00567 - Latin Literature

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:
1. knowledge of the literary history, which includes the ability to outline profiles of the main genres, authors (listed in the programme) 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

I. SPECIAL FOCUS COURSE
Seneca's Trojan Women.

 In class we will analyze the following texts:

- Seneca, Trojan Women, vv. 1-202; 371-813; 1009-1179;
- Virgilio, Aeneid, book II, vv. 268-297;
- Ovid, Metamorphoses, book XIII, vv. 399-575.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 11-13, aula Tibiletti, Zamboni 38: from 6th October 2014

II. CORE COURSE
Latin Language (syntax); Latin Literature (history of Latin literature), Textual Criticism, Metres (elegiac couplet).

III. AUTHORS
1. Cicero: Pro Archia.
2. Tacitus: Agricola
3. Vergil: Aeneid, Book X

IV. CRITICAL ESSAYS (see. Bibliography)

SEMINARS (if not specified, hosted by the Dipartimento di Filologia Classica e Italianistica, 32 Zamboni Street, 3rd floor), from 2nd October.
Authors
1. Lectures from Cicero, Pro Archia: D. Pellacani [Friday 15.00-17.00, Aula II, via Zamboni 32], from 10.10.2014
2. Lectures from Tacitus, Agricola: V. Lunardini [merc. 13-15, Aula II] dall'8.10.2014.
3. Lectures from Vergil (with metrical explanation): O. Fuà. to be defined..

Latin Language: the students of the course of Letteratura latin can also attend the seminars of the course of Lingua latina:
1. Beginners  – I semester: students A-G: Thursday-Friday 11-13 (Aula II, via Zamboni 38) inizio 9.10.2014; students H-Z: Mon- Tuesday 9-11 (Aula B, via Zamboni 34): from 6.10.2014
2. Intermediate 1st level (morphology and elementary syntax) – II semester: see the program of Lingua Latina
3. Intermediate 2nd level (translation and syntax) – II semester: see the program of Lingua Latina

Readings/Bibliography

I. SPECIAL FOCUS COURSE
Texts:  Seneca:  Le Troiane, introduzione, traduzione e note di F. Stok, Milano, Rizzoli BUR, 1999, or Seneca, Tragedie, a cura di G. Giardina, Torino, Utet (Classici latini) 2009, or Seneca. Hercules, Trojan Women, Phoenician Women, Medea, Phaedra, ed. by J.Fitch, London-Cambridge MA, Harvard UP 2002; Vergil: see edition indicated below; Ovid: Publio Ovidio Nasone, Metamorfosi, a cura di N. Scivoletto, Torino, Utet (Classici latini) 2013, or Ovid, Metamorphoses Book XIII, ed. by N. Hopkinson, Cambridge, UP 2000.

Readings: almost three of the following essays: F. Citti, Spes dulce malum. Seneca e la speranza, in Cura sui. Studi sul lessico filosofico di Seneca, Amsterdam, Hakkert, 2012, 25-51; E. Fantham, Andromache's Child in Euripides and Seneca, in Roman Readings, Berlin-New York 2010, 457-474; W.H.Owen, Time and Event in Seneca's Troades, "Wiener Studien" 83, 1970, 118-137; G. Petrone, Troia senza futuro. Il ruolo del secondo coro nelle Troades di Seneca, in Seneca e la letteratura greca e latina. Per i settant'anni di Giancarlo Mazzoli, Pavia, Pavia UP, 2013, 83-96; W. Schetter, Sulla struttura delle Troiane di Seneca, "Rivista di Filologia e Istruzione Classica" 93, 1965, 396-429; F. Stok, Introduzione a Seneca. Le Troiane, Milano, Rizzoli, 1999, 5-37; F. Stok, Modelli delle Troades di Seneca: Ovidio, "Quaderni di Cultura e Tradizione Classica" 6-7, 1988-1989, 225-242; W. Stroh, Troas, in Brill Companion to Seneca. Philosopher and Dramatist, Leiden-Boston, Brill, 2014, 435-447; A. Zissos, Shades of Virgil: Seneca's Troades, "Materiali e discussioni" 61, 2008, 189-210.

II. CORE COURSE
Language: I. Dionigi - E. Riganti - L. Morisi, Il latino, Bari, Laterza 2011 is recommended. As for the syntax: A. Traina, Sintassi normativa della lingua latina, Bologna, Cappelli, 1993. As an alternative, Allen and Greenough's New Latin grammar, Ginn & Company, Boston-NY-Chicago, 1903 (both for syntax and morphology). See also A. Traina - G. Bernardi Perini, Propedeutica al latino universitario, Bologna, Pàtron, 2007, chapt. II-VI.
Literature: G.B. Conte, Letteratura latina. Manuale storico dalle origini alla fine dell'impero romano, Firenze, Le Monnier, 2002, or M. Citroni, Letteratura di Roma antica, Bari, Laterza, 1997 [also in Engl. transl.: G.B. Conte, Latin Literature: A History, Baltimore, The John Hopkins UP, 1994] or V. Citti - C. Casali - C.Neri, Gli autori nella letteratura latina. Disegno storico. Dalle origini alla tarda latinità, Bologna, Zanichelli, 2005.
Textual criticsm and Latin metres: A. Traina - G. Bernardi Perini, Propedeutica al latino universitario, Bologna, Pàtron, 2007, chapt. VII-VIII.

III. AUTHORS
Cicero: Il poeta Archia, a c. di E. Narducci, traduzione di G. Bertonati, Milano, Rizzoli BUR, 2000.
Tacitus: Vita di Agricola. La Germania, introduzione e commento di L. Lenaz, traduzione di B. Ceva, Milano, BUR, 1990, or Agricola Introduzione, testo critico, traduzione e commento di P. Soverini, Alessandria, Ed. dell'Orso, 2004. See also Tacitus, Agricola, ed. by R.M. Ogilvie - I. Richmond, Oxford, UP, 1967
Vergilius: Eneide, Book X, from Eneide, introduzione di A. La Penna, traduzione e note di R. Scarcia, Milano, Rizzoli BUR 2002, or Virgilio, Eneide, traduzione di M. Ramous, introduzione di G.B. Conte, commento di G. Baldon, Venezia, Marsilio, 1998. See also Vergil, Aeneid 10, with text, translation and commentary by S. Harrison, Oxford, UP, 1997.

Teaching methods

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

Assessment methods

In a viva voce examination the students will be tested Latin phonetics, morphology, syntax and literature through the reading and translation of the Latin texts dealt with in class and listed in the programme.

Teaching tools

1. Online teaching materials: (see webpage above); handouts with the same content will be distributed in class
2. Seminars (cf. course content) devoted to the introduction to the bases of the Latin language (phonetics, morphology and syntax)

Office hours

See the website of Francesco Citti