31219 - Germanic Philology 1 (A-L)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the student will possess the theoretical and technical instruments which allow him/her to know those languages, literatures (which must be intended as texts' corpora without any opinion on their literary value) and, in conclusion, cultures which the Germanic ethnic groups created since Prehistory. The chronological extension in which the discipline pursues its investigations is restricted to the Middle Ages. In that age, the common cultural Germanic matrix is more directly perceivable thanks to the large amount of sources and documents produced in the old Germanic languages and literatures. The knowledges, which the student will acquire, will enable him/her to translate and  to give a linguistic and philological commentary to a passage in an Old Germanic language.

Course contents

Unit A (40 hours: for students of Scuola di Lettere e Beni Culturali: Corso di Laurea in Lettere: Curriculum Culture letterarie europee and for students of Scuola di Lingue e Letterature, Traduzione e Interpretazione: Corso di Laurea in Lingue e Letterature Straniere):

Elements of Germanic Philology

At the end of the course, the student will possess the theoretical and technical instruments which allow him/her to know those languages, literatures (which must be intended as texts' corpora without any opinion on their literary value) and, in conclusion, cultures which the Germanic ethnic groups created since Prehistory. The chronological extension in which the discipline pursues its investigations is restricted to the Middle Ages. In that age, the common cultural Germanic matrix is more directly perceivable thanks to the large amount of sources and documents produced in the old Germanic languages and literatures.

Unit B (20 hours: only for students of Scuola di Lingue e Letterature, Traduzione e Interpretazione: Corso di Laurea in Lingue e Letterature Straniere):

The Saga of the Volusngs, as a source of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen 
The Old Icelandic Saga of the Volsungs will be studied as one of the most relevant literary works of the Nibelung Cycle in relation to the Eddic poems of the Codex Regius and in relation to the dramaturgic and musical rewrite made in the 2nd half of the 19th century by Richard Wagner in his Ring des Nibelungen.

Readings/Bibliography

Unit A

BATTAGLIA, Marco, 2013: I Germani. Genesi di una cultura europea. Roma: Carocci editore: 1-35, 59-306, 311-326, 341-345.

LUISELLI FADDA, Anna Maria,  2007: L'arte della filologia. Firenze. Franco Cesati Editore.

Unit B

BATTAGLIA Marco, 2013: Lineamenti di storia delle letterature germaniche medioevali. Edzione aggiornata e revisionata. Pisa: Edizioni Il Campano: 1-6, 64-90.

MELI, Marcello, (a cura di): La saga dei Volsunghi. A cura di —. Prefazione di Laura Mancinelli. Alessandria: Edizioni dell'Orso.

PULSIANO, Phillip, (ed.), 1993: Medieval Scandinavia: an encyclopedia. New York. Garland Publishing: 707b-711b (= <<Völsung-Niflung Cycle>>, <<Völsunga saga>>).

Teaching methods

Front lessons with help of intenet tools

Assessment methods

You can take two optional multiple choice tests after the end of Unit A (11 questions) and Unit B (5 questions).

After the first examination session you have to write a 5 pages long paper: you write it according to the rules of the final work writing; footnotes are welcome and a final bibliography is needed. Spelling, morphological, syntactic, and semantic accuracy are required as well as, if possible, personal remarks. You have to ask the subject of your paper 30 days before the exam session and you have to hand in to me at least 15 days (without exception) before the examination session. 

Teaching tools

Old Norse for Beginners: https://notendur.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/

Norse Links: http://www.oe.eclipse.co.uk/nom/norselinks.htm

Old Norse Online: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/eieol/norol-0-X.html