The Literary Worlds of Late Antiquity

We study the manifold literary forms championed in those centuries when Greco-Roman literature was transformed by social, spiritual, and creative forces perhaps unparalleled in the western tradition. Genres to be studied include: history (Gregory of Tours), consolation (Boethius), lyric (Ausonius and Fortunatus), hymnody (Prudentius), epic (Juvencus), apology (Tertullian), the philosophic dialogue (Augustine), the cento (Proba), among others. Close attention will be paid to contextualizing these authors and genres in the Greco-Roman tradition and in their late ancient configurations.