75362 - Gender and Violence in the Old Germanic Literatures

Learning outcomes

The student already knows the old Germanic literatures and investigates the relation between gender and violence in the texts of the Nibelungs Cycle and in the modern rewriting of the Nibelung legend.

Course contents

1st Semester: 6 CFU (30 hrs)

Killing the dragon: Sigurðr and Fáfnir The course investigates the Eddic poem Fáfnismál, where the hero Sigurðr struggles and defeats the dragon that gives the name to the poetic text. Between them a conversation is developed, prophetic and sapiential at the same time. We will analyze the first 22 stanzas and all the short prose inserts of the Fáfnismál in its original language, to which the translation and the philological discussion will be provided. The aim of the course is to insert the Old Norse text in the broader field of the struggle of the Germanic hero against a dragon, in order to understand its cultural motivations and the relationship between man and monstruosity.

Readings/Bibliography

Attending students:

- Texts charged by the professor as on line materials

- Edda. Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern, herausgegeben von Gustav Neckel, Heidelberg, Winter, 1962 (il testo del Fáfnismál)

- Haimerl, Edgar, Sigurðr A Medieval Hero. A Manuscript-Based Interpretation of the 'Young Sigurðr Poems', in Revisiting the Poetic Edda. Essays on Old Norse Heroic Legends, ed. by P. Acker - C. Larrington, New York - London, 2013, pp. 32-52.

- Marcello Meli, Vincere il drago. La sconfitta di Beowulf, in I silenzi dei testi e i silenzi della critica, a cura di C. Locatelli, Trento, Dipartimento di Scienze Filologiche e Storiche, 1996, pp. 251-264.

- Piergiuseppe Scardigli, Introduzione, in Id., Il canzoniere eddico, Milano, Garzanti, 2004, pp. vii-xxxviii

Grammatica di riferimento:

Michael Barnes, A new Introduction to Old Norse, I, Grammar, London, Viking Society for Northern Research, 2008 (scaricabile online)

Non attending students:

to the previous bibliography will be added:

-Joseph Harris, Eddic Poetry, in Old Norse-Icelandic Literature. A Critical Guide, ed. by C. J. Clover, J. Lindow, Ithaca - London, 1985, pp. 68-156

- Paul Acker, Dragons in the Eddas and in Early Nordic Art, in Revisiting the Poetic Edda. Essays on Old Norse Heroic Legends, ed. by P. Acker - C. Larrington, New York - London, 2013, pp. 53-75.

- Willem P. Gerritsen - Anthony G. van Melle, Sigfrido, in Id., Miti e personaggi del Medioevo, Milano, Bruno Mondadori, 1999, pp. 470-486.

Teaching methods

Lectures and seminar's discussions

Assessment methods

In light of the workshop organization of the course, the assessment will take into account the participation of the students in the classroom on the discussion of the proposed topics. In the examination some textual examples discussed in class will be object of the examination and will be orally discussed together with the theoretical knowledge gained . During the interview the methodological and critical skills acquired by the student will be evaluated . The student will be invited to discuss the texts covered during the course and to move within the sources and bibliographical material in order to be able to identify in them the useful information that will enable to illustrate the similarities and cultural areas of the discipline. The achievement of an organic vision of the issues addressed during the classes and their critical use, which demonstrate ownership of a mastery of expression and specific language, will be assessed with marks of excellence. Mechanical and / or mnemonic knowledge of matter, synthesis and analysis of non-articulating and / or correct language but not always appropriate will lead to discrete assessments; training gaps and / or inappropriate language - although in a context of minimal knowledge of the material - will lead to votes that will not exceed the sufficiency. Training gaps, inappropriate language, lack of guidance within the reference materials offered during the course will lead to failed assessments.

Teaching tools

Multimedial tools

Office hours

See the website of Alessandro Zironi