Assignments for Tuesday, 05-10-16

Dear Satirists (the last time I might call you this),

A reminder that by 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 10, the following will be due:

(1) Quiz 3 on Martial (though I strongly recommend turning it in before then); and

(2) The final milestone of the semester project, the finished paper;

Details on the semester project and all of our milestones are available on our Semester project page. As noted there, your final paper should include an up-to-date (but unannotated) bibliography.

DC

Extra-Credit Opportunity for Wednesday, 05-04-16

Dear Satirists,

Here’re some details on an extra-credit opportunity I'd like to offer you, good for up to 40 points on your quiz scores. If you decide yes, it will be due on Wednesday, May 4, by 11:00 p.m. I’ve added it to the online course Calendar.

Attend my Comedy class's production of The Squirrels (7:00 p.m., Tuesday, May 2, in Filene. Then write a 600– to 800–word review of the production in which you address the following topics:

• The relationship of the performers to the audience;
• The satirical elements of the play (remember how Horace, at least, traces Roman satire back to Athenian Old Comedy);
• The production’s stance on community issues; and
• Anything you noticed after studying Roman satire that you wouldn’t have without the ancient lens.

Reviews must be typed and double-spaced, with numbered pages.  In addition to whatever title you invent, your review should contain a header like those of professional reviews, indicating the show, the date, the venue, and the company.

Reviewers will be award up to 40 additional points to their overall quiz scores for thoughtful reviews.

Please let me know if you have questions.

DC

Assignment for Monday, 05-02-16

Dear Satirists,

For Monday, May 2, please do the following:

(1) Read and translate the following:

• Martial, poems 47, 48, 51, 58, 60, 70, 71, 78, and 80.

(2) Download, print, and fill in scansion drill 9. We'll spend a few minutes discussing any trouble spots, and then I'll collect your sheets.

DC

Assignment for Wednesday, 04-27-16

Dear Satirists,

For Wednesday, April 27, please read and translate the following:

• Martial, poems 29, 31, 35, 37, 38, 42, and 45.

DC

Assignment for Monday, 04-25-16

Dear Satirists,

For Monday, April 25, please do the following:

(1) Read and translate the following:

• Martial, poems 23, 24, 25, and 26.

(2) Download, print, and fill in scansion drill 8. We'll spend a few minutes discussing any trouble spots, and then I'll collect your sheets.

DC

Assignment for Friday, 04-22-16

Dear Satirists,

A friendly reminder that the sixth milestone of the semester project, the rough draft, is due by 11:00 p.m. on Friday, April 22.

Details on the semester project and all of our milestones are available on our Semester project page. As noted there, your rough draft should represent 50–60% of your finished paper and include an up-to-date (but unannotated) bibliography.

DC

Assignment for Wednesday, 04-20-16

Dear Satirists,

For Wednesday, April 20, we'll get high on Latin with the following:

(1) Read and translate Martial, poems 18 and 19.

(2) Read, in preparation for our fourth scholarship discussion, A. Barchiesi and A Cucciarelli (2005), "Satire and the Poet: The Body as Self-Referential Symbol" (distributed by email and in class). Take notes on and/or highlight ideas and statements that seem interesting or relevant in light of the work we've done to date.

DC

Assignment for Monday, 04-18-16

Dear Satirists,

For Monday, April 18, please do the following:

(1) Read and translate the following:

• Martial, poems 7, 11, 12, and 14.

(2) Download, print, and fill in scansion drill 7. We'll spend a few minutes discussing any trouble spots, and then I'll collect your sheets.

DC

Assignment for Wednesday, 04-13-16

Dear Satirists,

For Wednesday, April 13, please do the following:

(1) Read and translate the following poem 6 (a.k.a. 6.64) in our Martial text.

In class we'll finish with this poem after picking up with the leftovers from last class.

DC

Assignment for Monday, 04-11-16

Dear Satirists,

For Monday, April 11, please do the following:

(1) Read G. B. Conte's chapter on Martial (previously distributed in class). Martial and his epigrams will be our focus for the rest of the semester. Do note anything that resonates with you, so we can discuss it in class.

(2) Read and translate the following poems in our Martial text. Make use of our new commentators, Watson and Watson, to help you through the more difficult passages. (Note, for example, their helpful summaries of each poem.)

• 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

NOTE: No scansion drill this week. (You're welcome.)

DC

Assignment for Friday, 04-08-16

Dear Satirists,

A friendly reminder that the fifth milestone of the semester project, your annotated bibliography, is due by 11:00 p.m. on Friday, April 8.

