B1644 - Greek Literary Culture with Exerciser of Anthropology (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the student knows the main literary, historical and socio-anthropological aspects of Greek culture and is able to read and interpret texts of Greek literature from a historical and anthropological perspective.

Course contents

1) General introduction to the Historical Anthropology of Ancient Greece: methodological assumptions, history of the discipline and epistemological issues.

2) Anthropological reading of passages from Hesiod's Works and Days and Theogony: following the development of the narrative, various social practices and formations will be analysed (the ethics of gift-giving, conviviality, hospitality, kingship, oral society, the notion of the past, the status of women, sacred action, etc.).

Readings/Bibliography

In addition to the notes and materials provided in class, students will be required to

1) for an introduction to the anthropology of ancient Greece, read the chapters on Lafitau, Bachofen, Tylor, Morgan, Robertson-Smith, Frazer, Boas, Benedict, Mead, Durkheim, Mauss, Hertz, Van Gennep, L. Lévy-Bruhl, Polanyi, Malinowski, Radcliffe-Brown, Evans-Pritchard, Goody and Lévi-Strauss in U. Fabietti, Storia dell’antropologia, Bologna 2001;

2) read in Greek with metrical reading Hesiod, Works and Days 1-202, 631-662 and Theogony 1-232, 404-617, 881-1022;

3) read

• G. Nagy, Hesiod and the Poetics of Pan-Hellenism, in Id., Greek Mythology and Poetics, Ithaca-London 1990, 36-82.
• J.-P. Vernant, Alla tavola degli uomini: mito di fondazione del sacrificio in Esiodo, in M. Detienne–J.-P. Vernant, La cucina del sacrificio in terra greca, Torino 1982 (original edition Paris 1979), 27-89.
• J.-P. Vernant, Mito e pensiero presso i Greci, Torino 1978 (original edition Paris 1965).

 

The relevant sections in R. Di Donato, Per una antropologia storica del mondo antico, Firenze 1990, are useful for understanding the figures of Gernet, Meyerson, Mauss, Vernant and Harrison.

See also, for the history of cultural anthropology and sociology, respectively, R. Deliège, Storia dell'antropologia, Bologna 2008 and R. Aron, Les étapes de la pensée sociologique, Paris 1967.

On the Homeric question, see also

• F. Codino, Introduzione a Omero, Torino 1965, 23-47.
• F. Càssola, Inni omerici, Milano 1975, IX-LXVI.
• G. Nagy, The Best of the Achaeans: Concepts of the Hero in Archaic Greek Poetry, Baltimore-London 1979.
• I. Morris, The use and abuse of Homer, “ClAnt” V/1 (1986) 81-138.
• G. Cerri, Introduzione, in W. Schadewaldt, G. Cerri, A. Gostoli, Omero. Iliade, Milano 1996, 63-97.
• R. Di Donato, Esperienza di Omero, Pisa 1999.
• A. Ercolani, Omero: introduzione allo studio dell’epica greca arcaica, Roma 2006.
• L. Sbardella, Cucitori di canti: studi sulla tradizione epico-rapsodica greca e i suoi itinerari nel VI secolo a.C., Roma 2012, 5-63.

On Hesiod, see also

• M. Skafte Jensen, Tradition and individuality in Hesiod's Works and Days, “C&M” XXVII (1966) 1-27.
  
• L. E. Rossi, Esiodo, Le Opere e i giorni: un nuovo tentativo di analisi, in A. Ercolani, L. Sbardella (edd.), Esiodo e il corpus Hesiodeum. Problemi aperti e nuove prospettive, Roma 2016, 47-61 (= F. Montanari-S. Pittaluga [edd.], Posthomerica I. Tradizioni omeriche dall’Antichità al Rinascimento, Genova 1997, 7-22).

Further bibliography will be provided during the course.

Teaching methods

The lessons will be mainly frontal, in particular as to the introduction to the historical and theoretical assumptions of the Anthropology of the ancient Greece. The commented reading of the Homeric text will be more seminar-like.

The materials indicated in the course of the lectures will be made accessible and downloadable on the web (Virtuale). 

The course participates in the University's teaching experimentation project.

Assessment methods

The exam will consist of an interview in which, on the one hand, the ability to translate, read metrically and comment on the texts covered in class from a historical-anthropological perspective will be assessed and, on the other hand, knowledge of the theoretical foundations of Ancient Greek Anthropology and the history of the discipline will be tested; the assigned essays will also be discussed.

The assessment will take into account the accuracy, completeness and articulation of the answers according to the following scale: excellent answers 30-30L, very good 27-29, good 24-26, satisfactory 21-23, sufficient 18-20.

 

Students with learning disabilities or disabilities are advised to contact the relevant university office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/it/per-studenti): any adjustments must be submitted at least 15 days in advance to the lecturer, who will assess their suitability in relation to the course objectives.

Teaching tools

Texts and photocopis, IOL, Power point

Office hours

See the website of Stefano Caciagli