28951 - History of Performing Arts in the Ancient World (1) (LM)

Course contents

1. Dramatic performances in the ancient world, with a special regard to Athenian tragedy and its importance for the modern theatre.

2. Euripides, Medea.

Readings/Bibliography

1) For attending students, the class notes and all the documents online (texts, slides, etc.) are the basis for the final exam.

Required readings:

• A. Pickard-Cambridge, Le feste drammatiche di Atene, trad. it., Firenze, La Nuova Italia, 1996 (chapters I, IV and V excluded); or five between the scientific papers at your disposal at "Virtuale.unibo.it" (at the end of the course).
• two books among the following, one for tragedy and the other for comedy, chosen by the student: G. Ieranò, La tragedia greca: origini, storia, rinascite, Roma, Salerno, 2010; A. Rodighiero, La tragedia greca, Bologna, il Mulino, 2013; M. Di Marco, La tragedia greca. Forma, gioco scenico, tecniche drammatiche, Roma, Carocci 2009 (seconda edizione); B. Zimmermann, La commedia greca: dalle origini all'età ellenistica, ed. it. a c. di Sotera Fornaro, Roma, Carocci, 2016; G. Mastromarco, P. Totaro, B. Zimmermann (a c. di), La commedia attica antica: forme e contenuti, Lecce, Pensa, 2017. For English-speaking students, alternative readings are possible: please, write to me for further suggestions.

2. Euripides, Medea. Students in classics are required to read the following passages of the tragedy in Greek: Eur. Med. 1-48, 214-266, 292-334, 465-519, 690-730, 1038-1080.

Suggested italian editions;

• Euripide, Medea, introduzione e premessa al testo di V. Di Benedetto, traduzione e appendice metrica di E. Cerbo, note di E. Cerbo e V. Di Benedetto, Milano, Bur-Rizzoli, 1997;
• Euripide, Medea, saggio introduttivo e note a c. di G. Sandrolini, trad. di M.C. Brizzi, Milano, Rusconi, 2018.

For non-attending students:

In addition to the texts at points 1 and 2, the following two books should be read:

• V. Di Benedetto-E. Medda, La tragedia sulla scena. La tragedia greca in quanto spettacolo teatrale, Torino, Einaudi, 2002
• G. Guastella (a c. di), Le rinascite della tragedia. Origini classiche e tradizioni europee, Roma, Carocci, 2006.

Further bibliographic information (for optional in-depth studies) will be provided in class.

Teaching methods

Lectures in class; seminars and discussion of the texts analysed in class.

Assessment methods

The oral examination will be an interview in which the teacher, through a series of questions, will test the theoretical knowledge as explained during the lectures. Students in Classics will be also required to read, translate and comment a passage from Euripides, Medea. The evaluation ranges from 18 to 30 cum laude depending on how sure, well-founded, precise, and rigorous the answers of the candidate will be.

Teaching tools

PC, projector, slides.

Office hours

See the website of Lucia Floridi