An examination of several key texts of the classical and late-classical periods that provide critical reference-points for the English literary tradition. Texts will be read with an eye to how they shape writerly efforts in the subsequent centuries, and the class will ask students to think carefully about the status of the classical world as an element of literary value, both past and present. Texts (in translation) might include the dramatic tradition of Sophocles and Aeschylus, the poetry of Ovid, Lucretius, Statius, the writing of Boethius, Apuleius, Boccacio, Augustine, and more. Some sections are writing-intensive.