Hellenic Studies (HEL-UA)

Open to students with no previous training in Greek and to others by permission of the instructor. Elementary I offered in the fall; Elementary II offered in the spring. 4 points per term. An introduction to modern Greek. Provides students with the fundamentals of grammar, syntax, oral expression, listening comprehension, reading, and composition. Students develop the skills and vocabulary necessary to read simple texts and hold basic conversations. Students are introduced to modern Greek culture, history, and society, since the ultimate goal of the course is to enrich our understanding of multiple, living Greek realities through the language. Teaching materials include current newspaper articles, graded literary passages, songs, and various linguistic games.

PREREQUISITE: ELEMENTARY MODERN GREEK I OR PERMISSION OF THE INSTRUCTOR.

Designed for students already familiar with modern Greek. Students are expected to be acquainted with the most significant structures of grammar and syntax, and to have acquired the foundations for basic conversation in Greek. Introduces students to more complex linguistic and grammatical analysis, advanced composition, and graded reading. It also provides further practice in speaking and works to enrich the student's vocabulary. Readings and discussions of selected works of prose, poetry, and theatre serve as an introduction to aspects of modern Greek civilization and as an occasion for comprehensive discuPrerequisite: V56.0104 for V56.0105, V56.0105 for V56.0106, or permission of the instructor. Intermediate I offered in the fall; Intermediate II offered in the spring. 4 points per term. Designed for students already familiar with modern Greek. Students are expected to be acquainted with the most significant structures of grammar and syntax, and to have acquired the foundations for basic conversation in Greek. Introduces students to more complex linguistic and grammatical analysis, advanced composition, and graded reading. It also provides further practice in speaking and works to enrich the student's vocabulary. Readings and discussions of selected works of prose, poetry, and theatre serve as an introduction to aspects of modern Greek civilization and as an occasion for comprehensive discussions of contemporary Greek society.

PREREQUISITE: INTERMEDIATE MODERN GREEK I OR PERMISSION OF THE INSTRUCTOR.

Focus is on advanced composition and oral practices, with the aim of refining an understanding and general facility with written and spoken Greek. Course work is designed to help students develop a comprehensive vocabulary, improve pronunciation, and increase their effectiveness, accuracy, and fluency in writing and speaking the language. Enhances and perfects reading, speaking, conversational, and writing skills through the close study of selected modern Greek literary texts, current newspaper articles and essays, films, advertisements, and comprehensive discussions of contemporary Greek society. Explores major facets and phenomena of Greek culture: current social and political issues, events, and controversies in Greece; Greece's position "in the margins of Europe" and at the crossroads of East and West; gender politics; the educational system; the political landscape; discourses on the question of Greek identity; and topics in popular culture. Through individual projects, oral reports, class presentation, and written assignments, students are expected to pursue an in-depth "reading" of present-day Greece.

This course expands and deepens the knowledge of the Greek language through a selection of texts and documentaries of contemporary Greek artists on a specific topic (subject to change every semester). Through a selection of current events articles and contemporary Greek texts, students will explore and discuss ancient and modern Greece through landscapes, literature, and art, while further enriching and improving their vocabulary skills and speaking proficiency. Special emphasis is placed on the analysis of the language and style used by the writers in order to help students develop their reading comprehension and written expression. The course project will be a collaborative work to create a network of interviews with native speakers from different locations in Greece to learn about the history, traditions, language, and stories of the people. Throughout the semester students will also work on mapping narratives.

This course will offer a survey of 20th-century Greek poetry in its historical and cultural contexts. We will examine questions of canon formation, oral and written culture, and literature as a national institution. We will trace the relation of classical tradition to modern identity and examine the effects of language, nation, politics, and ideology. No background specific to Greece is required.

Topics vary. Please consult the A. S. Onassis Program in Hellenic Studies for a full list of course topics offered.

Topics in Hellenic Studies vary; please consult Notes section below for current course offering.

This course examines the long-standing and constitutive relationships between theatre and medicine. From the classical Greek plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, through Shakespearean drama to Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, the stage has offered a platform for the expression of illness, disability and trauma, both individual and collective. Throughout its history the stage has also offered the medical discourses metaphorical ways of conceptualizing ideas of deformity, normality, deviance and disability. At the same time, it teaches us empathy and affect and contributes to our physical and mental wellbeing. This course will examine this intertwined relationship between theatre and medicine from the Greeks to the contemporary stage, by looking at plays by, among others, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides,mWilliam Shakespeare, Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, Oscar Wilde, Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, Larry Kramer and Tony Kushner.

