Should I do a PhD in Classics?

Why Classical Civilisation is Great

                I have studied both Classical Civilisation (for A Level and BA) and Classics (for MA and PhD) and love both subjects a great deal. However, my education in Classical Civilisation has arguably been the most significant in my life and continues to guide me in my pursuit of Classics. It’s a fact that many are uncomfortable to talk about, but there are some in Classics who hold Classical Civilisation in disdain. Unfortunately, some of them have been Classics and even Classical Civilisation students. Here’s just one particularly crazy story: I was once told by a lecturer (and I’m quoting here) “do you actually study Classics? Oh, Classical Civilisation… Hmm, isn’t that when you learn what the Romans used to eat?” That remark was particularly funny in hindsight, because it was intended as an insult, but I would years later discuss with Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, one of the greats of our discipline, about what the Romans ate at Pompeii. It was actually really interesting and now I kinda wish I did study what the Romans used to eat! Not everyone who works in Classics is this way, obviously, but there are certainly some who think the subject isn’t as desirable as studying the classical languages. However, Classical Civilisation is great, and I’m going to present some of the key reasons for why it has introduced me to, and complemented, my later study of Classics.

                The first point, and the one most people are probably most familiar with, is that the subject is undoubtedly the best for introducing students to the world of Classics who have no prior background in it. I love Latin a great deal now, but if you told me to take it up at sixteen then I would never have done so because it would have sounded like the most boring subject in the world. For many students, myself included, it’s the passion for the classical world that leads you to study the classical languages. Classical Civilisation is excellent for introducing people to all facets of Ancient Greece and Rome, including their literature (in translation), history, philosophy, politics and art. Sometimes I think back to my time studying Classical Civilisation at A Level and fondly reminisce on how much new information I learned in only two years. It sounds like I’m exaggerating, but in many ways, I feel like that was one of the most intellectually rewarding stages of my life. I’ll always hold my old translations of Homer, Virgil and Plato very dearly.

               In fact, working so closely with translations is very helpful for textual criticism and improving your own translation of Latin and Greek if you decide to go in that direction. In Classical Civilisation you have to consider carefully which translations you use and the various quirks of each one. Just for an example, when I studied Virgil’s Aeneid at a third year undergraduate module, I did so in translation, and looked at many, including those by John Dryden, Stanley Lombardo, Sarah Ruden and David West. This is something you do to some extent in Classics when checking your translations, but you rarely read entire chapters or large sections of narratives in many different translations. This experience of reading large chunks of texts in different translations has been of great help for me when I translate Pliny’s Letters now, and I tend to have at least four tabs open on my browser to look at multiple translations of several letters as I did back in my Classical Civilisation days.

           And while I’m talking about working with texts in translation, Classical Civilisation often encourages working with full narratives of texts rather than looking at passages or individual books/chapters. During my MA I studied Classics and the focus tended to be much more focused and narrower, with cross references to other parts of the text and works in the literary tradition. Yet in my Classical Civilisation Undergraduate, I would write much more broadly on many texts, including Aeschylus’ Oresteia, Virgil’s Aeneid and (of course!) Pliny’s Letters. I’m not claiming that either approach is inherently better, but the experience of doing both has been invaluable in my PhD thesis, where I try to combine them.

                Taking a step back and looking at the discipline at large, Classics tends to be more conservative in approach, while Classical Civilisation is typically more innovative. In Classics, you often work with linguistics and literary theory, while also branching off into other aspects of the discipline for extra modules (Ancient History and Classical Art for example). That’s simplifying it a bit to be honest, as university departments have begun to move the subject in fresh and exciting directions (I’m not an expert on this, but I do know about feminist, reception and post-colonial approaches, for example). Yet I do think there is some truth in the claim that Classical Civilisation is more daring in the wide range of modules it offers, such as modules dedicated to gender and sexuality, cinema and classical reception, and museum history. Again, I’m not claiming either Classics or Classical Civilisation has the superior approach, but rather that each programme offers something you may not always get from the other and so naturally synergise.

To be sure, these are only a few points which immediately come to my mind, and there’s also a lot more you could say about why Classical Civilisation is the future for bringing Classics into state schools. Some may also claim that I should be comparing Classical Civilisation Undergraduate to Classics Undergraduate, rather than Master’s level. I'm also aware that some would argue that you do the wider-reading analysis in readings and coursework, and that I haven't gone into much detail about the divide between Classics and Classical Civilisation. However, I wanted to give some examples from my personal experience which were particularly memorable for me. When I study Classics now, I always have Classical Civilisation rooted in the back of my mind, guiding me on. I think there’s something really special about studying both Classics and Classical Civilisation, and hope the discipline will move in a direction where more students, graduates and researchers have experience in both programmes. After all, there are some skills you can only learn through Classical Civilisation! 

I'm new to this Blogging thing, so I'll just place my personal details here in the signature.

All posts on this blog are edited by Christoffer Hødal, who studied his BA in History at Roehampton and MA in International Relations at Edinburgh.

I am Matthew Mordue, a PhD student in Classics at Roehampton, and Pliny the Younger enthusiast (hence the corny blog username).

My twitter is at https://twitter.com/MatthewMordue and my email is morduem@roehampton.ac.uk