OVERVIEW

The extraordinary wealth of Greek literature, which is still well-known despite huge losses during transmission, has profoundly nurtured our culture. Lyrical poetry is an emblematic terrain to find some of the characteristics of Greek literature from the archaic and classical world, such as enjoyment through public performance, the interweaving of words and music and sometimes even dance.

No specific previous knowledge is required.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Acquiring basic knowledge of genres and the most relevant authors of archaic and classical Greek literature, the main Greek myths that interweave it, and the historical-social contexts in which it developed; acquiring the ability to describe and analyse the content and meaning of an archaic or classical Greek text by reading an Italian translation and to situate it in terms of genre and period to which it belongs. 

TEACHING METHODS

Lectures (with Power Point presentations).

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Part 1)

Introduction to the Greek literary world of the archaic and classical period: language and alphabet; periodisation and setting of the main genres; conservation and transmission of texts.

Part 2)

Singing at the symposium, singing at parties: opera.

A selection of passages (in Italian translation) from the main lyrical poets of archaic and classical Greece will be proposed to delineate genres, occasions and contexts, themes as well as functions of this poetic category in the archaic Greek world. The centrality of this poetic category from a social and political point of view will be highlighted as will its distance from the modern conception of “lyrical poetry”.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

LARA PAGANI (President)

CLAUDIO BEVEGNI

VALTER LAPINI

FRANCO MONTANARI

SERENA PERRONE

LESSONS

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Written exam: this assesses students’ basic knowledge of genres and the most relevant authors of archaic and classical Greek literature, focusing also on diachronic development with essay questions (Part 1/a). Examples of written exams can be found on Aulaweb.

Oral exam: this assesses students’ ability to analyse the contents and meaning of assigned readings (Part 1/b) and to classify them in terms of type and chronology. This will also be required for texts examined in lectures (Part 2) in relation to what they tell us about the lyric poetry genre in the archaic and classical periods.

Exam schedule