CLAS 180 - FS: First-Year Seminar

Credits: 3 First-Year seminar. Prerequisite: First-Year standing. Topic and FDR varies by term.

Fall 2020, CLAS 180-01: FS: Troy and the Tragedy of War (3). First-Year Seminar. Prerequisite: First-year class standing only. This course will examine how poets, playwrights, and psychiatrists from ancient Greece to modern Nigeria, Ireland, Mexico, and the United States have used the Trojan War and the literature written about it to explore the tragedy of war. Readings will toggle between ancient Greek poetry and drama and contemporary nonfiction and drama, always with an eye to how the ancient source texts are being reinterpreted and repurposed for different audiences at different times in different places. Among other things, we will study how Homer’s Iliad has helped Vietnam War veterans process PTSD; how staging Greek plays on military bases has facilitated difficult conversations about the struggles of war; and how performing adaptations of Greek tragedies has enabled playwrights to communicate universal truths about the traumas inflicted by war. (HU) Loar.

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