History Writing in Antiquity: Herodotus and Thucydides

• • What is History?
  • The Question of Sources
  • History: general or particular. The Portrayal of Women in Herodotus
  • Understanding Causation in History
  • Understanding the historian’s political consciousness
  • The historian’s discourse
  • Unitarian or Analyst’s approach to composition
  • Speeches in historical narrative
  • Treatment of individuals
  • Narratology: study of how narrative works in history
  • Themes, structure and historical composition
  • What is history? Changes in interpretation.

Equivalent subjects

You should not enrol in this subject if you have successfully completed any of the following subject(s) because they are considered academically equivalent:

• MAQ-AHIX823-History Writing in Antiquity: Herodotus and Thucydides (No longer available)

Additional requirements

No additional requirements

Herodotus and Thucydides are seen as the founding fathers of the discipline of history. Their work has had a profound influence on later historians. This unit examines their different approaches to writing history as well as examining a range of modern historiographical approaches to the reading of these two influential historians. This unit will give students a thorough understanding of the major works by Herodotus and Thucydides, along with a comprehensive overview of the history of the study of these authors. At the same time, it will introduce some of the major historiographical techniques used in the study of these authors, and give the students the opportunity to analyse a range of critical responses to the writing of history. It will teach students to read these authors within their historical and historiographical context, to understand the characteristics of their particular type or genre and to evaluate the historical information gathered from them.

NCCW (Pre-2020 units) HIST803, AHPG823

• Reflective Writing (25%%)
• Case Study/Analysis (25%%)
• essay (50%%)

Current study term: 24 Jul 22 to 06 Nov 22