CLASSICAL CULTURE AND CIVILISATION
Literary, historical, artistic and humanistic interests. Attention to the world of communication and literary and artistic culture.
The exam will cover the course content and will assess: the ability to correctly situate historical events and literary works; the ability to investigate independently and argue critically; the competence to connect different aspects and trace affinities and divergences between periods and authors; knowledge of technical terminology; and expository correctness. Throughout the lectures, use will be made of texts and Power Points that will be uploaded to the appropriate Dashboard and will be considered an integral part of the exam. Specifically, the exam will focus on three main points. 1) Knowledge of the following compulsory topics, each of which may be the subject of questions on the exam: - Homer and the Homeric Poems - From Pisistratus to the Birth of Democracy - The Persian Wars - The Peloponnesian War - Alexander the Great - The Seven Kings of Rome and the Birth of the Republic - The Second Punic War and the Encounter between Greece and Rome - The Catiline Conspiracy - Julius Caesar: from the First Triumvirate to the Ides of March - Octavian, Mark Antony and the Birth of the Roman Empire 2) Greek theater. Knowledge of the following topics: - Origins of Greek theater - Organization of theatrical performances - Actors, costumes, masks, theatrical machines. - The structural parts of tragedy and comedy: prologue, parodos, episodes, stasimes, exodus, agon and parabasis. - Life and works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes. - Greek theater through pots and arts. 3) Reading in translation of Euripides' Medea. The preparation of the topics in point 1 may be from the texts indicated in the bibliography; the ability to investigate and study the proposed topics independently, through individual or collective research in the library or online, will be appreciated for the final assessment. You will be required to document the materials on which you have studied and critically justify your choice. The reading of Euripides' Medea (item 3) will be tested through content-specific questions. The candidate will be asked to know, in general, the myth of Medea and the development of Euripides' tragedy, to read a specific scene from the play and to frame it within the work, showing knowledge of its content and the characters acting in it, and to be able to relate it to the preceding and subsequent scenes.For any clarification, please contact the lecturer before or after class or during office hours. Non-attending students are requested to contact the lecturer during the reception hours (which will be available at the beginning of the new academic year).
The course offers an introduction to Greco-Roman civilisation in its various aspects: history, literature, society, customs and daily life. The main focus will be on communication and its centrality in the ancient world, equal if not superior to that of the modern world. Roman Jakobson's model of communication (Linguistic and Poetics, In T. Sebeok (Ed.), Style in Language, Cambridge Mass. 1960, 350-377) is therefore adapted and from the title of a famous essay by B. Gentili (Poetry and Its Public in Ancient Greece. From Homer to the Fifth Century. Translated, with an introduction by A. Thomas Cole, John Hopkins University Press 1988. Origin. Roma-Bari 1984) will be proposed an overview that will focus on the relationship between communication and audience in the Greco-Roman world. Students will acquire basic information on the main historical and literary events of the Greco-Roman world, to be considered as a unity born of the fusion of two originally different civilisations, the specificities of each of them and the results of their encounter and fusion; special attention will also be paid to the question of the legacy of classical culture in the modern world, its role in our society and the recent voices proposing its removal (cancel culture). Since the only source of information on the ancient world are the texts come down to us, constant reference will be made during the lessons to specific passages and a reading in translation and commentary will be proposed in order to focus on their peculiarities.
The 56 hours of teaching time are divided into weekly face-to-face lectures, with a total of five academic hours devoted to each lecture. The course comprises two distinct sections. The first is an institutional part focusing on the main historical, literary, and cultural aspects of Greek and Roman civilisation. The second is a monographic part devoted to Greek theatre, discussing its origins, organisation, and the main features of tragedy and comedy. The life and works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes will also be examined. Through the reading of Euripides' Medea in Italian will also be deepened the specific structural and content elements of an Attic tragedy.
1) Institutional part. 35 hours, lectures 1–7. Overview of the primary historical, literary and cultural aspects of Greek and Roman civilisation. Lecture 1 (1–5). General introduction to the course. What why how. Forms of communication in the ancient world: The model of Roman Jakobson. Chronology, history and geopolitics of the Greek and Roman world. Lecture 2 (6–10). The epic poems of the Greeks and Romans: Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid. Lecture 3 (11–15). Greece from the archaism to Democracy. Rome from its foundation to the Republic. Lecture 4 (16–20). Greece from the Persian Wars to the Hellenistic kingdoms. Rome from the conquest of Italy to the Punic Wars. Lecture 5 (21–25). Clouds from the West: the fatal meeting between Greece and Rome. Lecture 6 (26–30). From the late-republican age to the Roman Empire. Lecture 7 (31–35): Paranormal Activity: Supernatural and Magic in Greece and Rome. 2) Monographic part. 21 hours, lectures 8–11. The Greek theatre. Euripides’ Medea (in italian). Lecture 8 (36–40). The Greek theatre: origins, organisation and forms. Tragedy and Comedy. Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes: life and works. Lecture 9 (41–45). Archaeology of images: Greek Theatre through the iconography. Lecture 10 (46–50). Euripides' Medea. General introduction. Reading and commentary of selected scenes/1. Lecture 11 (51–56). Euripides' Medea. Reading and commentary of selected scenes/1. Conclusion of the course. Final discussion.
The 7 CFU course has a time frame of 56 hours divided into face-to-face lectures. Each lecture contemplates moments of discussion and confrontation in a cooperative manner. Therefore, the basic contents of the course can be adapted lecture by lecture to the specific interests of the students and take on the declinations most useful to the specific course of study.