Details on the semester project and all of our milestones are available on our Semester project page. As noted there, your annotated bibliography should list seven helpful secondary sources, each with two full paragraphs of annotations.

DC

Assignment for Wednesday, 04-06-16

Dear Satirists,

For Wednesday, April 6, please do the following:

(1) Read and translate Juvenal, Satire 3.286–322.

(2) Read, in preparation for our fourth scholarship discussion, E. Moodie (2014), "Umbricius' Farewell Tour" (distributed in class). Take notes on and/or highlight ideas and statements that seem interesting or relevant in light of the work we've done to date.

DC

Assignment for Monday, 04-04-16

Dear Satirists,

For Monday, March 4, please do the following:

(1) Navigate over to our Quizzes page, and review or read the following sections:

• Introduction;
• Format; and
• Guidelines for Quiz 2 (due April 15).

 We'll spend some time addressing any questions you might have.

(2) Read and translate the following:

• Juvenal, Satires 3.171–214.

As before, consult a translation in order to fill in the gap between this assignment and the previous.

(3) Download, print, and fill in scansion drill 6. We'll spend a few minutes discussing any trouble spots, and then I'll collect your sheets.

DC

Assignment for Wednesday, 03-30-16

Dear Satirists,

For Wednesday, March 30, please read and translate

• Juvenal, Satire 3.41–80 and 100–108.

Since we're starting to skip around in the poem, you should consult a translation in order to fill in the gaps. Knowing the major topics of the poem will also be helpful, since our next scholarship discussion will focus exclusively on Satire 3.

DC

Assignment for Monday, 03-28-16

Dear Satirists,

For Monday, March 28, please do the following:

(1) Read and translate the following:

• Juvenal, Satire 3.1–40.

The poem will be too long to read in its entirety, but we'll get through a good third of it when all is said and done.

(2) Download, print, and fill in scansion drill 5. We'll spend a few minutes discussing any trouble spots, and then I'll collect your sheets.

(2a) If you want some additional perspective on the bucolic diaeresis, beyond what we've discussed in class, consult the following section of the Hexametrica site:

• Scansion >>> Divisions.

DC

Assignment for Friday, 03-25-16

Dear Satirists,

A friendly reminder that the fourth milestone of the semester project, your preliminary bibliography, is due by 11:00 p.m. on Friday, March 25.

Details on the semester project and all of our milestones are available on our Semester project page. As noted there, your preliminary bibliography should be a substantial list of secondary sources, gleaned from some serious bibliographic work since our research review a month ago. You'll whittle this list down for your next milestone, the annotated bibliography.

DC

Assignment for Wednesday, 03-23-16

Dear Satirists,

For Wednesday, March 23, please do the following:

(1) Read and translate Juvenal, Satire 1.132–71.

(2) Read, in preparation for our third scholarship discussion, C. Connors (2005), "Epic Allusion in Roman Satire" (to distributed in class). Take notes on and/or highlight ideas and statements that seem interesting or relevant in light of the work we've done to date.

DC

Assignment for Monday, 03-21-16

Dear Satirists,

For Monday, March 21, please do the following:

(1) Read and translate

•  Juvenal, Satire 1.81–131.

NOTE: No scansion drill this week. (You're welcome.)

DC

Assignment for Friday, 03-11-16

Dear Satirists,

A friendly reminder that Quiz 1 is due by 11:00 p.m. on Friday, March 11.

Details on the quiz itself, as well as proper formatting, are available on our Quizzes page.

DC

Assignment for Wednesday, 03-09-16

Dear Satirists,

For Wednesday, March 9, please read and translate

• Juvenal, Satire 1.30–80.

DC

Assignment for Monday, 03-07-16

Dear Satirists,

For Monday, March 7, please do the following:

(1) Read G. B. Conte on Juvenal, who'll be our exemplar of imperial satire. (I'll distribute the chapter in class.) Because Conte lumps Juvenal together with his near-contemporary, Persius, you may wish to read only pages 467–8 (general context) and 474–80 (Juvenal's life and career). Do note anything that resonates with you, so we can discuss it in class.

(2) Read and translate Juvenal, Satire 1.1–30 (that is, his first Satire, lines 1 to 30). Make use of our new commentators, Rudd and Courtney, to help you through the more difficult passages. We'll be reading poem 1 in its entirety over the next four classes.

NOTE: No scansion drill this week. (You're welcome.)

DC

Assignment for Friday, 03-04-16

Dear Satirists,

A friendly reminder that the third milestone of our semester project, your topic selection, is due by 11:00 p.m. on Friday, March 4.

Details on the semester project and all of our milestones are available on our Semester project page. As noted there, your topic selection should be the result of some serious thinking, not serious speculation.

