Download Käthe Leichter Gastprofessorin WS 2010 Dr. Susan Deacy

Käthe Leichter Gastprofessorin WS 2010
Dr. Susan Deacy, Roehampton University, London
Institut für Klassische Archäologie, Franz-Klein-Gasse 1, 1190 Wien
VO “Gender and Crime in Ancient Greek Culture, Religion and Mythology”
Zeit: MI, 09:30 – 11:00
Ort: HS 2 (Zentrum für Translationswissenschaften, Gymnasiumstr. 50, 1190 Wien)
This course will reflect on a range of issues pertinent to the study of ancient Greek gender and
violence from a range of methodological perspectives guided by a book that I have just
received a contract to co-write on the topic with Dr Fiona McHardy. Competing theories have
been generated over recent decades on violence in historical studies and anthropology at a
time where there has also been an explosion in gendered approaches to ancient Greece. The
course will take a multidisciplinary focus that combines the two areas through an exploration
of gendered elements of crime. The course will explore current debates over whether violence
is culturally conditioned or biologically determined. It will consider the applicability to the
study of Greek history, religion and mythology of the Daly and Wilson approach to violence
which suggests that sexual jealousy is at the root of the majority of violent acts including
murder.
The course of lectures would cover a range of areas including how to approach ancient
evidence from methodological perspectives including psychological, anthropological and
criminological, with specific topics to include infanticide, domestic violence, and so-called
‘honour’ killings The archaeological evidence will be considered, as will the rich
mythological sources and the range of oratorical texts relevant to the topic. A strong focus
throughout will be on the visual material particularly vase paintings of scenes including the
killing of Deiphobos, Ajax’s theft of the Palladion, and depictions of erotic pursuit.
SE “Ancient Greek Religion and Mythology from Gendered Perspectives”
Zeit: DI, 16:00 – 18:00
Ort: SE 12 (Institut für Klass. Archäologie, Franz-Klein-G. 1, 1190 Wien)
The Seminar will explore a range of topics that are at the cutting edge of research into religion
and mythology in which regard I would be providing my own expertise as the editor of the
Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World series, that is setting the agenda for the study of
mythological personages, as well as of two books on Athena, one of which is scheduled to be
published in 2010 by Oxford University Press. Topics could include: what is ‘Greek
religion’?: looking from the inside; anthropomorphism; polytheism; religion and politics: the
Peisitratos-Phye incident; transgression in Greek religion: Dionysos and the Dionysiac, and
Athena’s tragedy: the story of Erichthonios. Students would explore a range of
methodological approaches including psychoanalysis, structuralism and reception theory in
which regard I would include a session on a topic that I'm exploring in the book for Oxford,
on Klimt's appropriation of classical mythology as part of the Viennese Secessionist
evaluation of turn-of-the-century gender and culture. The study of this topic would be
augmented by a linked-in visits to modern Athena monuments in Vienna above all in the the
Kunsthistorisches Museum.
PS “Gender and Sexuality in Ancient Greece”
Zeit: DO, 12:00 – 14:00
Ort: SE 12 (Institut für Klass. Archäologie, Franz-Klein-G. 1, 1190 Wien)
Gender and sexuality remain among the most hotly debated aspects in the study of classical
archaeology and history: areas to which I have been contributing to the debate since the 1990s
with my work on rape in antiquity and on the goddess Athena. A notable focus has been the
recovery of female voices in the patriarchal societies of the Greek world. This module will
scrutinise the main scholarly positions – e.g. feminist, post-feminist, and Foucauldian – while
maintaining a focus on the ancient evidence at our disposal. Cutting edge research will be
presented in a way geared to first and second year students, including from a volume that I am
currently co-editing on women’s sexual experiences. Topics for lectures and student
presentations would include: ‘how to read against the grain: scholarly approaches and
methodologies; ‘ploughing legitimate children’: marriage; official images: gendering the
Parthenon; What was a Greek woman? ‘wives’ and ‘whores’; Rape, sex and violence, and
‘Greek love’: same-sex relationships. The students would study a range of ancient source
material – literary, visual and archaeological. Ancient Greek literature will all be studied in
translation.