Women, Writing, Greece: From Sappho to Virginia Woolf and Beyond

This course explores the history of engagement by women writers and artists with the place, idea, and myths of Greece. We first read ancient female writers, preeminently Sappho, and examine the representation of women in ancient texts; we then trace the strategies through which "Greece" allows later women writers to assert their authority and authorship, question gender hierarchies and political/sociocultural paradigms, and lay a claim to the classical tradition. We consider how ancient writing affects contemporary understandings of identity and gender, and how modern works, from novels to plays to films, shape our view of the ancient world.