DC

Scansion of Hor. S. 1.6.102

Dear Satirists,

The question was raised last class about line 102 of Hor. Sat. 1.6.  It's a hypermetric line, a line whose number of syllables exceeds what's required for six feet.

The scansion is as follows:

ēt cŏměs | āltěr, ŭ | tī nē | sōlūs | rūsvě pě | rēgrē<vě>

(If we were marking the scansion by hand, the syllable /gre/ in regre<ve> would be an anceps.)

You can see that the addition of the second -ve at the end creates an extra syllable at the end of the line. The addition of this syllable, indicated by the angle brackets, is necessary for parallel construction: "either to the country or abroad," -ve here functioning like -que does.

The solution for lines like these is often to see whether that extra syllable might elide into the first word if the next line. It does here, as is typical:

ēt cŏměs | āltěr, ŭ | tī nē | sōlūs | rūsvě pě | rēgrē<v(ě)>
ēxīrēm…

DC

Assignment for Wednesday, 03-02-16

Dear Satirists,

For Wednesday, March 2, please do the following:

(1) Read and translate Horace, Satires 1.9.52–78.

(2) Read, in preparation for our second scholarship discussion, C. Martindale (2005), "The Horatian and the Juvenalesque in English Letters" (distributed via email and with hardcopies available outside my door). Take notes on and/or highlight ideas and statements that seem interesting or relevant in light of the work we've done to date (and the work we will do for the semester project).

DC

Assignment for Monday, 02-29-16

Dear Satirists,

For Monday, February 29, please do the following:

(1) Navigate over to our Quizzes page, and read the following sections carefully:

• Introduction;
• Format; and
• Guidelines for Quiz 1 (due March 11).

 We'll spend some time Monday and Wednesday addressing any questions you might have.

(2) Read and translate the following:

• Horace, Satires 1.9.1–52.

Satire 9, "The Boor" (or "Bore") is arguably the best known Horatian satire. As we did with 1.6, we'll this poem in its entirety over the next two class periods.

(3) Download, print, and fill in scansion drill 4. We'll spend a few minutes discussing any trouble spots, and then I'll collect your sheets.

(3a) If you want some additional perspective on caesurae, beyond what we've discussed in class, consult the following section of the Hexametrica site:

• Scansion >>> Pauses.

DC

Assignment for Wednesday, 02-24-16

Dear Satirists,

For Wednesday, February 24, please read and translate

• Horace, Satires 1.6.89–131.

DC

Assignment for Monday, 02-22-16

Dear Satirists,

For Monday, February 22, please do the following:

(1) Read and translate the following:

• Horace, Satires 1.6.45–88.

From Satire 5, we transition to Satire 6, the most personal and autobiographical of Horace's satires. Since we're plunging in medias res, you might find it helpful to read the beginning of the poem in English.

(2) Download, print, and fill in scansion drill 3. We'll spend a few minutes discussing any trouble spots, and then I'll collect your sheets.

DC

Assignment for Wednesday, 02-17-16

Dear Satirists,

For Wednesday, February 17, please read and translate

• Horace, Satires 1.5.51–104.

DC

Assignment for Monday, 02-15-16

Dear Satirists,

For Monday, February 15, please do the following:

(1) Read and translate the following:

• Horace, Satires 1.5.1–51.

From Satire 4, we transition to Satire 5, "The Journey to Brundisium," which we'll read in its entirety.

(2) Download, print, and fill in scansion drill 2. We'll spend a few minutes discussing any trouble spots, and then I'll collect your sheets.

(2a) If you want some additional perspective on elision, beyond what we've discussed in class, consult the following section of the Hexametrica site:

• Scansion >>> Elision.

DC

Assignment for Wednesday, 02-10-16

Dear Satirists,

For Wednesday, February 10, please do the following:

(1) Read and translate the following:

• Horace, Satires 1.4.25–62.

(2) Read, in preparation for our first scholarship discussion, F. Muecke (2005), "Rome's First 'Satirists.'" Take notes on and/or highlight ideas and statements that seem interesting or relevant in light of the work we've done to date.

DC

Assignment for Monday, 02-08-16

Dear Satirists,

For Monday, February 8, please do the following:

(1) Read and translate the following:

• Horace, Satires 1.1.61–87; and
• Horace, Satires 1.4.1–25

We're going to move from Horace's views on greed in Satire 1 to his thoughts on genre and Lucilius in Satire 4. As usual, make use of Gowers' commentary, and remember your best practices.

(2) Download, print, and fill in scansion drill 1. We'll spend a few minutes discussing any trouble spots, and then I'll collect your sheets.

