Course Themes
The principal project for us, individually and as a group, is both to brainstorm answers to, and to think critically about, the following question:
What is tragedy?
Put differently, it is to deploy thinking, both creative and critical, in an effort to begin to come up with a theory of tragedy. That will involve asking questions like:
- Is there a connection between tragic drama and the tragedies of life?
- Is tragedy always sad? Can it ever be funny — are tragedy and comedy diametrical opposites?
- Do tragedies from long ago — Greek tragedies from the 400s BCE, Roman tragedies from the 1st cent CE — connect with our experiences here and now?
Life is a journey and so is this. I don't expect anyone to come up with a finalized, polished anything. Rather, I'm hoping to see evidence of committed reflection on the topic, reflection informed by careful and close reading of assigned texts.
Among issues that we'll focus on are two with clear relevance to the questions we're asking:
- Gender — as a theme, how it is treated in the plays we'll read, and how might that connect with us?
- Performance — how can we make these dramas more alive for today's audiences, and what might that teach us about the dramas themselves?
- This is not a theater class, nor will I assign performances of scenes. What we'll do instead is form discussion groups on the day of class to share thoughts about, among other things, performance and to demonstrate those thoughts with reading of lines. But we'll also be devoting discussion to critical consideration of tragedy and its reception today.
Expectations
General
BY ENROLLING IN THIS COURSE, you agree to abide by expectations set forth in this syllabus and in other course-related documents.
Expectations include:
- Adherence to the the University's standards and regulations regarding academic honesty
- Respectful and courteous treatment of others participating in this class, both while class is in session and between meetings. That means:
- No distractive, discourteous, disrespectful, or offensive (racially, sexually, etc.) action or speech, as per the Code of Student Conduct.
- No distractive or otherwise inappropriate use of electronic devices.
- Similarly, no unnecessarily disruptive comings or goings in/out of class. (When nature calls, that's one thing. When a roommate calls about plans that evening, kindly leave it till after class.)
- No activity not related to class.
Failure to abide by these expectations could result in disciplinary action.
Academic Honesty
One thing that enrollment in this course entails is compliance with University Academic Policies. That includes consenting, as appropriate, to submit written work to Turnitin.com or to other websites/databases likewise designed to confirm originality. It also includes adhering to standards of academic honesty.
What is academic honesty? It's the ability to say that:
- Your work really is yours
- You've pointed out how you've relied on the work (words, ideas, research, etc.) of others
- You have done nothing to interfere with others' work
As for academic dishonesty, that includes:
- What follows covers a wide variety of cases, some of which may not apply to this particular class. For a full account of the University's policies regarding academic honesty, consult the Student Academic Honesty Code.
- Plagiarism, i.e., presenting as if one's own the ideas, research, writing, etc. that one has got from other sources, human or otherwise; also, the failure to acknowledge properly your reliance on other's research, writing, and so on. "Other's research, writing, and so on" includes artificial intelligence (AI). Improper use of AI will be treated as academic dishonesty
- Permissible use of AI is confined to top-level Google searches or similar, that is, to search strings like: "What is the date of the Declaration of Independence?" "What was the Areopagus?" "What is backwards outlining?" — basic stuff. Asking Google, ChatGPT, or other AI engines to come up with ideas (brainstorming), to look deeply into those ideas (research), to organize those ideas (outlining), to express those ideas in words (writing), will be treated as academic dishonesty
- AI research is hazardous in other ways as well, as it is rarely documents its sources properly. In other words, AI plagiarizes, and in using it, you, too, run the risk of plagiarizing
- Is it academic dishonesty to ask AI to come up with bibliography? Possibly not; most of us use Google to get bibliography, at least at the initial stage. Still, you always need to check your initial Google results and to dig deeper.
