Teaching Home Page

Danuta Shanzer
Professor of Classics & Medieval Studies
Dept. of the Classics
The University of Illinois

Office: 3092E Foreign Languages Building
Office Hours: By Appointment in 419A Library (the Classics Library)

NB: I usually work in the Classics Library (419a Main Library) or in my study (422a Main Library). Feel free to come find me there, and we can then go talk in 411 Library.

Postal Address
Dept. of the Classics
The University of Illinois
4080 Foreign Languages Building MC-174
707 S. Mathews Ave.
Urbana, IL 61801

LAT 580 : Selective Survey of Republican Latin (Largely Verse) (Closed web site on Illinois Compass)

LAT/GRK 595 "Introduction to Classical Scholarship" (Closed web site on Illinois Compass)

The course, is designed to introduce students to methods used in, and problems characteristic of, Classical Philology. There will be short units on palaeography, and an introduction to textual critical theory and editorial practice. The course will offer extensive opportunities to "get under the hood," get into the library, and learn how to become more than a bemused traveler in an antique land. Some attention will be devoted to problems in literary history, history of scholarship, and notorious cautionary tales. Practice will be offered with various electronic resources. Students are expected to be able to handle bibliography in foreign tongues such as German (required) and French or Italian. Despite the word "Introduction" in its title, this is not a beginners' course, but one primarily designed for Ph.D. level students.

If you intend to take this course, please fill out the required pre-enrollment questionnaire. Candid answers would be appreciated.

A practical introduction to reading Medieval Latin intended both for Classics majors and for Medievalists of all stripes. Students will study a range of short texts in different genres and different forms, prose and verse, literary and non-literary, highs and lows, funny and serious, from Late Antiquity through the High Middle Ages. The course is a survey intended to produce a confident and independent student, able to scan, parse, and sight-read. Some review of grammar and morphology will be provided during the first few weeks of class. Active knowledge of morphology will be expected. Minimum preparation: two years of well-absorbed College Latin or else my personal permission. I will be administering a diagnostic test at the first meeting, and will advise you not to attempt the class if your performance is inadequate. The course is intended to accommodate students at varying levels, so extra work can be provided for the more advanced. Questions? Please email me.

LATIN 520: OSTROGOTHIC ITALY: BOETHIUS AND CONTEMPORARIES
30790 Latin 520 Section A
Tuesday 2:00-5:00
Room 1128 FLB

This course will concentrate on Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, that "golden book," so often considered the last great flowering of Latin literary culture. We will read the Consolation carefully in Latin with attention both to its argument, to its literary ornatus, and generic form. We will also consider its author in his historical context, which will mean thinking about the culture of Theodoric's court and reading other authors such as Cassiodorus and the Anonymus Valesianus. The Consolation should appeal to many clienteles: people interested in the Menippea, prosimetrum, dialogue, personification, consolatio, popular philosophy, free will, faith and philosophy. The Consolation pulls together many important and intriguing threads for Classicists and is a "must read" for all medievalists.

Boethius at Avitacum: 8 December 2006: 1:30-5:30

CLASSICAL CIVILIZATION 491E: VOYAGES TO STRANGE WORLDS
46650 CLCIV 491 Section E
MW 1:00-2:15
136 Burrill Hall

"Voyages to Strange Worlds:" mediaeval, Renaissance, and modern reflections of the Greco-Roman tradition. The theme is travel and the depiction of the World, the Here and Now, Utopia and Dystopia, the Hereafter (Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell), and Other Worlds. This course will be taught by Danuta Shanzer, Classics and Medieval Studies, who specializes in the later Roman Empire (both pagan and Christian) and the Latin Middle Ages. We will begin by reading classical sources such as Homer's Odyssey (9, 10, 11), Plato's eschatological myths (the Myth of Er , the Phaedo myth, and the Gorgias myth) Vergil's Aeneid , (3 and 6), Cicero's Dream of Scipio , Seneca's Pumpkinification of Claudius , and Lucian's Icaromenippus and True History . We'll explore the early Christian tradition in the Gospel of Nicodemus and the Passion of Perpetua , and will continue with texts such as Saint Brendan's Voyage , Dante's Inferno (selections) and (perhaps) More's Utopia , ending up in the 20th C. with G.K. Chesterton's The Man Who was Thursday , E. Zamyatins' We , C.S. Lewis's Out of the Silent Planet, and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale . We will explore heaven, hell, the comic, the serious, utopias, dystopias, and exotic lands. We'll not confine ourselves exclusively to literary texts; some time will be devoted to film, including works such as The Truman Show , The Stepford Wives , and A Pure Formality . Work for the course will include a midterm, a final paper, and a short creative Utopian/Dystopian project.

Medieval Latin Sight Reading Practice with Ralph Mathisen and Danuta Shanzer

On hold for Fall 2007 while Danuta Shanzer is on leave from teaching and in Spring 2008 while Medieval Latin is being taught.

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A practical introduction to reading Medieval Latin intended both for classics majors and for medievalists of all stripes. Students will study a range of short texts in different genres and different forms, prose and verse, literary and non-literary, highs and lows, funny and serious, from Late Antiquity through the High Middle Ages. The course is a survey intended to produce a confident and independent student, able to scan, parse, and sight-read. Some review of grammar and morphology will be provided during the first few weeks of class. Active knowledge of morphology will be expected. Minimum preparation: two years of well-absorbed College Latin or else my personal permission. I will be administering a diagnostic test at the first meeting, and will advise you not to attempt the class if your performance is inadequate. The course is intended to accommodate students at varying levels, so extra work can be provided for the more advanced. Questions? Please email me.

Readings from various Latin philosophical texts to include Cicero, De natura deorum and Republic and Seneca's De otio.

If you intend to take this course, please fill out the required pre-enrollment questionnaire. Candid answers would be appreciated.

LATIN 511: Advanced Latin Prose Composition (Closed Web Site is on Illinois Compass)

LATIN 580: Late Antique and Medieval Latin Hagiography (Closed Web Site is on Illinois Compass)

LATIN 491: Augustine of Hippo: Confessions Plus (Closed Web Site is on Illinois Compass)

LATIN 531: Special Disciplies: Latin Palaeography (Closed Web Site is on Illinois Compass)


Lady Grammatica from Chartres (drawn by Roger Tomlin)	The 2000 Summer Medieval Latin T-Shirt (drawn by Patsy Glatt)