Admission requirements
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Arsenaal
Description
What is a canon, and how is it created? Many of what we regard today as the most important cultural foundations of the modern world, for example, Chinese civilization, Jewish culture and Greco-Roman tradition, are the ultimate result of millennia-long selective processes which made them canonical.
Canonization is a process intrinsic to Classics as a discipline. The Latin adjective classici originally denoted ‘writers belonging to the first class’, ‘of the highest rank’. The term gave its name to the discipline of ‘Classics’ and thereby contributes to the idea that Classics belong on a pedestal in its capacity as the foundation of ‘Western civilization’. In recent years, however, more and more classicists have come together to problematize this canonical reputation and show how Classics in its canonized form has been instrumental to such phenomena as the slave trade, race science, colonialism, Fascism, Nazism, the oppression of women and homophobia.
This course aims to explore what a canon is and how it is created by looking at a specific Latin author. In The Attic Nights, a work published in around 180 CE, Aulus Gellius collected twenty books’ worth of quotations and discussions of passages from Greek and Latin literature, animated debates on topics ranging from rare words to law, and various curious anecdotes of antiquarian interest. For centuries, The Attic Nights was regarded primarily as a source supplying crucial information about previous Latin authors whose works survive only or mainly in fragments, such as Ennius, Naevius, Cato the Censor, and Varro. Gellius himself was neglected on account of the perceived ‘mediocrity’ of his literary work and thus excluded from authors canonically ‘belonging to the first class’.
Nonetheless, Gellius engaged extensively with canons and canonization and played a crucial role in defining the canon of Latin literature. To name just two examples, he dedicates a chapter of his work to the definition of the term classici (6.13) and preserves for us a list of the ten best Latin comic poets (15.24). What strategies did he use to interact with existing canons and arguably to create new ones? How did what he, and the society in which he lived, valued later go on to become the norm? Why was he excluded from the canon he contributed to creating?
Starting each week from a different passage, or a selection of passages, of Gellius, we shall focus on canonization processes across different areas (including, but not limited to, literary genre, literary history, and literary/material culture), showing that canonization is about selection and that this is never an innocent or random process.
For information on teaching materials, see ‘Reading list’ below.
Course objectives
Knowledge
Overview of Aulus Gellius and analysis of his work;
Theory pertaining to the establishment of a canon.
Insight and skillsConducting systematic research into a problem, situation or concept related to Aulus Gellius’ work with the goal of generating new information, knowledge and opinions about it on the basis of critical thinking (RESEARCH);
Analysing a situation or problem related to Aulus Gellius’ work with the goal of tracking down its role in the creation of canons within Latin literature (ANALYSING);
Setting out clearly, in writing, ideas and information with the goal of conveying a message about Aulus Gellius’ work to the relevant target group (WRITTEN COMMUNICATION);
Conveying information about Aulus Gellius’ work to an audience with attention to the content and structure of the presentation, as well as to the supporting materials and one’s own style and enthusiasm (PRESENTING);
Independently formulating a research question about Aulus Gellius’ work, recognizing which approach is needed to discuss that question (INDEPENDENT LEARNING).
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
- Seminar
Assessment method
Assessment
Written examination with short open questions (15%)
Active Participation/cooperation in class/group (10%)
Essay, paper (60%)
Abstract, oral presentation (15%)
The written examination, to be held in class at some stage during the fourteen weeks of class, consists in translating a passage from Gellius’ Attic Nights and in answering some short open questions on the grammar of the passage. Starting from week 10 of the course, students will deliver an oral presentation (15 minutes maximum) outlining the proposed research question and an abstract of their paper. The paper (5.000 words maximum, no safety margin allowed; footnotes included, bibliography excluded) is to be submitted before Sunday 15 June 2025, 23:59 CET. In principle, no extensions will be allowed. In the event of persistent physical/mental issues, an extension can be requested until two weeks before the submission (i.e. before Sunday 1 June 2025, 23:59 CET) through the Student Adviser. Please note that it may take some time for the request to be processed by the Student Adviser: we therefore suggest contacting him/her sufficiently in advance.
Weighing
The final mark for the course is established by (i) determination of the weighted average, which must be 5.5 or higher, combined with (ii) the additional requirement that the student must pass the written examination with the mark of 5.5 or higher.
Resit
In the event that the written examination is judged unsatisfactory, a resit consisting of a similar test will be arranged after the end of the lectures (date to be determined). In the event that the paper is judged unsatisfactory, a second improved version will have to be submitted at a later stage (date to be determined). In such cases, the other marks will still count.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
Editions and Translations:
Holford-Strevens, Leofranc (ed.). 2020. Auli Gellii Noctes Atticae. 2 vols. Oxford Classical Texts. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [The standard critical edition.]
Rolfe, John C. (trans.). 1996. The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius. 3 vols. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. [Revised reprint of 1946 edition first published in 1927. Accompanied by English translation.]
There is no need to buy these books, unless a student wants to: they are all in the Library, and Loeb editions can be accessed online via the Library’s website. A fuller bibliography will follow in due course, and general books on Gellius will be made available on a special shelf in the Library when the class starts.
Students wishing to do some preliminary reading on Aulus Gellius can read the following:
Anderson, Graham. 1994.‘Aulus Gellius: A Miscellanist and his World.’ In Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt (ANRW) 34.2:1834-1862. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter.
Holford-Strevens, Leofranc. 2003. Aulus Gellius: An Antonine Scholar and his Achievement. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [A revision and expansion of Aulus Gellius (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989). A corrected paperback, with a brief appendix, was issued in 2005.]
Students are expected to arrive at the first class of the semester having read NA 1.24, 3.3, 6.14, 9.9, 19.9 both in Latin and in translation.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Arsenaal.
Remarks
Students are required to attend the classes regularly, to be fully prepared, and to participate actively in discussions.