Required Reading(s) (Sold separately):
Collected Ancient Greek Novels – Amazon - $25.77
The Golden Ass (Penguin Classics) – Amazon - $14.00
The Acts of Thomas (Early Christian Apocrypha) – Amazon - $20.00
Week 1:
The Alexander Romance
Assigned reading:
Ken Dowden, "Pseudo-Callisthenes, Alexander Romance," in B. P Reardon, Collected Ancient Greek Novels (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989) 650-735.
Comparative text:
Gerald N. Sandy, "Anonymous, The Story of Apollonius King of Tyre," in Reardon, Greek Novels, 736-72.
Optional reading:
Tomas Hägg, The Novel in Antiquity (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983) 125-40.
Week 2:
Greek Romances
Assigned reading:
B. P. Reardon, "Chariton, Chaereas and Callirhoe," in Reardon, Greek Novels, 17-124
Comparative texts:
Christopher Gill, "Longus, Daphnis and Chloe," in Reardon, Greek Novels, 285-349, and J. R. Morgan, "Heliodorus, An Ethiopian Story," in Reardon, Greek Novels, 349-588.
Optional reading:
Hägg, The Novel in Antiquity, 5-17, and B. P. Reardon, "Theme, Structure and Narrative in Chariton," Yale Classical Studies 287 (1982) 1-27.
Week 3:
A Latin Tale of Transformation
Assigned reading:
Apuleius, Metamorphoses (The Golden Ass) (Penguin Classics)
Comparative text:
J. P. Sullivan, "Pseudo-Lucian, The Ass," in Reardon, Novels, 589-618.
Optional reading:
Hägg, The Novel in Antiquity, 176–191, and R. Beck, “Mystery Religions, Aretalogy and the Ancient Novel.” In The Novel in the Ancient World, edited by Gareth L. Schmeling (2nd ed. Leiden: Brill, 2003) 131-150.
Week 4:
Jewish Novels
Assigned reading:
Marc Goodacre translation or C. Burchard, "Joseph and Aseneth," in James H. Charlesworth, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (New York: Doubleday, 1985) 2.177-247.
Comparative texts:
Tobit, Esther
Optional reading:
Lawrence M. Wills, Ancient Jewish Novels: an Anthology (Oxford New York: OUP, 2002); George J. Brooke, “Joseph, Aseneth, and Lévi Strauss," in idem, J.D. Kaestli, eds., Narrativity in Biblical and Related Texts: La Narrativité dans la Bible et les Textes Apparentés (EthL 149; Leuven: Peeters, 2000) 185-200.
Week 5:
Christian Fiction
Assigned reading:
Harold W. Attridge, The Acts of Thomas (Early Christian Apocrypha); Salem, OR: Polebridge, 2010).
Comparative texts:
Acts of Paul and Thecla
Optional reading:
Hans-Josef Klauck, The apocryphal acts of the apostles: An introduction. (Waco, Tex.: Baylor University Press, 2008); J. K. Elliott, “Christian Apocrypha in Art and Texts,” in David H. Warren, Ann Graham Brock, David W. Pao, Early Christian Voices: In Texts, Traditions, and Symbols (Boston, Leiden: Brill, 2003) 283-92.