Roman Elegy from Catullus to Ovid

This course focuses on the literary production of erotic elegy in the Augustan Period, 1st cent. BCE. We will focus on selections from the major authors in this genre as it would never flourish again, and it offers a rich set of themes, reflections on contemporary society and dazzling intertextual and intrageneric play. The authors present us a puzzle in terms of textual transmission, and their relation to politics and the 'real' world. Gender, sexuality and power have formed a core interest of scholarship and allow us to consider different theoretical approaches.