19735 - Byzantine Literature

Learning outcomes

Knowledge of the most important aspects of the Byzantine literature (prose and poetry), and ability to make a conscious use of the relevant bibliography. Reading selected texts (with special attention to historiography, theology, novels) the student get to understand the role of the Byzantine literature in relation to the Arabic, Latin and Slavic civilizations and their legacy for the literary production of modern Europe.

Course contents

This course offers an introduction to the Greek literature from Late Antiquity to the Ottoman conquest of Byzantium. Particularly, attention will be paid to :
1. The relation between literature and politics in Byzantium
2. Monastic literature and culture
3. Byzantine fiction, and its relation to other cultures
4. Introduction to a critical use of bibliography and sitography concerning Byzantium
Students will be guided through the wide variety of the Byzantine literary activity, out of which they can find the way to understand the place of Byzantium in the European civilization.
The student will benefit from this course if he possesses a basic knowledge of the Greek literature of Antiquity, and at least a basic competence in Greek (see section AVVISI of the professor web page).
Students who can not attend the course must contact the professor for a special programme.

 

Readings/Bibliography

Additional bibliography to the course:

- Leighton D. Reynolds e Nigel G. Wilson, Copisti e filologi: la tradizione dei classici dall'antichità ai tempi moderni, traduzione di Mirella Ferrari, con una premessa di Giuseppe Billanovich, 3rd edition, Padova: Antenore, 1987. Reading of the "Premessa" and of ch. I-II is requested to all students.

- The Oxford handbook of Byzantine studies, edited by Elizabeth Jeffreys with John Haldon and Robin Cormack, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. Chapters I.2.9 (= pp. 95-100: Erich Trapp, Lexicography and electronic textual resources), III.16 (= pp. 721-730: Henry Maguire, Art and text), III.18 (= pp. 827-837: Elizabeth Jeffreys, Rhetoric).

Individual reading (free choice): at least 50 pages from one or more Byzantine authors in modern translation; it is recommended  to check up the original text in the critical edition presented during the course.

Suggested bibliography for personal readings:

- Storia di Barlaam e Ioasaf: la vita bizantina del Buddha, a cura di Paolo Cesaretti e Silvia Ronchey, Torino: G. Einaudi, 2012.

- Bisanzio nella sua letteratura, antologia di testi in traduzione italiana a cura di Umberto Albini e Enrico V. Maltese, seconda edizione, Milano: Garzanti, 2004.

- Fozio, Biblioteca, a cura di Nigel Wilson, Milano: Adelphi, 1992.

- Digenis Akritas: poema anonimo bizantino, a cura di Paolo Odorico, prefazione di Enrico V. Maltese, Firenze: Giunti, 1995; Digenis Akritis: the Grottaferrata and Escorial versions, edited and translated by Elizabeth Jeffreys, Cambridge: Cambridge University press, 1998.

- Chronographiae quae Theophanis Continuati nomine fertur Liber quo Vita Basilii Imperatoris amplectitur, recensuit, anglice vertit, indicibus instruxit Ihor Ševčenko, nuper repertis schedis Caroli De Boor adiuvantibus, Berlin - Boston: De Gruyter, 2011.

- Anna Comnena, Alessiade: Opera storica di una principessa porfirogenita bizantina, a cura di Giacinto Agnello, Palermo: Palazzo Comitini edizioni, 2010.

Students should regularly attend the course, where they are led to make personal and critical use of the primary bibliography concerning Byzantine literature. This is one of the essential aims of the course.

Teaching methods

Lessons held by the professor, with additional tutoring for each student.
In the first semester of each academic year all students can profite of reading and translation training and practice: Greek texts of the Byzantine period will be selected, from literary as well as documentary sources, with special attention to students' research interests at the advanced level. See the section AVVISI in the professor web page.

Assessment methods

Oral examination and a written text (10 questions) about essential bibliography and Byzantine studies in the history of European scholarship.

The examination is exclusively oral for students who can not attend the course; they must contact the professor for the syllabus.

Teaching tools

Maps of the Byzantine empire and neighbouring countries. Digital and printed reproductions of Byzantine manuscripts. PDF didactic materials. Books. Powerpoint.
It is planned to visit the MSS. Departments of the Biblioteca Malatestiana in Cesena and of the Biblioteca Ariostea in Ferrara. Both visits are optional extras, and will be scheduled with the students involved.

Office hours

See the website of Chiara Francesca Faraggiana di Sarzana