GERMANIC PHILOLOGY
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2022/2023
- Teacher
- MARIALUISA CAPARRINI
- Credits
- 6
- Didactic period
- Primo Semestre
- SSD
- L-FIL-LET/15
Training objectives
- The course aims at providing students with a basic knowledge to approach the study of medieval Germanic literature and of texts written in medieval Germanic languages. By the end of the course students will be able to read, translate and to perform autonomously a linguistic and philological analysis of texts of the Germanic Middle Ages. The acquisition of this knowledge, together with the contents described below, represents the main learning aims and objectives of the course.
Prerequisites
- None
Course programme
- Journey Reports in the Germanic Middle Ages: Ohthere and Wulfstan at the court of King Alfred.
The course will be taught in Italian and is structured as follows:
a) an introduction to the geo-ethnographical tradition with a special focus on the description of the Germanic world in Latin sources;
b) an introduction to the so-called Old English Orosius, a translation of the Historiarum adversos paganos libri septem of Paulus Orosius made at the time of King Alfred;
c) analysis of the geographical description of Northern Europe made in the Old English Orosius and based on the reports of Ohthere and Wulfstan, two voyagers at the court of King Alfred;
d) reading, translation, linguistic and philological analysis of some sections of the text. Didactic methods
- Lectures. Students will be invited to read short sections of the texts which are analysed during the course in order to learn how to correctly pronounce Old German languages.
Learning assessment procedures
- Oral exam.
The exam consists in an oral interview. During the exam the methodological skills acquired by students will be evaluated. Students are required to be able to move within information acquired during classes and bibliographical material and to analyse autonomously medieval Germanic texts.
Students will be invited to answer questions concerning the geo-ethnographical traditon, with a special focus on the description of the Germanic world in Latin sources. Furthermore, they will be invited to introduce and analyse both Old English Orosius and the reports of Ohthere and Wulfstan and to read, to translate and to perform a linguistic and philological analysis of sections of the text.
The achievement of an organic vision of information acquired during classes and a critical use of the bibliographical material will be assessed with very positive marks. An almost mnemonic knowledge and a basic critical use of the sources will lead to a passing grade. Training gaps and a total lack of a critical use of the material will lead to a failure. Reference texts
- Bibliography:
Editon:
- Janet Bately (ed. by), The Old English Orosius (Early English Text Society), London/New York/Toronto: Oxford University Press 1980, pp. 13-18.
1) Niels Lund (ed. by), Two voyagers at the court of King Alfred: The venture of Ohthere and Wulfstan. Together with the description of Northern Europe from the Old English Orosius, York: William Sessions Limited 1984, pp. 5-14, 18-22, 22-25.
2) Laura Gherardini, I racconti di viaggio di Ohthere e Wulfstan, due navigatori alla corte di Alfredo il Grande, in: A. Gimbo, M.C. Paolicelli, A. Ricci (a c. di), Viaggi, Itinerari, Flussi umani. Il mondo attraverso narrazioni, rappresentazioni e popoli, Roma: Edizioni Nuova Cultura 2014, pp. 735-747.
3) Carla Del Zotto, Esti, Scandinavi e Sassoni nei resoconti medievali di Mercanti, viaggiatori e chierici, in D. Gottschall (a c. di), Testi cosmografici, geografici e odeporici del Medioevo germanico, Louvain-La-Neuve: FIDEM 2005, pp. 41-70.
4) Irmeli Valtonen, The North in the Old English Orosius. A Geographical Narrative in Context Modern Language Society, Mémoires de la Société Néophilologique de Helsinki 73: Vaajakoski 2008, pp. xv, xvi, 321, 328-336, 339, 354-355.
5) Anton Englert, Janet Bately, Ohthere's Voyages: A Late 9th Century Account of Voyages along the Coasts of Norway and Denmark and its Cultural Context, Viking Ship Museum (Maritime Culture of the North 1) 2007, pp. 18-39, 40-58.
6) Anton Englert, Athena Trakadas, Wulfstan's Voyage: The Baltic Sea Region in the Early Viking Age as Seen from Shipboard, Viking Ship Museum (Maritime Culture of the North 2) 2009, pp. 14-28, 29-36, 37-42.
Further suggested readings:
1) Giulia Mazzuoli Porru, Manuale di inglese antico, Pisa: Giardini, 1992.
Non-attending students are also required to study the following texts:
1) Giulia Mazzuoli Porru, Manuale di inglese antico, Pisa: Giardini, 1992, Pronuncia: pp. 18-25.
2) Marco Battaglia, Medioevo volgare germanico, Pisa: Pisa University Press, 2014, cap. 3 (La letteratura anglosassone) pp. 49-89.
