OVERVIEW

The course consists in a first approach to Byzantine literary Civilization in a twofold perspective: (a) continuity with ancient Greek literature (mostly preserved/transmitted via Byzantium) and (b) change.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

In the frame of the three-year degree course no. 10, this course aims at the following: (a) understanding essential development(s) of Byzantine Literature and literary genres via relevant texts to be read in Greek; (b) understanding linguistic evolution of Byzantine Greek, especially as regards diglossia; (c) interpreting/analyzing essential features of relevant texts, discerning continuity with and change from ancient Greek civilization.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

AIMS

• To remember continuity and change features of Byzantine Greek with/from Classical Greek (lexicon and style).
• To understand different meanings of the texts presented during classes (polysemy).
• To recognize different literary genres and their ‘codes’.
• To analyze the essential features of Byzantine civilization in the texts presented during classes: paideia (‘education’) & basileia (‘imperial polity’).

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• To be able to put in their contexts the authors & texts presented during classes (historical period & literary genre);
• To be able to translate in English (or Italian) the Greek texts presented in class and their lexical, morphological, stylistic, rhetoric and metric features;
• To be able to recognize essential themes, especially as regards the μίμησις (‘literary imitation’) of ancient authors and, vice versa, the innovative aspects;
• To be able to follow an argumentation in an essay/article/scholarly contribution and to produce a written text in English (or Italian) accurately reporting it.

PREREQUISITES

Knowledge of ancient Greek is necessary to take the course.

TEACHING METHODS

Depending on the guidelines of the University of Genoa, classes will be in person in via Balbi. If necessary, classes will be broadcasted and/or recorded for those students who will ask for them via email.

Lessons will be delivered along with Power Point/pdf presentations, dialogues, interactive platforms, polls; every text proposed in Greek will be translated, via online lexica (GI, LSJ, LBG) as well. 

Attending the lessons is strongly recommended.

Flipped classroom: students who regularly attend classes in person may present an oral report about an article/essay related with the content of the course. Otherwise, every student has to deliver a written report on an article/essay (see below, Assessment methods).

It is requested to subscribe on Aulaweb (www.aulaweb.unige.it) as well, in order to get information, didactic material, notices, bibliography and so on.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

“Hidden Papers”. Forbidden texts in Byzantium.

Non-authorised literature resurfaces throughout the Byzantine millennium (330-1453 AD), meets the demand by a selected audience and comes to us, albeit sparsely. Spanning from Synesius of Cyrene and the milieu of the philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria (5th c.), to the pamphlet by Procopius of Caesarea against the emperor Justinian (6th c.), up to the works of Georgius Gemistus Plethon (15th c.), some texts can be surprising even in a philological perspective, as well as in historical, literary and linguistic respects.

Non-attending students may ask for a different syllabus/content. They are required to email the professor as soon as possible.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Greek texts to be read and translated during classes will be available in pdf format (limited number of selected pages) for all those students who regularly attend classes in person.

Students who want to choose a whole English bibliography are kindly requested to contact the professor as soon as possible via email (pia.carolla@unige.it).

Bibliography for all English students:

A.KAMBYLIS, Compendio della letteratura bizantina, in H.-G. NESSELRATH, Introduzione alla filologia greca, trad. it., Roma, Salerno Editrice, 2004, pp. 446-478. Please consider that regularly attending students (in person) have to explain the evolution of one literary genre of their choice; non-regularly/remotely attending students have to know two literary genres, one in prose, one in poetry. 

A. Fitzgerald (ed. transl.), The Letters of Synesius of Cyrene, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1926 (reprint 1994).

Procopius, The Anecdota or Secret History, transl. By H.B. Dewing, (Loeb Classical Library 290) Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1935.

Non-attending students (neither in person, nor remotely) must add the following three books:

S. RONCHEY, Hypatia. The True Story, Berlin-Boston: de Gruyter, 2021.

R. BROWNING, Medieval and Modern Greek, London-Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969.

St. COLVIN, A Brief History of Ancient Greek, Chichester (UK) 2014, pp. 168-194. 

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

PIA CAROLLA (President)

FRANCESCA GAZZANO

LIA RAFFAELLA CRESCI (Substitute)

AGNESE FONTANA (Substitute)

ARIANNA MAGNOLO (Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

Monday, 3rd October 2022.

Class schedule

BYZANTINE PHILOLOGY

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Oral exam.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Oral exam: reading, translation and historical-literary, philological, linguistic commentary of texts presented in lectures to assess students’ knowledge and abilities to identify literary genres, the diachronic development of language and dialectical imitation/innovation in Byzantine to ancient Greek literature.

Before the oral exam, each student sends (via email) a written report on an article/essay (to be chosen among those proposed during classes) to let the professor assess his/her ability to analyse and synthesise. The student presents the report at the end of the oral exam as well, in order to integrate it into the final evaluation.

Regularly attending students (in person) may ask for an oral report instead of the written one.

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

Please contact the professor for any further information in English.