Enrolments for 2020 have closed.
History Writing in Antiquity: Herodotus and Thucydides
Postgraduate | MAQ-AHIX8210 | 2020
Course information for 2020 intake View information for 2024 course intake
{23-SEP-2019}
- Study method
- 100% online
- Assessments
- 100% online
- Entry requirements
- Part of a degree
- Duration
- 18 weeks
FEE-HELP available
History Writing in Antiquity: Herodotus and Thucydides
About this subject
The subject aims at students acquiring the following generic and specialised skills:
- the acquisition of a broad knowledge of the histories by Herodotus and Thucydides
- the development of independent and analytical critical judgment
- the ability to identify a number of different approaches to the reading of history and to offer critical judgement on their application to specific texts
- the ability to assess and prioritise information, to treat different types of disdegree and to analyse their aims and functions
- advanced written communication skills, with particular emphasis on the ability to discuss complex material in writing, to reflect on research and organise ones ideas and to comprehend alternative views and respond to them profitably; also the ability to construct sustained arguments in writing, supported by clear logic and detailed research
- skills in clear presentation of written work and self-organisation and time management, necessary for the successful completion of assignments.
- 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.
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.
- short paper (12%)
- short paper (13%)
- essay (25%)
- online discussion (25%)
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Entry requirements
To enrol in this subject, you must be admitted into a degree.
Additional requirements
No additional requirements
Study load
- 0.125 EFTSL
- This is in the range of 10 to 12 hours of study each week.
Equivalent full time study load (EFTSL) is one way to calculate your study load. One (1.0) EFTSL is equivalent to a full-time study load for one year.
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