Ideas centered on Empire and Diplomacy, viewed through the lens of literature. What is the relationship between Epic and Empire?  Can ancient literary texts speak to contemporary diplomatic challenges, such as the growing confrontation between China and the United States? What is the Thucydides Trap?

PWAD/CMPL 489

Empire and Diplomacy

Spring 2024

This course surveys foundational texts of Western literature and focuses on the theme of imperium, “supreme power or absolute dominion; empire; something resembling a political empire; imperial sovereignty, rule, or dominion.” Through our readings, we attempt to define the concept of imperium in epic literature -- see, for example, Philip Hardie, Virgil's Aeneid: Cosmos and Imperium and David Quint, Epic and Empire. We will explore themes and topics broadly related to power and empire, war and peace, imperialism, heroism, colonialism, irredentism, nationalism, and the negotiation of power through diplomacy. The course seeks to understand how ancient texts impact, shape, and define our world today.

Distinguished scholars will join us during the semester to help introduce and explain texts that may be unfamiliar. Internationally recognized diplomats and global leaders will share their thoughts on the play of power on the world stage today. No course prerequisites are needed to enroll.

Our selected classical texts (read in modern English translations) represent the very foundations of Western literature, thought, and spirituality. Those texts include the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, the Homeric Greek epic known as the Iliad, selections from the Bible, Virgil's Latin epic, the Aeneid, as well as texts representing the Old English tradition, including the epic Beowulf.

As a CMPL course, with an interest in literature, we will attempt to define the epic genre and to gain a better understanding of the formal qualities of epic poetry.

As a PWAD course, with an interest in history, politics, and contemporary diplomacy, we will examine the influence exerted by these ancient epics in matters of war and peace, the rise and fall of empires, imperial ambition, and related issues of defense and diplomacy. Our readings will include texts dealing with contemporary diplomacy. 

Class discussions will focus on our weekly readings, usually with a question attached to our assigned readings: why, for example, did Alexander the Great, according to Plutarch, carry a copy of the Iliad on his military campaigns? And why (as some scholars have argued) did the ancient Romans look to the Aeneid as an argument for imperialism? Or, from a more modern perspective, what is the origin of fascism? Do ancient texts account for the rise of fascism in the 20th century?

The course briefly surveys highlights from the age of Early Empires (Akkadian, Sumerian, Egyptian, Assyrian), Classical Antiquity (Hellenistic and Roman empires), and the Middle Ages (Holy Roman Empire), with selected readings from each period. The course also looks briefly at the Renaissance and modern eras in order to explore the trajectory and expansion of the British Empire.

Using the rise of the British Empire as a case study in imperial power and politics, the course will trace the origin, development, and political implications of words such as ‘Britain’ and ‘England’ and will explore the political, cultural, and historical implications surrounding the origin and development of words such as ‘Anglo-Saxon’, ‘England,’ and ‘English’. From the standpoint of ‘words as instruments of power’, for example, does it matter which word first entered the English language: the word ‘England’ or the word ‘English’? We will explore these and similar questions as we try to understand the role of languages and sacred texts in shaping and creating empires.

Course readings includes brief selections from Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire -- as we explore how the concept of empire was viewed in England in the eighteenth century and as we assess Gibbon’s thesis that Rome’s decline could be blamed on a loss of civic virtue.

In a similar vein, the course will probe other retrospective assessments of past empires, including Voltaire’s remark on the Holy Roman Empire that it “was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.” Finally, the course will review special contributions made during the Middle Ages to the study of rhetoric, the development of a lingua franca, and the rise of litterae humaniores, ideas that form the basis of western education and that forged the creation of “Universities.”

PWAD-CMPL Spring 2023 Course description and picture of ancient vase.

Video by Nathan Dufour. Commissioned by the Transatlantic Forum for Education and Diplomacy.

STUDENT TESTIMONIALS

  • Laura M.

    For me, PWAD 489 was a delicious buffet of my academic interests: modern-day diplomacy from guest speakers and diplomats paired with history, literature, and legends from the old books and epics. Professor Leinbaugh is a wealth of knowledge about the works, and he teaches them in an easily accessible and entertaining way. Readings are appetizers, and the lectures are feasts as Professor Leinbaugh pulls together threads from course material to tell the story of Britain, from Troy to Beowulf, from Macartney to Brexit. I took this course as a freshman, and I could not recommend it more. Don’t be surprised if it changes the way you think about present-day conflict, diplomatic relations, or the purpose of your education.

  • Robin McGillivray

    How might we relate King Lear to Scottish independence? How can we better understand Beowulf within the context of the formation of the Old English language? Why can Boris Johnson recite sections of the Iliad by heart? These are all questions you may seek answers to while taking this course. After taking this class I now understand that study of classic literature is really an homage to the ability of language to touch upon the eternal. Reading ‘the greats' entailed reading extensively and purposefully, delving into literature from ancient civilisations and considering what they tell us about the state of modern diplomacy. As an English and International Relations major studying abroad from the University of St Andrews, Scotland, this course has provided me with a refreshing and unique lens through which to study British politics.”

  • Corey Reichert

    I always hear references to Gilgamesh, Shakespeare, Homer, and Virgil but never had the time nor true effort to put in the work to read it. Within Professor Leinbaugh’s course Epics, Empire, and Diplomacy, you can do that and so much more. You can take these beloved works and relate them to the era in which they came and delve into them to pull out even more meaning. I personally enjoyed how interactive the course was with some theatrical demonstrations with myself playing mythical characters such as Gloucester, Zeus, and Aeneas. The other major area which I enjoyed was that of Diplomacy. This was best done by the highly influential connections that Professor Leinbaugh has developed over the years leading to his ability to have people like Paul Rennie of the U.K. Embassy or Professor Harold Koh. Overall, this is a wonderful course and I would recommend that anyone who can take it should grasp it and bathe in the kleos that is PWAD 489.

  • Satchel W.

    PWAD/CMPL 489 seems like a strange concoction—how, exactly, can a class be about everything from The Epic of Gilgamesh to modern geopolitics? Surprisingly, it works! For someone who has a broad range of interests in the world, it was a wonderful class to explore two domains at once. In a typical class, we might have a Zoom call with a former CIA intelligence analyst for the first half and then transition to a discussion on the Old English dragon-slaying epic Beowulf in the second half. I took this class even though I’m not majoring in PWAD or CMPL, and I’m glad I did, because I feel like I deepened my cultural literacy about the past and expanded my breadth of knowledge about the present world simultaneously. I would recommend PWAD/CMPL 489 to anyone who wants to get a deeper understanding of our English-speaking and Western cultural inheritances and see how our historical and cultural inheritance plays out at the highest levels of global diplomacy.

  • Alex P.

    Going into my last semester at UNC, PWAD 489 stood out to me. As a pre-med bio major, I was a bit intimidated by the prospect of a semester of high-level comparative literature. But my concerns disappeared on the first day of class when Dr. Leinbaugh put a list of political heavy hitters on the projector and asked the class who we would like to have as guest speakers that semester, shortly before informing us that we would be speaking with Ukraine’s representative from the International Court of Justice in the second week of class. As if that wasn’t enough, we had the privilege of speaking with numerous other political figures throughout the semester who had unique perspectives and experiences to share with us. Although I won’t be going into any fields similar to those that the guest speakers were in, they were all great opportunities to learn about global affairs and get really interesting windows to the inside of different fields of work.