Topics vary. Please consult the program for more information.

Of the ancient Greeks' many gifts to Western culture, one of the most celebrated and influential is the art of drama. This course covers, through the best available translations, the masterpieces of the three great Athenian dramatists. Analysis of the place of the plays in the history of tragedy and the continuing influence they have had on serious playwrights, including those of the 20th century.

The history of modern Greece unfolds at the crossroad of Europe with the Mediterranean world, Africa, and the Middle East. Between 1821 and 1922, Greece turned from an Ottoman land into a nation state. War, revolution, class, and ethnic conflicts contributed to shaping different and, often, contrasting ideas of the Greek national identity, its rapport to Byzantium and classical antiquity, and its entanglements with notions of Europe, modernity, and empire. The trauma of two World Wars, fascism, and the Holocaust, as well as of the 1940s Greek Civil War, reshaped the social and ethnic fabric of twentieth-century Greece. A testing ground for the emerging politics of the Cold War, postwar Greece experienced a twisted road to democracy, one that in recent years has been challenged by the impact of the global financial crisis. This course will explore the making of modern Greece in relation to broader histories of nationalism, colonialism, and capitalism and its critics. The course will discuss why the case of Greece matters in transnational historical debates focusing on human rights, borderlands, and memory of the violent past.

A survey of the modern Greek novel, and to a lesser extent the short story, structured around narrative technique and the claim to fact(s) and/or fiction(s) in Greece?s turbulent modern history. Readings include some of the masterpieces from this tradition as well as the work of some promising contemporary writers. Selections also suggest some recurrent perspectives on questions of language, gender, and nation in Greece. Comparative reference is made to other Balkan, Mediterranean, European, and world literatures. Note: All texts are available in both Greek and English; critical texts in English only. Class discussion is conducted in English. No background specific to Greece is required.

How is it that the dead speak? In what way can the past be said to survive in the present?tragically? These are the questions around which Yannis Ritsos?s The Fourth Dimension is organized. Composed of a series of dramatic monologues that move between the past and the present, the dead and the living, Ritsos?s poem demands that we think about the relations between memory, history, and language. This course traces Ritsos?s poetic strategies by reading and reconstructing the classical intertexts that inform The Fourth Dimension. In each instance, it seeks to analyze the reasons behind his appropriations, distortions, revisions, and translations of these classical texts.

Until a few decades ago, Greek history began with Homer and dealt narrowly with the Greek world. Thanks to archaeology, the social sciences, and other historical tools, the chronological and geographical horizons have been pushed back. The history of the Greeks now starts in the third millennium B.C.E. and is connected to the civilization that lay to the east, rooted in Egypt and Mesopotamia. We trace Greek history from the Greeks' earliest appearance to the advent of Alexander.

Continuation of the history of ancient Greece from the age of Alexander the Great in the fourth century B.C. until Emperor Augustus consolidated the Roman hold over the eastern Mediterranean in the first century B.C. These three centuries saw the relationship between Rome and the Near East become most meaningful. Examines Alexander's conquests, the states established by his successors (Ptolemies of Egypt and Seleucids of Syria), and the increasing intervention of Rome.

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No prerequisites. This course examines the ways in which Greek Tragedy is re-imagined within the broader context of Modern Greek culture from the early twentieth century to today. It is based on the premise that the encounter with the ancient texts enables Modern Greek writers, playwrights, and directors to think through, embody, and sometimes problematize concerns about nationhood, tradition and modernity, classicism and experimentation. Greek Tragedy is approached both thematically and formally, as text and vehicle for performance. This interface between the ancients and the moderns acquires particular relevance and urgency at moments of political crisis, such as the civil war, the military dictatorship, and the contemporary crisis. This course will approach this dialogue within these specific historico-political contexts and concentrate on the modes of writing and re-writing it has helped to shape. The course will examine the classical play-texts and the ways they have been re-imagined not only on the stage, but also in Modern Greek poetry, fiction, and film.

Greece is a country which, in its quest to become ‘developed’, ‘modern’, and ‘European’, has been pitted against a variety of historical, political, and economic constraints. We will assess the underlying logic of this process, the controversies it has generated, and its outcomes. We will focus on the contradictions of Greek politics and society: mass politics and clientelism; polarization and democratic stability; development without industrialization; a big and omnipresent but weak and poor state within a prospering society; an official economy in perpetual crisis and a thriving underground economy. We will inquire about the actual import and meaning of modernization theories: is there a single path (and a single destination) to political and economic development?

