Nov 22, 2024
OHIO University Undergraduate Catalog 2024-25
CARS 2190 - The Ancient World in Cinema
This course studies original Greek and Roman stories in English translation and compares them with modern films on the same subject, asking how aspects of the human experience have remained the same, and how they have changed. The role of creativity in the interpretation and reinterpretation of these stories is also an important focus, exploring how retellings of ancient stories creates new meanings for modern audiences. Students are introduced to several schools of literary theory, including Aristotelian, feminist and queer theory, historicist, and postcolonial.
Credit Hours: 3
OHIO BRICKS: Pillar: Humanities: Text and Contexts
General Education Code (students who entered prior to Fall 2021-22): 2HL
Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts.
Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture
Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I
Course Transferability: OTM course: TMAH Arts & Humanities
College Credit Plus: Level 1
Learning Outcomes:
- Students will be able to explain important elements of ancient society, including its history, politics, religion, and social institutions including slavery, the incorporation of non-Italians, and the role of women using examples from ancient texts.
- Students will be able to identify how movies set in the ancient world reinterpret the past and in doing so reveal contemporary ideas about cultural, national, and political identities.
- Students will be able to explain how movies reveal and comment on enduring humanistic questions, including freedom, power and status, religious belief, and the relationship of the individual and the state.
- Students will be able to analyze the arguments made in a wide range of ancient texts, and interpret how those ideas are explored, adopted, and adapted by modern cinema.
- Students will be able to construct analytical, evidence-based arguments and express them effectively in writing.
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