Craig Williams, "Introduction" and "Effeminacy and Masculinity" in Roman Homosexuality, 3-14 and 125-159 (reserve).
Monday 10/21: Decadence, luxury, and empire 1: Food
READING
Selections from Pliny the Elder, Natural Histories (handout).
Choose two of the following and write a paragraph summarizing each to hand in—please don't all choose the first two or the shortest two!
C. Edwards, "Prodigal Pleasures, " 173-206 in The Politics of Immorality in Ancient Rome (reserve).
Goddard, "The Tyrant at Table, 67-82 in Reflections of Nero: Culture, History, and Representation, edd. J. Elsner and J. Masters (reserve).
A. Corbeill, "Dining Deviants in Roman Political Invective," 99-128 in Roman Sexualities, edd. J. Hallett and M. Skinner (reserve).
Wednesday 10/23: Decadence, luxury, and empire 2: Building
Horace, Odes 2.15, 2.18 (handout).
More Pliny the Elder (handout).
Re-read Tacitus, Annales 15.42 and Suetonius, Nero 31 on Nero's Golden House.
J. Elsner, "Constructing Decadence: The representation of Nero as Imperial Builder," 112-127 in Reflections of Nero: Culture, History, and Representation, edd. J. Elsner and J. Masters (reserve).
Monday 10/28: Appropriating decadence?
More Catullus (handout).
Ovid, Amores 1.1, 1.2 and 3.8 (a comical turn on the rhetoric of decadence) and The Art of Love, Book 1 and 3.1-128 (handout)
Statius, Silvae 1.3, 1.5, 1.6, 2.2 (handout).
Wednesday 10/30: Decadence of the arts
Pliny the Elder Natural History 35.1-10 (handout).
Seneca the Elder, Controversiae 1, preface (handout).
Quintilian 8.Praef.13-33, a contemporary critique of Neronian "decadent" oratorical style (handout). Compare also Quintilian 2.5.10-12.
Re-read Tacitus, Annales 14.16.