The Course “Philology 2 A” falls within the domain of the Complementary learning activities of the Degree Course in Languages and Cultural-Linguistic Mediation, specifically the activities aiming at providing adequate tools for the analysis of texts in the light of their transmission and cultural context.
Building on the results achieved in the course “Philology 1”, the course aims to provide a wider and deeper perspective on the principal methodological domains of the subject, applied to the analysis of texts drawn from one or more branches of the Romance / Germanic literary tradition.
Expected Learning Outcomes: The student will acquire an in-depth understanding of the principles and methods of the subject and will learn how to apply them in the analysis of texts originating from one or more branches of the Romance / Germanic literary tradition.
Building on the results achieved in the course “Philology 1”, the course aims to provide a wider and deeper perspective on the principal methodological domains of the subject, applied to the analysis of texts drawn from one or more branches of the Romance / Germanic literary tradition.
Expected Learning Outcomes: The student will acquire an in-depth understanding of the principles and methods of the subject and will learn how to apply them in the analysis of texts originating from one or more branches of the Romance / Germanic literary tradition.
teacher profile teaching materials
The course will focus on the analysis of some of the most interesting texts in Old English poetry. The term ‘elegy’ has been applied by scholars to a number of Old English poems found in the Exeter Book (The Wanderer, The Seafarer, Deor, Wulf and Eadwacer, The Wife’s Lament, The Husband’s Message, The Ruin, The Riming Poem, Resignation). These texts are focused on the mental and emotional state of individual narrators, and specifically on the deep psychological introspection displayed in the representation of their suffering as a result of being forced into isolation, alienation, and exile. The poems will be analyzed and critically discussed from a literary, linguistic and philological perspective, taking into account the manuscript mode of transmission, the peculiarities of Anglo-Saxon production and the influences derived from the Continent.
Particular attention will be paid to stylistic and morphosyntactic features, vocabulary, as well as to the ways in which Anglo-Saxon poets link the desolation of the landscape to the elegiac protagonists' condition of loneliness and pain.
A.L. Klinck, The Old English Elegies: A Critical Edition and Genre Study, Montreal, McGill–Queens University Press 2001.
B.J. Muir (ed.), The Exeter Anthology of Old English Poetry. An Edition of Exeter Dean and Chapter Ms 3501, Exeter, University of Exeter Press 2000.
G. P. Krapp – E. Dobbie (eds.), Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records,III, New York-London, Columbia University Press, 1936 (https://sacred-texts.com/neu/ascp/index.htm).
Programme
The Old English ElegiesThe course will focus on the analysis of some of the most interesting texts in Old English poetry. The term ‘elegy’ has been applied by scholars to a number of Old English poems found in the Exeter Book (The Wanderer, The Seafarer, Deor, Wulf and Eadwacer, The Wife’s Lament, The Husband’s Message, The Ruin, The Riming Poem, Resignation). These texts are focused on the mental and emotional state of individual narrators, and specifically on the deep psychological introspection displayed in the representation of their suffering as a result of being forced into isolation, alienation, and exile. The poems will be analyzed and critically discussed from a literary, linguistic and philological perspective, taking into account the manuscript mode of transmission, the peculiarities of Anglo-Saxon production and the influences derived from the Continent.
Particular attention will be paid to stylistic and morphosyntactic features, vocabulary, as well as to the ways in which Anglo-Saxon poets link the desolation of the landscape to the elegiac protagonists' condition of loneliness and pain.
Core Documentation
TextsA.L. Klinck, The Old English Elegies: A Critical Edition and Genre Study, Montreal, McGill–Queens University Press 2001.
B.J. Muir (ed.), The Exeter Anthology of Old English Poetry. An Edition of Exeter Dean and Chapter Ms 3501, Exeter, University of Exeter Press 2000.
G. P. Krapp – E. Dobbie (eds.), Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records,III, New York-London, Columbia University Press, 1936 (https://sacred-texts.com/neu/ascp/index.htm).
Reference Bibliography
History of Old English Literature. One of the following texts: - M. Battaglia (ed.), Le civiltà letterarie del Medioevo germanico, Carocci, Roma 2017 (pp. 137-276). - B. Murdoch - M. Read (edd.), Early Germanic Literature and Culture, Camden House, Rochester-New York 2004 (pp. 205-233). - M. Amodio, The Anglo-Saxon Literature Handbook, Wiley-Blackwell, Malden, MA 2014. Textual criticism A.M. Luiselli Fadda, Tradizioni manoscritte e critica del testo nel Medioevo germanico, Laterza, Bari-Roma 2010 (Parte I). Old English Grammars One of the following texts: B. Mitchell - F. C. Robinson, A Guide to Old English, Blackwell, Oxford 2008. R. Lass, Old English: a Historical Linguistic Companion, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1993. G. Mazzuoli Porru, Manuale di inglese antico, Giardini, Pisa 1992. J. Wright, Old English Grammar. London: Oxford University Press, 1984 (3rd ed.) Additional material (critical essays etc.) will be provided during the course.Type of delivery of the course
TraditionalAttendance
Students are invited to attend classes. Those who cannot attend them are requested to contact the teacher at the beginning of the courseType of evaluation
The oral examination aims to test: (a) the knowledge of the content of the texts given in the syllabus and of the problems discussed during the semester; (b) the ability to critically rework the acquired knowledge and place the texts in their historical, cultural and linguistic context; (c) the expressive skills; (d) the acquisition of the discipline's own methods of inquiry; (e) the ability to conduct lexical and bibliographical researches independently. Marks: from 18 to 30 cum laude.