(2a) If you want some additional perspective on scanning, beyond what we've discussed in class, consult the following short sections of the Hexametrica site:

• Preface;
• Rhythms >>> The Tradition, Fingers, Feet, Substitution; and
• Scansion >>> Nature, Position, Example, Syllabification.

DC

Assignment for Wednesday, 02-03-16

Dear Satirists,

For Wednesday, February 3, please do the following:

(1) Read and translate Horace, Satires 1.1.23–60 (that is, book 1, Satire 1, lines 23 to 60). Make use of Gowers' commentary to help you through the more difficult passages, and remember your best practices (which I discussed in the previous post).

DC

Assignment for Monday, 02-01-16

Dear Satirists,

For Monday, February 1, please do the following:

(1) Read G. B. Conte on Horace, who inherited the satirist's torch from Lucilius; you may read the whole chapter, if you wish, but probably best to focus on pp. 292–6 (life and works) and 298–303 (the Satires). Note anything that resonates with you, so we can discuss it in class.

(2) Read and translate Horace, Satires 1.1.1–22 (that is, book 1, Satire 1, lines 1 to 22). Make use of Gowers' commentary to help you through the more difficult passages.

SOME BEST PRACTICES:

Reading through. Read sentences, not lines; do not stop at a line ending (unless a sentence ends there). For example, the first full sentence in Sat. 1.1 spans three full verses, so make sure you look ahead at least to verse 2 when you're on verse 1; likewise, look ahead to verse 3 when on verse 2.

Making your own text. As noted in class, I recommend that you grab the text from the PHI Latin Texts database, paste it into a word processor, and space it out nice and wide so you have room to make notes. Of course, as I also said, you'll have to check the PHI text against the text in Gowers. In case of discrepancy, Gowers wins. Print your text out and write on it freely, making notes on vocabulary, parts of speech, and anything else that will help you read (but not too much — see below). Draw lines and arrows as needed.

Use an ink-and-paper dictionary. I don't recommend translating on the Perseus website because the site does too much of the necessary work for you, esp. when it comes to vocabulary. Use an ink-and- paper dictionary to look up words, and put a hash-mark next to each word. Do this every time you look up a word, even if it has previously been found and marked. If there are three or more hash-marks next to a work, you should make a flashcard or word list and test yourself frequently.

Don't write out a translation. Don't under any circumstances write out a full translation, either on your fungible text or in a separate notebook. Rather, use your annotations to help you put the Latin text together each time. When we read in class, I expect that you'll work only from your own annotated text or from Gowers' text. We will be looking at the Latin and interrogating it closely.

These practices will ultimately make you a better, more confident, and more independent reader of Latin. It might take you some time to be comfortable with them, but an investment now will save you time later. Short-cutting saves time, but ultimately incurs losses down the line.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

DC

Geography: Mt. Stromboli

In case you were wondering...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stromboli

Satire: Bush Regales Dinner Guests With Impromptu Oratory On Virgil's Minor Works

From The Onion:

WASHINGTON, DC—According to Bush, much pleasure is to be found in Virgil's lesser-known The Eclogues and The Georgics.

Read the rest.

Assignment for Wednesday, 01-27-16

Dear Satirists,

For Wednesday, January 27, please do the following:

(1) Read G. B. Conte's chapter on Lucilius, the founding father of Roman satire. Note anything that resonates with you in light of today's discussion on poetics and satire, so we can discuss it in class. This chapter will also pave the way for part (2).

(2) With help from the facing translations, review the Latin fragments of Lucilius' third book, the journey to Sicily. As you proceed try to answer the following questions:

• Is this a record of a journey already made? An anticipation of a journey?
• Who is/are the travelers?
• What seems to have happened (or will happen) along the way?
• Which of Lucilius' verses strike you as especially poetic?
• Which strike you as especially satiric?
• Based on how Lucilius' text is presented, what are fragments? What are the conventions for printing and arranging them?
• Why, in general, do other authors quote from Lucilius?

DC

Welcome!

Dear Satirists,

Welcome to the blog for CL 310: Roman Satire!  Here I'll post assignments and other notices, as well as other ephemera pertaining to the study of ancient satire.

With each post, you'll get an email alerting you to the new content.  The message will contain the entire post, so you'll have the option of reading it on email or navigating over to the blog. Similarly, if you'd like to reply to a post, you can either use the "Comments" feature on the blog, or you can reply to the email message you received.  Either way, everyone in the class will be able to read your response.

None of this is meant to substitute for in-class interaction.  However, since our sessions together will go by quickly, I hope the blog will save us precious minutes here and there.

Again, welcome!

DC