CLASSIC LITERATURES MOD. 2

The CLASSICAL LITERATURES course is one of the "Core educational activities" of the Archaeology curriculum of the Master's Degree in Ancient Civilizations: Archaeology, Literature and History. The course, divided into two modules (Module 1: Greek literature, Module 2: Latin literature), aims to provide students, regardless of their educational background and linguistic skills, an advanced level approach to the authors and texts of Greek and Latin literature according to a perspective specifically oriented to the needs and peculiarities of archaeological training.

The expected outcomes of this training activity are: a detailed knowledge of works and texts of the Greek and Latin literary tradition (read in Italian translation) and of their historical and interpretative issues, and the ability to make it interact both with the bases of classical literary culture previously acquired and with the general framework of knowledge (of a historical, methodological and technical nature) that pertain to the specificity of the master's level archaeological training; the ability to read and comment on the texts studied (both those covered during the course and those approached as personal reading) on ​​a historical, historical-literary and cultural level, and to argue autonomously about them in the light of the proposed interpretations and the bibliography indicated in support of the course or (in the case of personal readings) specifically suggested by the teachers.

Although a knowledge of Greek and Latin language and literature is recommended, it is not a prerequisite for taking the exam, and its lack does not affect the ability to fully understand the course topics, texts and bibliography. It is up to the students to fill any gaps in their historical and literary knowledge by following the bibliographical indications provided for this purpose (see below, Testi di riferimento).

A poetry of material culture: Martial and everyday things.
Regarded (perhaps wrongly) as among the earliest works of the poet, who was still in his formative years, Books XIII (Xenia) and XIV (Apophoreta) of Martial’s Epigrams offer today’s reader a veritable literary museum of the daily life of the Roman elite during the Flavian era. Conceived as poetic cards for food gifts (Book XIII) and gifts items to be drawn by lot (Book XIV) amongst the guests at the banquets held during the Saturnalia festival, the very brief epigrams in these collections illustrate, through a twofold catalogue of "courtesies for guests", the concrete elements of a lifestyle which—from gastronomy to clothing to collectable objects—unites urban society at the end of the 1st century AD whilst simultaneously revealing its irreconcilable economic and social inequalities. The course is devoted to an anthological reading of the two books and their historical and literary interpretation.

1) Notes from the lessons
2) M. CITRONI, Marziale e la tradizione dell'epigramma latino, in: Marco Valerio Marziale, Epigrammi, 2 voll., Milano, BUR, 1996 e ristampe, pp. 65-101.  
3) W.R. JOHNSON, Small Wonder: The Poetics of Martial, Book Fourteen, in W. Batstone, G. Tissol (eds.), Defining Gender and Genre in Latin Literature. Festschrift for W. S. Anderson,  New York: Peter Lang, 2005, pp. 139-150.
4) S.H. BLAKE, The Aesthetics of the Everyday in Flavian Art and Literature, in A. Zissos (ed.), A Companion to the Flavian Age of Imperial Rome, Chichester: Wiley Blackwell, 2016, pp. 344-360.
5) C. MACDONALD, Take-Away Art: Ekphrasis and Appropriation in Martial’s Apophoreta 170-82, "Classical Antiquity", 36/2, 2017, pp. 288-316 (online, solo da rete di Ateneo: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26362610 )
6) Personal reading: in addition to the texts read in class, each student will present during the exam his/her own reading of a further text, chosen from a list indicated by the teacher and read with the aid of a specific bibliography.

Students who have no prior knowledge of Latin literary history are invited to fill this gap by reading the textbook: A. Cavarzere, A. De Vivo, P. Mastandrea, Letteratura latina. Una sintesi storica, Rome, Carocci, 2003, 2015².

Learning is verified through an individual oral interview during which the student must demonstrate that he or she is able to understand, historically contextualize and comment on a historical-literary level some of the texts covered during the course and the one chosen as personal reading; he or she must also be able to argue with independent judgment and propriety of language on the accompanying bibliography and be able to use it as an aid in the interpretation of the texts and in their evaluation on a historical-literary level.

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The instructor is responsible for ensuring the authenticity and originality of all examinations and coursework. In cases of suspected academic misconduct, an additional on-site assessment may be required during the exams, which may differ from the standard format.

In the exam interview, the following skills are assessed, in progressive order of incidence: 1) the accuracy and completeness of the information, both in the commentary on individual texts and in their chronological, historical and historical-literary contextualization (from 0 to 25/30), 2) the propriety in the use of historical-literary categories and the related vocabulary (from 0 to 3/30), 3) the propriety and correctness of the presentation (from 0 to 2/30). Knowledge of Latin and reading of texts in the original language (the latter left to the free choice of the student) can also contribute to forming the aforementioned assessment.

Traditional lesson, mainly based on the reading and historical and historical-literary commentary of the texts and on the illustration of the related problems.