75362 - Gender and Violence in the Old Germanic Literatures

Learning outcomes

The student already knows the old Germanic literatures and investigates the relation between gender and violence in the texts of the Nibelungs Cycle and in the modern rewriting of the Nibelung legend.

Course contents

First semester from 13 November 2023 (30 hours - 6 CFU)

The Dream of the Rood, or how a hero dies.

The course examines one of the most beautiful texts in all of English literature: the Old English The Dream of the Rood, in which the Cross of Christ tells its own story, from when it was a tree in the woods to the death of Christ, and beyond. The short poem (156 verses) has been transmitted in a manuscript, now in Vercelli, as well as (partially) on a monumental stone cross preserved in Ruthwell, southern Scotland. A pair of verses is also found on a metal artefact preserved in Brussels.

Obviously The Dream of the Rood is a text of religious edification, but it breathes strongly of Germanic heroic poetry: Christ himself is represented as a great leader with his retinues.

After the cultural background, the course will move on to the reading of the text in its original language, trying to propose a translation in the light of the meanings and messages that the text wants to convey.

Readings/Bibliography

- The Dream of the Rood, edited by Michael Swanton, Exeter, University of Exeter, 1987

- The Dream of the Rood, in the [https://oepoetryfacsimile.org/] (edition, digital facsimile images, translation), ed. by Martin Foys et al. (Madison: Center for the History of Print and Digital Culture, 2019-) (Online)

- Cynewulf, Il sogno della Croce - Cristo, a cura di Aldo Ricci, Firenze, Sansoni, 1926, pp. 8-19 (at disposal on Virtuale)

- Il sogno della Croce, a cura di Domenico Pezzini, Pratiche, Parma, 1992, pp. 7-71

- La fenice e altri poemi anglosassoni, a cura di Roberto Sanesi, Milano, SE, 1998, pp. 15-18 (at disposal on virtuale)

  - Andy Orchard, The Dream of the Rood: Cross-References, in New Readings in the Vercelli Book, ed. by S. Zacher - A. Orchard, Toronto, Toronto UP, 2009, pp. 225-253 (online on platform AlmaRe)

 

Non attending students have to add the reading of the whole volume edited by Domenico Pezzini (see above) and teh following essays:

- Marusca Francini, La letteratura anglosassone, in Le civiltà letterarie del Medioevo germanico, a cura di Marco Battaglia, Roma, Carocci, 2017, pp. 137-276;

- Barbara C. Raw, Biblical literature: the New Testament, in The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature, ed. by M. Godden & M. Lapidge, Cambridge, Cambridge UP, 1994 (o ediz. successiva), pp. 227-242

Teaching methods

Classrooms on site. No recorded lessons.

Assessment methods

he assessment will take into account some textual examples discussed in classroom will be object of the examination and will be orally discussed together with the theoretical knowledge gained . During the interview the methodological and critical skills acquired by the student will be evaluated . The student will be invited to discuss the texts covered during the course and to move within the sources and bibliographical material in order to be able to identify in them the useful information that will enable to illustrate the similarities and cultural areas of the discipline. The achievement of an organic vision of the issues addressed during the classes and their critical use, which demonstrate ownership of a mastery of expression and specific language, will be assessed with marks of excellence. Mechanical and / or mnemonic knowledge of matter, synthesis and analysis of non-articulating and / or correct language but not always appropriate will lead to discrete assessments; training gaps and / or inappropriate language - although in a context of minimal knowledge of the material - will lead to votes that will not exceed the sufficiency. Training gaps, inappropriate language, lack of guidance within the reference materials offered during the course will lead to failed assessments.

Teaching tools

Multimedial tools

Office hours

See the website of Alessandro Zironi