Programme

Reading Beowulf: a selection of passages

The course aims at giving students the ability to translate, discuss critically the poem and relate it to the cultural background of Anglo-Saxon England.
Beowulf will be analyzed considering the main features of Old English poetry, that is literary strategies, style, peculiarities of
poetic language and of manuscript transmission. Attention will also be paid to the traslations of the poem into modern languages and to its reception in contemporary literature.

Core Documentation

Brunetti, Giuseppe, ed., Beowulf, Roma: Carocci 2001(selection of passages))
Baker, Peter S., ed., The Beowulf Reader, New York: Routledge, 2000 (selection of passages)
Orchard, Andy, A Critical Companion to Beowulf, Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2003

History of Old English Literature
One of the following texts:
- F. C. Robinson, Old English, in B. Murdoch - M. Read (edd.), Early Germanic Literature and Culture, Camden House, Rochester-New York 2004, pp. 205-233.
- M. Francini, La letteratura anglosassone, in M. Battaglia (ed.), Le civiltà letterarie del Medioevo germanico, Carocci, Roma 2017.
- S. B. Greenfield and D.G. Calder, A New Critical History of Old English Literature, New York and Londob: New York University Press 1986.
- M. Godden-M. Lapidge, The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1991.



Textual criticism
- A.M. Luiselli Fadda, Tradizioni manoscritte e critica del testo nel Medioevo germanico, Laterza, Bari-Roma 2010 (Parte I).

Old English grammar books
- B. Mitchell - F. C. Robinson, A Guide to Old English, Blackwell, Oxford 2008
or
- R. Lass, Old English: a Historical Linguistic Companion, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1993

A variety of additional materials (critical editions, glossaries, critical essays etc.) will be provided during the course.
Students are advised to attend classes. Those who cannot attend them are requested to contact the teacher at the beginning of the course.

Reference Bibliography

- M. Amodio, The Anglo-Saxon Literature Handbook, Wiley-Blackwell, Malden, MA: 2014. - R.E. Bjork and J. D. Niles, A Beowulf Handbook, Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1996. - B. Mitchell, Bruce, and F. C. Robinson, ed., Beowulf: an Edition with Relevant Shorter Texts, Oxford: Blackwell, 1998. - A. Orchard, Andy, A Critical Companion to Beowulf, Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2003.

Attendance

Students are advised to attend classes. Those who cannot attend them are requested to contact the teacher at the beginning of the course.