CLAS 301B
Group Presentations
Spring 2025

The group presentations focus on how a work – or some aspect of a work – that we read in this course is "received" in post-classical culture. The post-classical work you choose to report on (this could be a film, a song, a television show, a work of literature, a video game, a painting, a sculpture, etc.) should either explicity recall the ancient work and adapt and update it for a new audience or it should closely and compellingly share similar themes, characters, or ideas. The presentations are scheduled for Tuesday, March 25 and Tuesday, April 29.

Instructions for  Group Presentations: 

(1) presentations should be 15 mins. long (organize and practice as a group); 

(2) your group must provide an outline of your presentation (in, e.g., PowerPoint or some other electronic format for the class) that includes your main arguments, names, dates, titles, texts, links to film clips, images, etc., as appropriate for your presentation (make sure there will be no technical delay!);

(3) please do not fill time with irrelevant "background" about your topic or extensive plot summary of the works we've read in this class: only include background material & plot summary that is necessary for your audience to follow your presentation and its analysis; keep video clips brief;

(4) cite any sources, print or online, that you use in researching your topic (be sure to critically scrutinize materials you find online; e.g. are they generated by individuals, institutions or organizations with relevant professional expertise?)

Some Vergil suggestions (explicit receptions)

Questions to consider regarding your project

Your group will be graded on: 

(1) the strength of your arguments and analysis; 

(2) how compelling the connections are that you draw between your topic and materials we've studied in this course;

(3) the clarity, usefulness, and effectiveness (i.e. for your CLAS 301B audience) of your organization and presentation (please proofread your outline carefully).

N.B.: You may choose how you want to present as a group, but all group members must contribute as equally as possible to the entire project. If someone is not participating in your group’s preparations, let me know immediately. Participating group members will receive the same grade; those who refuse to participate will receive a “0” for the assignment.


works we've studied this semester:

Plautus, Casina & Pseudolus
Terence, Eunuchus
Cato, De Agri Cultura
Catullus, Poems
Lucretius, On the Nature of Things
Cicero, Letters
Vergil, Eclogues, Georgics & Aeneid
Horace, Odes
Propertius, Elegies
Tibullus, Elegies
Sulpicia, Elegies
Ovid, Amores, Heroides, Art of Love & Tristia
Lucan, Civil War
Seneca, Thyestes & Medea



HOME