- Cheating, i.e., giving or receiving unauthorized help for an exam, test, quiz, or other assessment
- Multiple submission, i.e., submitting substantial portions of the same work for credit more than once
- Unauthorized collaboration on assignments, etc. (e.g., a roommate writing your paper in whole or in part)
- Intentional fabrication/misrepresentation of evidence, sources, etc.
- Forgery (of signatures, of paper-authorship, etc.)
- Sabotage (undermining efforts of other students)
- Bribery (inducements to affect grade)
- Fabrication of excuses concerning (i.e., lying about) absence, need for make-ups, etc.
- Unauthorized note-taking, i.e., arranging to have someone not enrolled in the class attend to take notes*
- * If SSD approves your use of a note-taker, I need to be informed.
- Unauthorized distribution of notes
- For this last I don't mean the occasional sharing of notes with friends unable to make a given class meeting — not forbidden, but don't make a habit of it. I mean note-sharing as a paid service or a quid-pro-quo.
Note that any instance of academic dishonesty, even plagiarizing a small writing assignment, will be subject to appropriate disciplinary action at the instructor's discretion — details on the Harpur College Procedures for Academic Honesty Board Hearings document.
In-Class Use of Laptops, Other Electronic Devices
Use of laptops and similar devices in class is encouraged, but under the following restrictions:
- Laptops, smart phones, other electronic devices are to be used ONLY for your note-taking, other class-related use — nothing else!
- By enrolling, you implicitly consent to my monitoring of device use during class, i.e., don't be surprised if I look over your shoulder, so. . .
- No Googling, etc. etc. unrelated to class
- No audio recording in class without my permission, and only for your personal use
- No video recording at all
- All such devices are to be turned OFF and placed OUT OF SIGHT during quizzes, in-class writing, or similar, at the instructor's discretion. See further the Academic Honesty section of this syllabus
Without instructor's permission,* audio-recording of lectures or other in-class activities is forbidden. Unauthorized sharing of recorded classes, lectures, etc. by students is a violation of property-rights law and as such is subject to academic and / or legal sanction. All video recording is forbidden, without exception.
* Students with proper documentation from Services for Students with Disabilities need to make known to me their need to use voice recording — see more, below.
Those who fail to abide by the above conditions will lose the privilege of using such devices, even for valid purposes, in class.
Students with Disabilities
Binghamton University is committed to the creation of an inclusive and safe learning environment for all students, including students with disabilities. Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) is responsible for the determination of appropriate accommodations for students who encounter barriers due to disability. Request your academic accommodation letter(s) early in the semester, or as soon as you have completed the SSD process (self-disclosure form, submitted documentation and initial appointment), so that we have adequate time to arrange your approved academic accommodations. Remember that accommodations are not retroactive, and a discussion with your instructor must occur regarding their implementation. Your access in this course is important to me. If you experience any disability-related access barriers in this course, such as with printed content, graphics, online materials, classroom seating or location, or any communication barriers; reach out to me and SSD right away. You can contact SSD at 607-777-2686 or via email at ssd@binghamton.edu.
Updating of Course Pages
Course-related materials maintained by the instructor will be added to as needed but otherwise will remain substantially unchanged throughout the semester. It may, though, become necessary to update or modify them from time to time. The instructor (me!) therefore reserves the right to do so.
E-mail Contact
Every student taking this course will need to check BU E-mail addresses (username@binghamton.edu) on a regular basis, as that will be the principal medium for instructor-student communication outside class.
My E-mail is ascholtz@binghamton.edu. For my office hours, schedule, etc., visit the Contact, Schedule page.
Attendance, Absence, Tardiness
Attendance is required, as is prompt arrival at class; learning cannot happen if we are not there on time and participating. Attendance will be taken and will figure into the participation grade. Students with more than 7 unexcused absences (see just below) risk not receiving a passing grade. A pattern of unexcused tardiness can and will count as absence at the discretion of the instructor.
