32589 - Germanic Philology 1 (LM)

Learning outcomes

The student has deep knowledge about the fundamental social institutions of the Germanic peoples of the Late-antiquity and Middle Ages.The student possesses the direct knowledge of written sources which he/she reads in the original languages, he/she konws and is able to use the practical methodologies for the analysis and interpretation of the lietary texts through a linguistic and filological education.

Course contents

1st Semester: 6 CFU (30 hrs)

Þæs ofereode, þisses swa mæg!: Deor's Lament

Deor is the name given to the poet author of a short text in Old English. He's a scop, a court poet, who is chased by his lord because he has preferred another minstrel. To console himself, Deor recounts the vicissitudes of heroes and mythological vicissitudes in which at the centre of the narrative are unhappy episodes.

After an introduction on the role of the Anglo-Saxon poet and his way to make poetry, the text will be read and translated from Old English, with a philological, literary and cultural commentary.

The aim of the course is to put the student in direct contact with a text in the original language not too far from modern English, and to place Deor in the cultural milieu that produced it: a court dominated by the values of a aristocratic-warlike society.

Readings/Bibliography

-Texts charged by the teacher in the web pages of the course

- Kemp Malone, Deor, Exeter, Exeter UP, 1977

- Anne L. Klinck, The Old English Elegies, Montreal & Klingston, Mc Gill - Queen's UP, 1992, pp. 11-30; 43-46; 63-69; 90-91;158-168;223-251

- Christine Fell, Perceptions of Transience, in The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature, ed. by M. Godden and M. Lapidge, Cambridge, Cambridge UP, 2007, pp. 172–189

Non attending students will add the following text:

- Marusca Francini, La letteratura anglosassone, in Le civiltà letterarie del Medioevo germanico, a cura di M. Battaglia, Roma, Carocci, 2017, pp. 137-276

 

Teaching methods

Lectures

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