This team-taught seminar will examine ancient plots as generative forces for new creative work. We will ask how ancient Greek and Roman plots are appropriated, reused, and reimagined by modern and contemporary writers. We will read the ancient texts in their own historical and cultural context and then ask why later authors turn to these plots and how they transform them in conversation with their own time and in relation to their own artistic goals. The texts are divided into four clusters, Abandonment, Monster, Plague, and Metamorphosis. Students will have the option of writing critical essays or producing their own creative version.