From the birth of Apollo on Delos to the Byzantine monasteries of Patmos; from the from the copper mines of Cyprus to the marble quarries of Naxos; from the palaces of Minoan Crete to the Crusader castles of Rhodes, Greek islands comprise a dynamic arena of ecological, cultural, religious, political, economic, and strategic interaction. This course examines the phenomenon of *Insularity*across the Greek world from Prehistory through Byzantine times with special emphasis on archaeology and material culture. We shall look at the functions and exploitation of islands as places of isolation and connectivity; of refuge and exile; as geo-political/strategic hubs and uninhabited wastelands; as resource-rich and utterly barren. Special emphasis on: ecology and environment; art and architecture; myth and history; religious, political and economic networks; colonization; related coastcapes and maritime 'small worlds.

What impact did built urban development have on local communities across the ancient Greek world? What was the relationship between sacred spaces and the growth and structure of Greek cities? Thissurvey examines Greek urban and religious centers from the time of their foundation through the end of Roman rule. We will look at landscape, topography, archaeology, local myth narratives, and the ways in which religious, political, social, economic, and cultural forces shaped the growth and development of cities and sanctuaries. Special emphasis on: the relation between architecture and society, city planning and design, continuity of sacred space, construction methods and innovations, connectivity of sites, as well as the theories and concepts that inform the study of Greek urbanism. Micro-scale as well as regional trends will be considered along with the role of urban borderscapes as arenas for social, political and cultural interaction.

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No previous language experience required. As an introduction to modern Greek, this course provides students with the fundamentals of grammar, syntax, oral expression, listening comprehension, reading, and composition. Students develop the skills and vocabulary necessary to read simple texts and hold basic conversations. Students are introduced to modern Greek culture, history, and society, since the ultimate goal of the course is to enrich their understanding of multiple, living Greek realities through the language. Teaching materials include current newspaper articles, graded literary passages, songs, and various linguistic games. A sample syllabus is available upon request by e-mailing summer.in.athens@nyu.edu

This course provides students with the fundamentals of grammar, syntax, oral expression, listening comprehension, reading, and composition. Students develop the skills and vocabulary necessary to read simple texts and hold basic conversations. Students are introduced to modern Greek culture, history, and society, since the ultimate goal of the course is to enrich their understanding of multiple, living Greek realities through the language. Teaching materials include current newspaper articles, graded literary passages, songs, and various linguistic games.

Designed for undergraduate students already familiar with modern Greek. Students are expected to be acquainted with the most significant structures of grammar and syntax, and to have acquired the foundations for basic conversation in Greek. Introduces students to more complex linguistic and grammatical analysis, advanced composition, and graded reading. It also provides further practice in speaking and works to enrich the student's vocabulary. Readings and discussions of selected works of prose, poetry, and theatre serve as an introduction to aspects of modern Greek civilization and as an occasion for comprehensive discussions of contemporary Greek society.

Conducted in English. Assuming that Athens serves as a window into Greek history and culture, this course provides students with an opportunity to encounter Greece through the architecture, monuments, art, and music of Athens. From its early beginnings as a center for art and literature, for commerce and industry, to its emergence as the capital of the new Greek state, Athens has always been a city in transition, a museum of Greek history as well as an active, living entity. It retains the traces of the political, economic, religious, and cultural history of Greece—in its streets, its buildings, its glorious artifacts and ruins—even as it struggles to move forward. Students are introduced to the beauty and history of a city whose identity is inextricably bound to mythology and to the history of a country that many regard as the birthplace of Western civilization. Visits to archaeological centers, museums, music bars, and several of the city's most important cultural and historical sites are included. A sample syllabus is available upon request by e-mailing summer.in.athens@nyu.edu

Conducted in English. This course focuses primarily on selected plays of the three leading Athenian dramatists: Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Plays are analyzed critically in relation to their cultural, historical, and theatrical importance. Situating the plays within the history of Greek drama, the course also assesses their continuing influence on 20th-century notions of performance. Students have the unique opportunity of attending performances of the plays by renowned theatre troupes in the ancient theatre of Herod Atticus in Athens and in that of Epidaurus.