04538 - Poetics and Rhetoric

Academic Year 2021/2022

  • Moduli: Eleonora Caramelli (Modulo 1) Francesco Cattaneo (Modulo 2)
  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures (Modulo 1) Traditional lectures (Modulo 2)
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Philosophy (cod. 9216)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the lecture course the students acquire both a basic knowledge of the various disciplinary and doctrinal identities developed by Poetics and Rhetoric during its history, and the capacity to deal with guided interpretations of one or more than one among the “classics” that represented a turning point in the history of this discipline.

Course contents

First part:

The experience of language in Heidegger’s path of thinking.

Since language has become between the 19th and 20th Century a central philosophical issue both in the hermeneutic and in the analytic traditions, the second part of the course deals with a philosopher that has played a leading role in this debate: Martin Heidegger.

His understanding of language will be considered under several aspects.

In first place, great attention will be devoted to the relationship between language and the essence of man and to the problem of “huamnism”. A the same time, in order to come to a better understanding of the essence of language, the meaning and the possibilities of the dialogue between poetry and philosophy will be discussed.

The relationship between poetry (or art in general) and philosophy has a long tradition, characterized at times by a mutual distrust (the ancient conflict mentioned by Plato).

This distrust stems from the distance that separates philosophy, considered as true speech, and poetry, considered as false speech.

But both, philosophy as well as poetry, are, each in its own right, an experience of language.

Moving from this this fundamental connection, Heidegger deeply rethinks their relationship: he never implies that they are the same thing, but he asserts the fruitfulness of their encounter.

To understand the direction of the dialogue between philosophy and poetry in Heidegger and to better grasp its very broad consequences, we will discuss on one side the metaphysical experience of language and on the other side the experience of language peculiar to a philosophical perspective that aims at going beyond metaphysics.

Finally, the problem of translation considered as a philosophical issue will be mentioned.

In a very famous passage, Heidegger espresse the following maxim: “Tell me what you think of translating, and I’ll tell you who you are”.

As a matter of fact, the different concepts of translation are the result of different experiences of language and vice versa.

 

Second part:

Hegel and Antigone. Language and experience, poetry and philosophy.

The first part of the course aims at discussing the theoretical function of Antigone in Hegel’s philosophy also by reconstructing Hegel’s relationship with tragedy. We will then closely examine a couple of selected pages from “The Phenomenology of Spirit” (1807), moving from two main questions. First we will gain some insights into the relevance of Antigone’s tragic action for the problematic relationship between subjectivity and experience. Secondly, since the “Phenomenology” seems to incorporate extracts from Sophocles' tragedy, we will explore the way Hegel, despite borrowing most of its plot, deviates sometimes radically from the Sophoclean text.

Antigone’s example in the "Phenomenology of Spirit" could therefore be considered a sort of philosophical translation of a literary text. We will then analyze the difference between literary language and philosophical one by focusing on Hegel’s lectures on fine Art.

 

Readings/Bibliography

First part:

Martin Heidegger, Lettera sull’umanismo, in Segnavia, a cura di F. Volpi, Adelphi, Milano 1978, pp. 267-315.

Martin Heidegger, Linguaggio tramandato e linguaggio tecnico, a cura di C. Esposito, ETS, PISA 1997.

Jean-Paul Sartre, L'esistenzialismo è un umanismo, Mursia, Milano.

Francesco Cattaneo, Ripensare l'umanità dell'uomo. Per un attraversamento storico-concettuale della «Lettera sull'"umanismo"» di Martin Heidegger, in «Paradosso», n. 2, 2019, pp. 91-2018 (Si consiglia in generale la lettura dell'intero numero 2/2019 di Paradosso, dedicato al tema Umanesimo, Humanismus, humanisme. Filosofie dell'umano fra Rinascimento e contemporaneità).

 

 

Second part:

G.W.F. Hegel, La fenomenologia dello spirito, a cura di G. Garelli, Einaudi, Torino 2008: pp. 69-79; 291-318.

G.W.F. Hegel, Estetica, trad. di N. Merker e G. Vaccaro, introduzione di S. Givone, Einaudi, Torino 1997 (e successive ristampe), pp. 5-104.

G.W.F. Hegel, Lezioni di Estetica (Hotho 1823), a cura di P. D’Angelo, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2005, “La poesia”: pp. 262-302.

Sofocle, Antigone, in una edizione a scelta.

G. Garelli, C. Gentili, “Il tragico”, Il Mulino, Bologna 2010, pp. 133-143.

L’estetica di Hegel, a cura di M. Farina e A.L. Siani, Il Mulino, Bologna 2015, limitatamente ai cap. III di G. Garelli, “L’estetica nella Fenomenologia dello spirito”: pp. 49-66; cap. V di M. Farina, “Arte e filosofia”: pp. 83-98; cap. XI di A.L. Siani, “La tragedia”, pp. 181-195; cap. XIII di M. Ophälders, “Poesia e morte dell’arte”: pp. 213-228.

E. Caramelli, Antigone e l’essere della legge, in Ead., Lo spirito del ritorno. Studi su concetto e rappresentazione in Hegel, Il Melangolo, Genova 2015: pp. 117-150.

 

The bibliography may be subject to changes until the beginning of the lecture course.

Teaching methods

The course will consist of frontal lessons; sources will be commented and discussed and the problems and their historical context synthetically reconstructed.

Assessment methods

It's mandatory to bring all the texts for the final proof.

The final proof will take place in the form of an oral examination. During the examination the teacher will assess whether the student has achieved or not some basic educational goals: knowledge of the texts and capacity to contextualize authors and works; comprehension of the fundamental concepts and capacity to provide a correct interpretation of them; clarity in the explanation of concepts and accuracy in the use of philosophical terminology; capacity to establish connections between the various authors and themes from both a historical and a strictly speaking conceptual point of view. During the oral examination the teacher will assess if the student possesses the abovementioned knowledge and skills in a (more or less) complete, precise and adequate way, or vice-versa in a (more or less) incomplete, vague and superficial way. The final grade will correspondently vary from excellent (30 and honors) to very good (30) to good (27-29) to fairly good (24-26) to more than enough (21-23) to merely enough (18-21) to unsatisfactory (<18).

Teaching tools

All the aforementioned texts (in the specified editions) are an essential tool in order to actively participate in the classes. It is recommended to get hold of the texts before classe because specific parts will be read and commented.

Some other texts will be distributed through the channels offered by the Unibo portal.

Office hours

See the website of Francesco Cattaneo

See the website of Eleonora Caramelli