00607 - Latin Language and Literature II

Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is to present authors and genres of the literature of Rome in their historical development and the basic tools for interpreting Latin texts and documents. 
The following knowledge and skills will be requested at the end of the course:
1. knowledge of the literary history, which includes the ability to outline profiles of the main genres, authors and their works and set them in their historical and literary environment;
2. the ability to translate the texts in Latin listed in the programme;
3. knowledge of phonetics, morphology and basic syntax, as appearing in the mentioned texts;
4. the ablity of carrying out a literary analysis of the studied texts (both in Latin and in Italian).

Course contents

Through selected lectures from Latin authors (in the original language, or in translation), the course aims at presenting the development of the main genres in the literature of Rome, and at offering the basic tools for interpreting texts and documents in Latin.

The course is splitted in two parts (each one 6cfu)
1) Rewriting myth: Oedipus, Arianna: analysis of Oedipus and Arianna myths will permit to make some journeys in the latin literature and culture and verify their influence on modern and contemporary culture.
1.1. Oedipus:  Seneca's Oedipus will be examinated with reference to Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, and to some modern variations, by Dryden and Lee, Freud, Gide and Cocteau.
1.2. Arianna: examination of the Catullian and Ovidian myth and its literarian and iconographic permanence (by prof. ssa Maria Paola Funaioli).

2) 'Tragicomedy' and philosophical dialogue: selected lectures from the latin text of Plautus' Amphitruo and from Seneca's Dialogues (De otio and De vita beata).

N. B. 1. The updated syllabus, the dates of the examinations and forms to enrol in the examination sessions are available at: www2.classics.unibo.it/Didattica/LatBC/latbc.htm.
2. Texts and notes from lectures and further material will be available at the same page.

Readings/Bibliography

I. Texts: the complete listing of passages requested for the exam will be available at the end of the course on the site above, where texts circulated during lessons will also be available.
1.1. Oedipus: it is suggested to refer to Sofocle - Seneca - Dryden e Lee - Cocteau, Edipo. Variazioni sul mito, a cura di G. Avezzù, Venezia, Marsilio 2008; Freud and Gide texts will be supplied at lesson (the introduction is recommended).
1. 2. Arianna: it is suggested to refer to G. Ieranò, Il mito di Arianna da Omero a Borges, Roma, Carocci, 2007.
2.1. Plauto: Amphitruo vv. 50-63; 153-261; 403-462; 551-632; (in latin), from Tito Maccio Plauto, L'Anfitrione, a c. di R. Oniga, introduzione di M. Bettini, Marsilio, Venezia 1991.
2.2. Seneca: selections of De otio e De vita beata, from Seneca, I Dialoghi a cura di G.Viansino, vol. II, Milano, Mondadori (Oscar Classici) 1993.
II) Latin language: for the bases of the language, students can resort to a good high school textbook (for instance: I.Dionigi - E.Riganti - L.Morisi, Verba et res. Morfosintassi e lessico del latino, Laterza, Bari, 1997). The following reading is also suggested: A.Traina-G.Bernardi Perini, Propedeutica al latino universitario, Pàtron, Bologna 19986, chapt. I-VI.
III) Literary history: further to the periodization and a general historical background, students will have to know the main authors of latin literature (Augustine of Hippo, Ammianus Marcellinus, Apuleius, Catullus, Caesar, Cicero, Cornelius Nepo, Ennius, Historia Augusta, Juvenal, Jerome, Livius, Livius Andronicus, Lucanus, Lucilius Gaius, Lucretius, Martial, Horace, Ovidius, Petronius, Plautus, Pliny the Elder, Propertius, Quintilian, Sallustius, Seneca, Suetonius, Tacitus, Terentius, Varro Marco Terentius, Virgil). Literary profiles presented during lessons will have to be integrated with a manual: e.g. M. Bettini, Storia della letteratura latina. Antropologia e cultura romana, Firenze, La Nuova Italia, 1996, or V. Citti - C. Casali - C.Neri, Gli autori nella letteratura latina. Disegno storico. Dalle origini alla tarda latinità, Bologna, Zanichelli, 2005, or G.B. Conte, Letteratura latina, 2 voll., Firenze, Le Monnier, 2002.

Teaching methods

Lectures in class;
Seminars  (where individual research will be discussed and essays and tests corrected).

Assessment methods

Viva voce examination, which will test:
- the knowledge of the literary history,
- the ability of understanding and set the studied texts in their historical and literary environment
- the main linguistic (phonetics, morphology and syntax), trough reading and translating from the Latin texts dealt with in class and listed in the program.

Teaching tools

1. Online teaching materials: see page: www2.classics.unibo.it/Didattica/LatBC/AppLett2009.htm; handouts with the same content will be distributed in class
2. Seminars devoted to the introduction to the bases of the Latin language (phonetics, morphology and syntax), for beginners.

Links to further information

http://www2.classics.unibo.it/Didattica/LatBC/AppLett2008.htm

Office hours

See the website of Francesco Citti

See the website of Maria Paola Funaioli