Course Profile |
TRENT CONTENTS Association President's Message The Higher Cost of Higher Education Are You Being Served? Discounts and benefits for alumni Course profile - Women in the Greek and Roman World Alumni Staff Profile - Doug Brown '71 Which Way Is Up? - Investment strategies in difficult times |
Classical Civilization / Women's Studies 231a / 232b:
by Jim Barber '87 How are women treated and perceived in the ancient world? What rights did they have? What roles were they expected to play in society? Those are just some of the questions examined in a unique pair of second year half courses taught by Prof. Jackie Tinson. Classical Civilization 231a uses the scant physical and literary evidence available to put together a picture of life for ancient Greek women particularly those of Athens from 700 to 300 B.C. The Roman half of the two-half courses looks at women's experiences during the last decades of the old Republic around 100 B.C. and through the glory days of the Empire up until 300 A.D. It is one of the few courses combining Classics with Women's Studies in Canada. "We have more extent evidence about the women of Athens than of any other of the Greek city states, that's why there is more of a focus on Athenian society," said Prof. Tinson. It is curious to point out that even though Athens was a democracy, Prof. Tinson argues that women living under the more totalitarian days of the Roman Empire actually had more rights and a better lot than their Athenian counterparts. "In Athens, women were considered citizens of the city-state but there was a different quality to the citizenship. They were not allowed to participate in the elections or hold oce. Women really had no political voice at all," she explained. "Women in Athens were to be seen and not heard and they were never allowed to be out in public unless they were accompanied." And there is hardly any literature left that has been attributed to women. "We have some fragments of a work by Sappho who was around some time in the 7th Century B.C. but her work, which was by all accounts a fine example of lyric poetry, was denounced and destroyed by the church," mostly because of its homoerotic tones. In Rome, particularly under the Empire, women of the higher social orders had more clout. "In the Empire, all power in the state was concentrated in the person of the Emperor and if you were a woman who had influence over the emperor or somebody within the Emperor's circle, real power could be exercised," she said. "And women were allowed to become educated and cultured in fact - it was encouraged." Prof. Tinson said there are about 30 students in each half of the course, with only two men so far this year. The majority of students taking Classical Civilization/Women's Studies 231a/232b are doing so as an elective. "We often get more in the second half of the course because students have dropped a full course and wish to pick up at least a half course," she said, adding that she is in fact disappointed that more men aren't taking the course. "I don't think there's anything to read into the enrollment numbers. I just think when there is a man in the group there is a different dynamic to the discussion and we can really get into examining the way the two sexes interpret what we're talking about based on their own experience." She also found a curious phenomena amongst the students taking these courses over the past couple of years. "There are quite a few science majors in the course," said Prof. Tinson. "And I think it might have to do with the way Classics is studied, with the rigorous use of evidence to prove a hypothesis, just like in chemistry or biology." | |
 |
 |
 |
This page is maintained by the Trent University Alumni Association.