Provencal Literature

A.Y. 2023/2024
9
Max ECTS
60
Overall hours
SSD
L-FIL-LET/09
Language
Italian
Learning objectives
The learning objective of this course is to provide students with an advanced preparation on Medieval Occitan language and literature, that will be studied also from the point of view of textual transmission.
Expected learning outcomes
Knowledge: at the end of the course students will know the history of Medieval Provençal literature - from its origins to the mid fourteenth century - and the Occitan historical grammar.

Skills: students will also be able to understand, translate and examine in depth the texts that are taken into account during the lessons, discussing their linguistic features, historical-literary context and textual problems. Furthermore, students will acquire the ability to deal with interpretative problems, showing awareness of the different methodological perspectives, and making use of the provided bibliography and of discipline-specific terminology.
Single course

This course can be attended as a single course.

Course syllabus and organization

Single session

Responsible
Lesson period
Second semester
Course syllabus
Part A (40 hours, 6 ECTS):
The eminently dialogical nature of Provençal lyricism has long been recognised by scholars: throughout its history, it is through dialogue and polemic that troubadours define the elements of their poetics and the value system in which they participate. From this derives the importance of the phenomena of intertextuality, but also that of the properly dialogical genres (tenso and partimen) within their production.
In this part of the course, we will analyse some of these poetic debates that particularly marked the history of troubadour poetry on the level of the poetics of the different authors and on that of the ideological system of courtly poetry.

Part B (20 hours, 3 ECTS):
Starting from the tradition of the texts studied in the first part of the course, we will deal with some fundamental aspects of the troubadour manuscript tradition, beginning with the constitution of the collections and the history and geography of troubadour literature.
In this part of the course a space within the lectures will be allocated to the students' presentation of a short commentary work on a troubadour text agreed upon with the lecturer.
Students intending to take the 6 cfu examination will prepare part A of the course; students intending to take the 9 cfu examination will prepare parts A and B.
Prerequisites for admission
No prerequisites for admission. Nevertheless, master's students are expected to have a basic understanding of textual criticism, the historical-comparative grammar of Romance languages and the history of Medieval Romance literatures: for this reason, students who did not attend any class in the domain of Romance philology are asked to contact the teacher. No previous competence in Old Provençal is required to attend the lessons and to pass the exam successfully: all the skills for the linguistic comprehension of texts will be provided in class.
Teaching methods
The structure and contents of the course are conceived for master's students and offer an integrated presentation of all the topics described in the section "Course syllabus": for this reason, students are strongly recommended to attend the lessons.
Class lessons are the prevailing teaching method; they include also the use of digital teaching materials (reproductions of manuscripts, performances of medieval musical pieces, textual and linguistic databases and so on) that are made available on the Ariel platform. Students will also be required to discuss collectively in class the subjects treated during the lessons.
All students taking a 9 ECTS exam are required to prepare a short paper that deepens a topic related to the general subject of the course. This work can be carried out individually or in small groups; the topic and the composition of the working group has to be previously agreed with the teacher, that will provide specific bibliographic references and operational guidance. The paper must be delivered to the teacher by e-mail at least 10 days before the exam.
International and Erasmus students are invited to promptly get in touch with the teacher in order to arrange an apposite plan for exam preparation.
Teaching Resources
Part A-B:
- Personal class notes and the materials uploaded on the Ariel 2.0 website of the course;
- Costanzo Di Girolamo, Charmaine Lee, Avviamento alla filologia provenzale, Roma, Carocci Editore, 2015, pp. 19-94; when self-studying, students can make use of the glossary printed at the end of this book (and of the other lexicographical instruments that will be suggested in class) for preparing the linguistic commentary of the texts;
- Costanzo di Girolamo, I trovatori, Nuova edizione, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 2021.
- A list of articles will be provided at the beginning of the course.

Part C:

- Personal class notes and the materials uploaded on the Ariel 2.0 website of the course;
- Stefano Asperti, La tradizione occitanica, in Lo spazio letterario del Medioevo. 2. Il Medioevo volgare, dir. P. Boitani, M. Mancini, A. Varvaro, II, La circolazione del testo, Roma, Salerno, 2002, pp. 521-554.
- as more fully specified in the section "Teaching methods", all students taking a 9 ECTS exam are required to prepare - individually or in small groups - a short paper on a text related to the general topic of the course; the text will be chosen together with the teacher, who will also give all the relevant information in order to identify the bibliography on each text.
The teacher will upload on the Ariel site of the course an anthology containing, for each section, the texts that will be read and translated in class and other teaching materials.
Non-attending students, if any, are invited to come to the lecturer's office for a reception. The lecturer will provide precise instructions on how to replace attendance (and hence notes) with appropriate supplementary bibliography.
Assessment methods and Criteria
The exam consists of an interview that will assess learning outcomes. The interview begins with reading and translation of a Medieval text that has been analysed in class; students will have to be able to comment it making use of the acquired knowledge and skills about the study of Medieval Provençal texts from the point of view of their historical-cultural importance and literary, linguistic and textual characteristics. The ability to translate and to comment Medieval texts using the specific terminology of Romance studies will be evaluated. For students taking a 9 ECTS exam, the preparation of the short paper will also concur to the assessment, since it will permit to evaluate the skill to carry out a research on a specific topic independently. Handbooks and essays listed in the section "Bibliography" may be the subject of an interview with a further member of the examination board. The evaluation is expressed in thirtieths.
The format of the exam for students with specific learning disabilities should be arranged in advance with the teacher and with the dedicated office.
Unita' didattica A
L-FIL-LET/09 - ROMANCE PHILOLOGY AND LINGUISTICS - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
Unita' didattica B
L-FIL-LET/09 - ROMANCE PHILOLOGY AND LINGUISTICS - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
Unita' didattica C
L-FIL-LET/09 - ROMANCE PHILOLOGY AND LINGUISTICS - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
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