Teaching code

4S007394

Teacher

Eleonora Rocconi

Coordinator

Eleonora Rocconi

Credits

6

Language

Italian

Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)

L-FIL-LET/02 - GREEK LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

Period

CuCi IIA dal Feb 15, 2021 al Apr 1, 2021.

Lessons timetable Moodle Seminars 0

Learning outcomes

The course offers a comprehensive insight of the metres and the rhythms of the Greek poetic tradition, with specific attention to: (a) the relation existing between metrics and textual interpretation; (b) the literary analysis of the texts. The course focuses on: - Prosody - Greek lyric metre - The textual transmission of poetry and its philological and exegetical tradition - The ancient sources on metrics - Ancient Greek music and rhythms. Students will become familiar with the specific vocabulary of the discipline, and will apply it to the textual and metrical analysis. They will also be able to recognize the main poetical forms, considered under a critical perspective and placed within the frame of the history of the discipline on a case-by-case basis (with special reference to companions, monographs, essays, and lexica focused on the topic). Knowledge of Greek language is mandatory.

Program

The course aims at illustrating the fundamental theoretical principles of the disciplines of ancient Greek metrics and rhythmics as well as their relationship with musical performance, in order to provide useful tools for the reading and interpretation of Greek poetic texts.

Main topics will be:
- The basic notions of metrics and rhythms (meter, rhythm and speech; prosody and strophic structures; recited and lyric verses; meters/rhythms and poetic genres).
- Theoretical frameworks: birth and development of metric science (derivationist system vs. metra prototypa) and rhythmic science (Aristoxenus), production of ancient scholarship related to these topics.
- From theory to practice: meter and rhythm in ancient Greek musical documents.
- Case-studies: meters and rhythms on ancient drama (reading, analysis and comment of selected passages).

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Handbooks (please, select one):
- C. Martinelli, Gli strumenti del poeta. Elementi di metrica greca, Bologna, Cappelli Editore, 1995.
- B. Gentili, L. Lomiento, Metrica e ritmica. Storia delle forme poetiche nella Grecia antica, Milano, Mondadori Università, 2003.

Critical essays:
- R. Pretagostini, Le teorie metrico-ritmiche degli antichi. Metrica e ritmo musicale, in Lo spazio letterario nella Grecia antica, direttori G. Cambiano, L. Canfora, D. Lanza, I. La produzione e la circolazione del testo, 2. L’ellenismo, Roma, Salerno editrice, 1993, pp. 369-391;
- M. Ercoles, La metrica greca oggi: principali tendenze. Aggiornamento, in P. Maas, Metrica greca, Cesena, Stilgraf, 2016, pp. 197-267.
- E. Rocconi, Metro e ritmo nelle fonti di scuola aristossenica, «Lexis» 26, 2008, pp. 283-294.

Extant musical fragments are collected in:
- E. Pöhlmann, M.L. West, Documents of Ancient Greek Music. The Extant Melodies and Fragments, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2001.

Other useful bibliographic titles will be indicated during the lectures.


DIDACTIC METHODS:
Frontal lessons (in presence and streaming). After a part introducing the fundamentals of the discipline, some case-studies will be examined. In this part of the course, the participants will be involved in seminar activities. The didactic material of the lectures (powerpoint presentations) will be available for downloading.

Examination Methods

OBJECTIVES, CONTENTS AND METHOD OF THE EXAM
The oral exam will verify:
- the knowledge of the texts indicated in the bibliography and of the topics presented during the lectures;
- the ability to think critically about the main topics discussed, especially the most problematic ones;
- the capacity of reading metrically the most important recited verses (exameter and iambic trimeter), of describing the main lyric verses and of relating the metrical and rhythmical aspects with the musical documents.

Non-attending students have to read an additional essay, to be agreed with the teacher.

EVALUATION OF THE EXAM
Each of the parts described above will be assigned a score, divided as follows:
- (up to a maximum of) 15 points
- (up to a maximum of) 10 points
- (up to a maximum of) 5 points
The sum of the scores of the evaluations will form the final mark, expressed out of thirty.