The
purpose of this course is to instruct students in the basics of reading
a ‘literary’ source with the eye of a historian-in-training. We will
focus on reading passages from Isocrates, a Greek orator who lived in
Athens in the fourth century BC through a considerable portion of its
democracy.
The course will be formed around three main topics:
citizenship and the state civic education and presentation and praise of
oneself and others.
Since rhetorical presentation and oral
contest formed the backbone to Athenian society, our leitmotiv of
inquiry will be the entanglement and disentanglement of ‘historical
truth’ and political culture, themes that remain central to modern
politics.
Please note that this course will be conducted in
English, which remains useful for communicating research on the ancient
world internationally.
Students will therefore receive a short
instruction on how to write academic work in English for topics in
Ancient History with correct style formatting and reference methods.
Written
work will also be accepted in German for those that remain uncertain,
but presentations (Referat) must be conducted in English.
- Kursleiter:in: Dr. Yehudah Gershon