- To verify your attendance, please bring your smart phone or camera-enabled tablet to class so you can scan the QR code on the first few PowerPoint slides for a given class meeting. Scanning that code will bring you to a Google survey with just a few, simple questions. Respond to those and you're good! But the survey becomes unavailable 10 minutes into class, so be on time. If you need to sign in the old fashioned way, no problem; come up to me after class.
For regular class meetings, to leave class early unexcused will count as unexcused absence. No graded exercise scheduled for that meeting will be accepted. The same does not apply to midterm or final exams. If you finish those early you may leave early.
Students will have the opportunity to make up graded exercises (including exams) only in the event of excused absence.
Excusable Absence
IF YOU ARE ILL, or otherwise cannot make class for VALID REASONS (religious observance, job interview, important family function, etc.), please contact me AS SOON AS POSSIBLE via E-mail. Without timely E-mail notification, I will not credit missed classes. Note that excused absence does not figure into the total mentioned just above, 7 unexcused absences.
Excusable Absence/Lateness
- Illness
- A medical appointment
- Circumstances relating to a documented and agreed-to SSD accommodation
- Unforeseeable transport issue — vehicle breakdown, etc. — without alternative transport
- Unavoidable court date
- Job interviews, important family events, religious observances, etc.
- Disasters, traumatic events of various sorts
Inexcusable Absence/Lateness
- "I missed my bus" (get to the bus stop on time)
- "My parents made the vacation reservations without telling me" (tell them that's not a valid excuse)
- "I overslept" (set your alarm)
- Scheduling conflicts of any sort with other classes (please speak the other instructor or have them speak to me — they can't do that)
Make-Ups
In the event of excused absence on days when a graded exercise happens in class (quiz, midterm, that kind of thing), it is the student's responsibility to arrange for timely make-ups. By "timely," I mean IMMEDIATE. I do not reschedule merely to accommodate "busy" schedules, as that would be deeply unfair to others just as busy.
Think of it this way: Excusably absent from class Thursday, makeup Friday or Monday. Tuesday ordinarily too late.
Required Absence Due to Illness
If you are clearly and obviously sick enough that it interferes with your learning, obviously, stay home and get better; maybe see a doctor. Do not come to class. That is for your sake but it is also to prevent you from infecting others.
For more on attendance, see the University Bulletin.
Student Learning Outcomes
General Education (GenEd)
Students who have taken this course should expect to have. . .
T - Critical Thinking and Reasoning
Students will:
- Clearly articulate an issue or problem;
- Identify, analyze, and evaluate ideas, data, and arguments as they occur in their own or others’ work;
- Acknowledge limitations such as perspective and bias; and
- Develop well-reasoned (logical) arguments to form judgments and / or draw conclusions
For more on critical thinking, see below.
H - Humanities
Students will:
- Demonstrate knowledge of the conventions and methods of at least one of the humanities; and
- Recognize and analyze nuance and complexity of meaning through critical reflections on text, visual images, or artifacts
Course-Specific
By the conclusion of this course, students should expect. . .
- To grasp key facts about ancient practices, cultural realities, etc. pertaining to ancient ancient Greek and Roman drama, especially tragedy.
- To grasp key issues of the modern performance of ancient tragedy.
- To formulate an initial-stage, working theory of tragedy, an answer to the question, "What is tragedy?"
Required Texts, Print & Online
REGARDING REQUIRED TEXTS, we'll all need to work from the same editions.
