OVERVIEW

Major texts of byzantine literature will be read: students will start from manuscripts and they will be guided to the elaboration of a philological literary commentary.

A good knowledge of ancient Greek is required.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The educational objectives aim at the acquisition of the following knowledges, skills and abilities: - know through direct reading of the texts the main genres of the Byzantine literature through their diachronic development and the contribution of each author; - lead a philological, linguistic, stylistic and historical-literary exegesis of the texts belonging to the Byzantine literary culture; - contextualize the texts both in their relationship with the Attic and Christian cultural heritage, and in the specific literary and cultural configuration of the Greek Middle Ages; - identify the role of individual texts and authors in the Nachleben of literary and ideological themes.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

For the detailed training objectives see the training objectives

Learning outcomes

It is expected that, at the end of teaching attendance and the study of the related program, students will know:

read correctly (in metric in the case of poetic texts) and translate the proposed texts with precision and awareness;

connecting the texts to the characters of the literary genre to which they belong;

read the manuscripts that hand down the texts, read the critical apparatus correctly, follow the path that leads from the witnesses to the edition, the translation and the comment;

to critically address the reading of a critical essay, drawing up a reasoned assessment of it.

TEACHING METHODS

Frontal lecture and laboratory.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaka V: re-interpretation and re-appropriation of the Hellenistic poetic tradition in the Actaeon episode.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Nonnos de Panopolis, Les Dionysiaques, tome II, chants III-V. texte établi et traduit par P. Chuvin, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 1976

Nonno di Panopoli, Le Dionisiache, volume I (canti I-XII), a cura di D. Gigli Piccardi, BUR, Milano 2003.

E. Magnelli, The Nonnian Hexameter, in D. Accorinti (ed.), Brill’s Companion to Nonnus of Panopolis, Brill, Leiden-Boston 2016, pp. 353-371.

A.M. Lasek, Nonnus and the Play of Genres, in D. Accorinti (ed.), Brill’s Companion to Nonnus of Panopolis, Brill, Leiden-Boston 2016, pp. 402-421.

D. Gigli Piccardi, Nonnus’Poetics,  in D. Accorinti (ed.), Brill’s Companion to Nonnus of Panopolis, Brill, Leiden-Boston 2016, pp. 422-442.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

LIA RAFFAELLA CRESCI (President)

SERENA PERRONE (President)

FRANCESCA GAZZANO

VALTER LAPINI

LARA PAGANI

LESSONS

LESSONS START

September 17, 2018

Class schedule

BYZANTINE LITERATURE

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Oral exam

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Oral test: students will be asked to read, translate and provide a historical, literary, philological, linguistic commentaries of texts analyzed during the course, in order to assess their knowledge of the language, literary genre and tradition of each text.
Students will have to present the laboratory activity conducted on the text, form manuscript to the elaboration of a commentary.
Written test: students will submit a report on a critical reading suggested by the professor; the aim is to assess their level of proficiency in text analysis and synthesis.

Minimum 'pass' requirements are: being able to read the manuscript analyzed in class, being able to translate and to comment texts by outlining the major linguistic, literary and philological features of such texts. Minimum 'pass' requirements for the written test are: ability to present the major contents of the critical text and to write in good Italian.

'Excellence' requirements are: being able to confidently read manuscripts, to translate and comment texts accurately by making connections with Byzantine literary context; being able to point out accurately all aspects of texts: linguistic, historical, literary and philological aspects. 'Excellence' requirements for the written test are: writing an effective, well-argumented report on the critical text, by underlining its strengths and weaknesses.

Exam schedule