AN N EA M70
Demons, Fear, and Uncanny in Ancient World
Description: (Same as Religion M70.) Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Consideration of place of demons and fear in several different societies and cultures in ancient world: Mesopotamia; ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome; and Biblical and early Jewish contexts. Investigation into why demons and monsters existed in these cultures; how they were opposed or protected again; and what these different societies feared, and how that fear was represented. As demons and monsters are reflections of particular culturally specific fears and norms, studying them allows for examination of societies that constructed them. Examination of how fear of threats such as disease, illness, and death were constructed alongside fears of foreign and of women. Critical examination of wide range of primary source texts, addressing core question of how different societies construct unique fears--and how those fears shape those societies in turn. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2025 - This class is a pretty easy A/A+ GE. This was my first quarter at UCLA but many people in the class were actually upperclassmen so it was cool to have such a wide variety of students taking the class. Professor Konstantopoulos is definitely knowledgeable and a funny lecturer, though it was difficult to know what to take notes on at times since she goes on many side tangents about hollywood sucking or egypt getting too much coverage in middle school history class. One important thing to know: YOU SHOULD TO GO TO LECTURE. The slides do not contain that much information often so you need Professor's commentary, which is not recorded. Also, there are occasional participation checks at the end of class, which count towards extra credit after the first or second one. My TA was Caitlin who is super awesome and nice. This was her first time TAing this class and I think she was better than most of the other TAs. She really wanted us to succeed, but with that also came higher expectations and she graded our papers most harshly out of all TAs. Still, she graded our Midterm and Final with wanting us to get an A/A+ in mind so I highly recommend Caitlin as your TA. Overall, a good class, not necessarily a must-take but the content is interesting and it's not too difficult.
Fall 2025 - This class is a pretty easy A/A+ GE. This was my first quarter at UCLA but many people in the class were actually upperclassmen so it was cool to have such a wide variety of students taking the class. Professor Konstantopoulos is definitely knowledgeable and a funny lecturer, though it was difficult to know what to take notes on at times since she goes on many side tangents about hollywood sucking or egypt getting too much coverage in middle school history class. One important thing to know: YOU SHOULD TO GO TO LECTURE. The slides do not contain that much information often so you need Professor's commentary, which is not recorded. Also, there are occasional participation checks at the end of class, which count towards extra credit after the first or second one. My TA was Caitlin who is super awesome and nice. This was her first time TAing this class and I think she was better than most of the other TAs. She really wanted us to succeed, but with that also came higher expectations and she graded our papers most harshly out of all TAs. Still, she graded our Midterm and Final with wanting us to get an A/A+ in mind so I highly recommend Caitlin as your TA. Overall, a good class, not necessarily a must-take but the content is interesting and it's not too difficult.
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