- We shall be dealing mostly with translations, which can vary widely in quality
- In class and on exams, I shall make reference only to editions listed below
- When we discuss, and experiment with, performance in class, we'll be using assigned texts
Texts for Purchase from Campus B&N Bookstore:
Aeschylus. The Oresteia. Trans. Robert Fagles. Harmondsworth, England and New York: Penguin Books, 1984. Print ISBN 9780140443332
---. Persians. Trans. Janet Lembke and C. J. Herington. Greek Tragedy in New Translations. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981. Print ISBN 9780195070088
Aristophanes. Frogs. Trans. Jeffrey Henderson. Newburyport, Mass.: Focus Publishing, 2008. Print ISBN 9781585103089
Euripides. 10 Plays. Trans. Paul Roche. New York: Signet Classic, 1998. Print ISBN 978-0451527004
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. Four Tragedies and Octavia. Trans. E. F. Watling. Penguin Classics. 2 ed. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1966. Print ISBN 9780140441741
Sophocles. The Three Theban Plays. Trans. Robert Fagles. Penguin Classics. New York: Penguin Books, 1984. Print ISBN 9780140444254
Electronic Texts via Brightspace
Additional assigned readings are to be accessed via this Bingdev site or via Brightspace. For links to those readings, see the relevant Study Guides.
Online Access
This course employs two, separate web sites:
- A "Bingdev" web site (where this syllabus resides), and,
- A Brightspace course site.
The "Bingdev" web site will provide access to course-related information and materials of a non-secure nature, including:
- Syllabus (this document)
- Assignment schedule
- Study Guides
- Lectures / instructor's PowerPoints
- Various other informational pages
The Brightspace course site is mostly for materials and links of a secure nature, things that should not be accessible to the general public via internet or Google.
Navigate to the Brightspace site via the following "breadcrumb" path:
Brightspace > Fall 2025 Ancient Tragedy, Greece & Rome (AMS-150-01, COLI-281C-01)
Assessment of Student Work (aka, grading)
Weighting
| 15% | |
| quizzes | 12% |
| midterm exam | 34% |
| final exam | 39% |
Grading Scale
| A | 93-100 |
| A- | 90-92.9 |
| B+ | 87-89.9 |
| B | 83-86.9 |
| B- | 80-82.9 |
| C+ | 77-89.9 |
| C | 73-86.9 |
| C- | 70-82.9 |
| D | 60-69.9 |
| F | 0-59.9 |
Participation, Reading, Preparation, etc.
Anything assigned for this class, and that's mostly readings, must be done, and on time, which is to say, by class on the date indicated on the assignment schedule. Failure on that score will compromise one's grade.
Assignments mostly have the purpose of preparing you to participate in class. Attendance is therefore crucial, but it's not enough just to be there. Participation entails pitching in: posing questions, supplying answers, commenting generally — in other words, taking part in discussion. This last will be partly structured, partly unstructured, and will center mostly on issues and topics listed on the Schedule of Assignments and on Study Guides.
- INSTRUCTOR'S CALLING ON STUDENTS
- RESPECT FOR OTHERS' AND ONE'S OWN THOUGHTS
Rather than expect profound insights always, we need to acknowledge that life is a journey, and so is this class. All discussion is dialogue working toward shared understanding. Critical thinking is part of it, but so is the more messy process of brainstorming.
Don't be surprised if I call on you in class. I do this a lot; it actually works well — students feel it helps break the ice.
When grading participation, I principally consider the following:
- Attendance. A passing participation grade presupposes regular attendance
- Frequency of participation. In a large class, not everyone can talk all the time; in a smaller class, there is more opportunity. Still, everyone will get a chance to share perspectives
- If you find yourself contributing frequently, please let others have a chance
- If you feel reluctant to share comments in class, you're certainly welcome to email them to me. Still, I'll be asking you to work toward the goal of sharing in real time, live and in person and in class
- Quality of preparation. Most participation should demonstrate careful preparation for class: reading of texts, consideration of Guiding Questions on Study Guides
- We naturally don't always just talk about assigned texts. But when we do, which is most of the time, we need to demonstrate that we're prepared.
- Part and parcel of the previous, but important on its own account, is the expectation that we demonstrate critical thinking in our preparation and participation, for which, see the following. . .
