INTRODUCTION TO GREEK LITERATURE

The course is foundational and mandatory for the BA ‘Ancient Civilizations for the Contemporary World’ and belongs to the literary-linguistic area. It aims to provide a sound knowledge of Greek literature and civilisation within the broader context of the ancient cultures of the Mediterranean. Greek culture, indeed, spread widely – not only geographically (covering the Balkan Peninsula, the islands of the Eastern Mediterranean, Southern Italy, Egypt, and parts of Asia from Anatolia to the Indus River), but also historically, exerting a substantial influence whose effects are still visible today in literary, philosophical, political, and broader cultural terms. The course also aims to strengthen the students’ knowledge of Ancient Greek, with a specific focus on key terms and notions useful to better understand the essence of Greek culture and its legacy in the modern world.

1. Knowledge and understanding: basic tools for the analysis of literary texts; knowledge of the key terms and notions of Greek literature, its periodisation, and its main genres; familiarity with the basic vocabulary required for approaching the texts proposed during the course (provided with short passages in Greek language alongside English translations).
2. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding: ability to read and analyse Greek texts and place them in their historical context using appropriate critical terminology; ability to find, select, understand, and use relevant scholarship.
3. Expressing critical opinions: ability to address texts and concepts autonomously and objectively; ability to historicise diverse concepts and ideas; awareness of the multiple dimensions of the reception of ancient literary and cultural phenomena in the contemporary world.
4. Communication skills: ability to expose concepts clearly in both written and oral form.
5. Learning skills: ability to read, understand, and interpret Greek texts (with the aid of English translations); ability to draw comparisons and establish interdisciplinary connections; ability to develop and integrate knowledge and skills autonomously.

Basic knowledge of Ancient Greek is required. Students with no previous knowledge are strongly encouraged to attend the course “Greek Language Workshop for Beginners”. Alternatively, the following texts must be studied: D. J. Mastronarde, Introduction to Attic Greek, 2nd ed., Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013, pp. 1-180; E. Dickey, An Introduction to the Composition and Analysis of Greek Prose, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016, pp. 1-72.

“Greeks and Non-Greeks: Representations of Identity and Otherness in Ancient Greek Literature”
The course is conceived as a journey through Greek literature centred on the notions of identity and otherness. A selection of texts (read in English translation, but with constant reference to the Greek original) by various authors, from different literary genres and historical periods, will be read and discussed. These texts will provide insight into the different ways in which “the Greeks” perceived, constructed, and represented themselves and others, in a continuous process of evolution and renegotiation.
After an introductory module that provides a general overview of the major phenomena in Greek literature across its historical phases, the course will be divided into two subsequent modules. The first will focus on the literature of classical Athens (5th-4th century BCE), in which we can trace the emergence of the political and cultural construction of “Greekness” in opposition to the concept of the “barbarian”. The second will examine works associated with the so-called Second Sophistic (1st-3rd century CE), produced by authors of non-Greek origin living under the Roman Empire, who were compelled to redefine what it meant to be Greek within the new political and cultural context.
The course will therefore be structured as follows:
Module A – A short introduction to Greek literature: periods, genres, and major authors.
Module B – ‘Greeks’ and ‘barbarians’ in classical Athens: theatre, historiography, oratory.
Module C – Being Greek under Rome: the Second Sophistic.

Edith Hall, Inventing the Barbarian. Greek Self-Definition through Tragedy, Clarendon Press, 1989: pp. 1-19, 56-76, 99-116.
Irad Malkin (ed.), Ancient Perceptions of Greek Ethnicity, Harvard University Press, 2001: chapters 8 (R. Thomas, “Ethnicity, Genealogy, and Hellenism in Herodotus”, pp. 213-233) and 10 (S. Saïd, “The discourse of identity in Greek rhetoric from Isocrates to Aristides”, pp. 275-299).
Tim Whitmarsh, The Second Sophistic, Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 3-19, 41-56.
Simon Swain, Hellenism and Empire. Language, Classicism, and Power in the Greek World, AD 50-250, Oxford University Press, 1996, pp. 17-42, 65-100.
Nathanael J. Andrade, Syrian Identity in the Greco-Roman World, Cambridge University Press, 2013, pp. 245-287.

Greek texts (with English translation) and further materials will be uploaded on the didactic platform.

The final examination will consist of a written test (minimum passing grade: 18/30), structured in two parts:
1. Basic knowledge of the Ancient Greek language.
2. Questions on the three modules of the course.
Students who have successfully completed the course “Greek Language Workshop for Beginners” will only be required to take the second part.
Incoming Erasmus students are kindly requested to contact the lecturer. Students with disabilities should contact the lecturer to discuss alternative examination methods.

written

Marks will be awarded according to the following criteria:
18-22: awarded for a sufficient knowledge of the topics covered and a sufficient ability to write on an assigned topic and to express a judgement on it.
23-26: awarded for a fair knowledge of the topics covered and a fair ability to write on an assigned topic and to express and support a judgement on it.
27-30: awarded for a good or very good knowledge of the topics covered and a good or very good ability to write on an assigned topic, with a good or very good ability to express and support a personal judgement on it.
30 with honours: awarded for an excellent knowledge of the topics covered, an excellent ability to write on an assigned topic, and an excellent ability to express and support a personal and original judgement on it.

Teaching will consist primarily of lectures and interactive sessions, alternating between instructor-led presentations and collective analysis and discussion of texts (in English translation, with reference to the Greek original).

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development