00567 - Latin Literature

Learning outcomes

The course is aimed at offering an outline of Roman culture, through an approach - in Italian translation - to the main literary genres and texts of latin culture. The course will pay particular attention to the relationship beween culture and society and persistence of themes in European culture.

Course contents

Rewriting myth: Orpheus, Laocoon.
Analysis of Orpheus and Laocoon myths will permit to make some journeys in the latin literature and culture and verify their influence on modern and contemporary culture. 

A. Authors and texts: the course is splitted into three parts:
1) Orpheus: variations of Orpheus theme in Vergil, Ovid, Poliziano, Rilke, Cocteau, Pavese, Bufalini will be considered.
2) Laocoon: the vergilian tale of Laocoon's death and its literarian and iconographic permanence.
B. Literary history: further to the periodization and a general historical background, students will have to know the main authors of Latin literature (Augustine of Hippo, Ammianus Marcellinus, Apuleius, Catullus, Caesar, Cicero, Cornelius Nepo, Ennius, Historia Augusta, Juvenal, Jerome, Livius, Livius Andronicus, Lucanus, Lucilius Gaius, Lucretius, Martial, Horace, Ovidius, Petronius, Plautus, Pliny the Elder, Propertius, Quintilian, Sallustius, Seneca, Suetonius, Tacitus, Terentius, Varro Marco Terentius, Virgil). Literary profiles presented during lessons will have to be integrated with a textbook

Readings/Bibliography

A. Authors and texts: the complete listing of passages requested for the exam will be available at the end of the course on the site above, where texts circulated during lessons will also be available.
A. 1. Orpheus: lectures of Ovid, Vergil, Poliziano, Rilke, Cocteau, Pavese, Bufalini from Orfeo. Variazioni sul mito, a cura di M.G. Ciani e A. Rodighiero, Venezia, Marsilio 2004 (introduction suggested).
A. 3.:  lectures of Vergil, Aeneid, book II, vv. 1-267, from Virgilio, Eneide, a c. di R. Calzecchi Onesti, Einaudi, Torino, 1967. Further texts will be supplied during the course.
Bibliography: S. Settis, Laocoonte. Fama e stile, Roma, Donzelli editore, 1999; M. Di Simone, Amore e morte in uno sguardo, Firenze, Libriliberi 2003; S. Cavicchioli, Le metamorfosi di Psiche. L'iconografia della favola di Apuleio, Venezia, Marsilio, 2002 is also suggested.
B. Literary history: it is suggested to refer to: M. Bettini, Storia della letteratura, 2 voll., Firenze, Le Monnier, 2002, or  V. Citti - C. Casali - C. Neri, Gli autori nella letteratura latina. Disegno storico. Dalle origini alla tarda latinità, Bologna, Zanichelli, 2005, or G.B. Conte, Letteratura latina, 2 voll., Firenze, Le Monnier, 2002.

Teaching methods

Frontal lessons;
Interactive lessons; amending  exercises and students' works (above all for seminars);
Laboratory (for learning the use of informatic tools for classical languages).

Assessment methods

An oral exam will verify:
- knowledge of literary history;
- knowledge of texts read in Italian translation;
- skill to see them in their historical and literary context;
- skill to critically discuss the essays in the programme.

Teaching tools

1. Online teaching materials: (see above for the address: http://www2.classics.unibo.it/Didattica/LatBC/AppTP2008latbc.htm); the same material will be available also in printed form and will be circulated during lessons;
2. Seminars (at the end of the course) will focus on informatic resouces for bibliographic research and text analysis.

Links to further information

http://www2.classics.unibo.it/Didattica/LatBC/AppTP2008.htm

Office hours

See the website of Francesco Citti