29685 - Greek Historiography (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student gets an appropriate training to scientific research in the field of classical and Hellenistic Greek historiography. (S)he knows the essential lines of ancient historiography. (S)he knows and can use research methods and tools. (S)he is able to communicate verbally using the registers and techniques appropriate to the context. (S)he can highlight critically different cultures. (S)he can update his knowledge in the field using the tools developed by the scientific community.

Course contents

 

Pausanias the Periegete: Seeing, Evaluating, Remembering. The Authorial Voice and the Memory of the Greek Cities

  The course examines those passages of the Periegesis in which the author's voice emerges, either through first-person interventions or through expressions which, although not formulated in the first person, reveal his point of view and judgement. Its aim is to investigate the function of such interventions in the construction of Pausanias' self-presentation as an author, that is, the ways in which he establishes his presence within the narrative and guides the reader in evaluating the subject matter of his account. Each authorial intervention will be analysed within the narrative, historical, and mythic traditions in which it is embedded, in order to reconstruct the cultural framework in which the author's voice acquires its full significance. The course thus aims to show how Pausanias' ways of seeing, evaluating, and remembering contribute to the construction of a selective and interpretative memory of the Greek world under the Roman Empire.

Knowledge of the Greek language is indispensable: texts will always be accompanied by translation, but explanations will often focus on lexical elements and nuances of meaning that can be fully appreciated through knowledge of Greek

Attendance is required for at least 75% of the lessons in order to be able to sustain the examination with the program for attending students

Readings/Bibliography

 

Attending students will study

- M. Bettalli (ed.), Introduzione alla storiografia greca, Carocci, Roma 2009 (second edition): only the parts indicated by the teacher in class

Full reading of:

Susan E. Alcock, John F. Cherry, Jas Elsner (eds.), Pausanias. Travel and Memory in Roman Greece. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

William Hutton, Describing Greece. Landscape and Literature in the Periegesis of Pausanias. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.

The bibliography on Pausanias is extensive. The works listed provide essential points of reference and offer an overall introduction to the author and his work. Throughout the course, this bibliography will be consistently supplemented by reference to the principal trends in modern scholarship and to the most significant studies devoted to the topics under consideration. To this end, discussion of a broad selection of scholarly literature will serve to present the principal achievements of modern scholarship and to explore in greater depth the subjects addressed in the course.

Teaching will combine lectures with seminar-based sessions. Alongside the presentation of the principal themes of the course, considerable attention will be devoted to the shared reading and analysis of texts, the critical discussion of both primary sources and modern scholarship, and the examination of the principal interpretative issues.

 The sources to be translated will be provided during the course in the form of a sourcebook and will constitute an essential part of the examination. Students are required to bring the sourcebook to the examination, either in printed form or in digital format on a laptop or tablet.

Non-attending students

 As the course requires a process of learning that develops progressively through classroom work based on the reading, analysis, and discussion of primary sources and scholarly literature, non-attending students will be assigned a thematically different examination syllabus.

This may be chosen from among the non-attending Greek Historiography syllabuses for the academic years 2022/2023 and 2023/2024, available on the course webpage, with the additional requirement of reading M. Bettalli, Introduzione alla storiografia greca, in its entirety, or C. Bearzot, Storiografia greca. Un'introduzione, Il Mulino, Bologna 2022.

 

 

 

Teaching methods

The course is mainly taught through lectures, with discussions on the sources and the teaching material.

Assessment methods

Students who attend at least 75% of the lessons are considered to be attending.

There are eleven exam sessions during the academic year: the first six, one per month, from January to June; the seventh in September/October; the eighth in December; and the last three, one per month, from January to March. There are no exam sessions outside of those indicated well in advance on AlmaEsami.

The final exam is oral and develops through the knowledge assessment of the handbook firstly, and of the monograph secondly – the latter through questions about both the lectures topics and the textbooks. Also, the Greek original texts knowledge will be examined

If the student achieves a complete and detailed vision of the topics discussed in class and required for the discipline, provides an effective critical commentary, shows mastery of expression and of the specific language, he obtains excellence in the evaluation (28-30L).

Those students who demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge of the main topics of the subject, basic analytical ability and ability to synthesize, and a correct command of the language, will be given a good mark (25-27).

Those students who demonstrate a mnemonic (and/or non-exhaustive) knowledge of the subject with a more superficial analytical ability and ability to synthesize, a correct command of the language but not always appropriate, will be given a satisfactory mark (22-24).

A superficial knowledge and understanding of the material, a scarce analytical and expressive ability that is not always appropriate will be rewarded with a ‘pass’ mark (18-21).

A student will be deemed to have failed the exam if he displays significant errors in his understanding and failure to grasp the overall outlines of the subject, together with a poor command of the appropriate terminology (< 18).

 

Students with SLD or temporary or permanent disabilities. It is necessary to contact the relevant University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en) with ample
time in advance: the office will propose some adjustments, which must in any case be submitted 15 days in advance to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of these in relation to the teaching objectives.

Teaching tools

PDF documents and research material from specialised websites will be provided

Office hours

See the website of Maria Elena De Luna