04538 - Poetics and Rhetoric

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student acquires the basic knowledge regarding the multiple doctrinal and disciplinary identities that poetics and rhetorics have assumed in their long history, from the antiquity to the present. S/he also become able to deal with the study of one of those classics that represent fundamental milestones in the above mentioned historical development.

Course contents

Tile of the first part (IV period): 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 two aspects. In first place, 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 friutfulness 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. In second place, the problem of translation considered as a philosophical issue will be analized. In a very famous passage, Heidegger espresse the following maxim: “Tell me what you thing 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.

 

Title of the second part (III period): Hegel and Antigone. Language and experience, poetry and philosophy.

The second part of the course aims at discussing the theoretical function of Antigone in Hegel’s philosophy. We will then closely examine a couple of selected pages from “The Phenomenology of Spirit” (1807), moving from two main questions. Keeping in mind that language, in a time in which its philosophical meaning is reassessed (we only need to think at Hamann, Herder and Humboldt), is a guiding principle of the entire “Phenomenology”, we will gain some insights into the relevance of Antigone’s tragic action for the problematic relationship between language and experience. Secondly, since the “Phenomenology” seems to incorporate extracts from Sophocles' tragedy, we will explore the way in which 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. In order to verify the possibility for philosophical language to translate fruitfully the poetic one, we will analyse the section “Poetry” of the “Lections of fine Art”, which discusses the relationship between poetry and the prose of philosophical thinking.

Readings/Bibliography

Part I:

Martin Heidegger, Lettera sull’umanismo, in Segnavia, edited by F. Volpi, Adelphi, Milano 1978, pp. 267-315.

Martin Heidegger, Il linguaggio, in In cammino verso il linguaggio, a cura di A Caracciolo, Mursia, Milano 1973, pp. 27-44.

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

Martin Heidegger, L'inno "Der Ister" di Hölderlin, trad. it. di C. Sandrin e U. Ugazio, Mursia, Milano 2003, pp. 58-59.

François Fédier, Tradurre i “Beiträge zur Philosophie”, 1992, digital text (http://www.eudia.org/fedier_tradurre-i-beiträge-12/).

Gino Zaccaria, L’inizio greco del pensiero. Heidegger e l’essenza futura della filosofia, Christian Marinotti, Milano 1999, cap. IV, pp. 251-287.

Modulo II:

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, 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. Steiner, Le Antigoni (1984), trad. it. di N. Marini, Garzanti, Milano 1995 (e successive ristampe), pp. 11-53 e 62-76.

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.

F. Iannelli, Oltre Antigone. Figure della soggettività nella Fenomenologia dello spirito di G.W.F. Hegel, Carocci, Roma 2006, pp. 17-46.

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.

Teaching methods

Lectures, conversations and discussions with students.

Assessment methods

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).

Office hours

See the website of Francesco Cattaneo

See the website of Eleonora Caramelli