Critical Thinking
What is critical thinking? It is "the art of making clear, reasoned judgments based on interpreting, understanding, applying and synthesizing evidence gathered from observation, reading and experimentation." (Burns, Sinfield Essential Study Skills 2016, quoted University of Edinburgh "Critical Thinking" webpage.) Let me me break it down into the following essential elements — here, I mostly follow the aforementioned UoE page:
- When reading, try to answer the question of "Who, what, where, when?"— basic factual stuff.
- Who wrote the assigned reading?
- What is its title? What is its genre? (Is it a tragic play? A fictional short story? Something else?)
- What is it about? What is the basic structure of its argument (non-fiction) or plot (fiction)? If fiction, who are the main characters? When and where is the story set?
- What is the historical, geographic, and / or cultural context within which the author wrote? (Classical Athens, 500-300 BCE? Early Imperial Rome, 1st century CE? Twenty-first century America?)
- Identify and evaluate arguments in the target text.
- What is the author or (in dialogues, plays, fiction generally) speaker trying to say — what is the larger point?
- What is convincing about that? What isn't? Why? (For "why?" I'm asking you to explain your reasoning and to cite evidence)
- Be on the lookout for bias. Is the author saying what they say with an ulterior motive, a concealed reason for saying it, one that interferes with the author's objectivity? Bias in your target text, that is, the one that you're discussing, deserves comment. Bias in a secondary source diminishes the usefulness of that source.
- Formulate your own arguments.
- Pull together what you've read, and what you've surmised about what you've read, into a claim of your own. ("In work X we see author Y laying out an expansive, yet flawed, theory of Z. That theory presents itself as inherently valid, yet it betrays the author's ideological commitment to A, B, and C")
- Be prepared to support your claim with reasoned arguments and with evidence: facts, examples, documentation. Avoid extreme, sweeping, or tendentious assertions. Aim for circumspection and nuance.
- Be on the lookout for bias in your own writing, and especially for confirmation bias, the tendency to seek out evidence and arguments that favor one's preferences, prejudices, and preconceptions.
I'll admit that numbers 2. and 3. at times merge into the same thing. Still, both rely heavily on a firm grasp of 1.
Study Guides
Study Guides are assigned reading, along with the readings they go with.
- Designed to be user-friendly, especially for those new to the study of the ancient Mediterranean, Study Guides introduce readings and related material, including background (historical, etc.) crucial to make sense of it all
- Study Guides clue you in to important topics. They do that in large part by enunciating a Guiding Question located at the the top of the Study Guide for the class meeting in question. That question will form the basis of discussion in class and / short writing assignments, as the case may be
- Generally, these Guiding Questions will have a dual focus:
- Course-thematic. The content of this course is organized around over-arching themes stated as headings on the Schedule of Assignments. Most Guiding Questions touch on one of those themes.
- Critical thinking. Most Guiding Questions seek to get you thinking critically, as per above.
Study Guides can be accessed via the "Assignments" page. Plus, there is a section devoted to them on the All Pages page.
Quizzes
There will be TWO, FACT-BASED, MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUIZZES: IDs dealing with readings and lecture / discussion: titles of readings, authors' names, relevant terms. That more or less corresponds to critical-thinking element number 1 (above).
Sample question:
In Aeschylus' Agamemnon, what is the name of Agamemnon's wife? Is it:
- Cassandra?
- Iphigenia?
- Clytemnestra?
- None of the above?
Of course, the answer is c., "Clytemnestra."
The purpose of these is be to encourage you to keep up with the material. No essays, no interpretation.
But these quizzes may be harder than you think. Note that in studying for quizzes, the terms page will be of great use, as will lecture PowerPoints and Study Guides, not to mention your notes on readings.
Quizzes are important. Take good notes, pay attention in class, keep track of basic text facts as appropriate — authors, titles, approximate dates, situations, subject matter, main characters, etc. I do not quiz for obscure details, precise dates, or the like.
Exams
There will be two exams: a midterm, weighting as per above. For details as to content, format, and so on, please consult the relevant Study Guides: