In the first part of the course the student will be acquainted with the fundamentals of Germanic philology: in particular, we will deal with both the linguistic features (phonological, morphological, syntactic and lexical) of the Germanic family, following the principles of comparative linguistics, and the main aspects concerning the history, culture and literature of the Ancient Germanic peoples. A particular emphasis will be given to Anglo-Saxons and their literature.
Molinari, Maria Vittoria. 1981 (or any later edition). La Filologia Germanica. Bologna. Zanichelli.
Snorri's Edda
https://bifrost.it/Antologia/EddaSnorri.html (per il testo dell’Edda in prosa e relativo commento)
Edda in poetry https://bifrost.it/Antologia/EddaPoetica.html (per il testo dell’Edda poetica e relativo commento)
Meli, Marcello (a c. di) 1993. La saga dei Volsunghi, Alessandria: Ed. dell'Orso.
Beowulf http://www.maldura.unipd.it/dllags/brunetti/OE/TESTI/Beowulf/index.php
Fulk, A History of Old English Literature, pag. 278-328 (disponibile on-line)
O’Donoghue, Heather 2004. Old Norse-Icelandic Literature. A Short Introduction. London: Blackwell (pp. 21-106)
Materials commented during the course are available for students on Moodle platform and are part of the bibliography.
Learning Objectives
To familiarize the student with the principles of the Germanic Philology and the Old Germanic literatures.
Prerequisites
Competence in one of the Modern Germanic languages and the basic concepts of linguistics
Teaching Methods
Lectures
Further information
Attendance is required for at least 2/3rds of the course. No provisions and specific exams for non-attending students, except for part-time students (who must contact the professor at the beginning of the course in order to agree upon a specific program).
Type of Assessment
Students must take both an oral and written exam.
Students have to take the exam in a written form through the Moodle e-learning platform before the oral test. This test will consist of a list of multiple choice questions and exercises related to the topics covered in the first part of the course, including
- basic concepts and terms of Germanic Philology
- theories and methods of Phonetic and Phonological change and transcription exercises
- theories and methods of Germanic Morphology and exercises of morphological nalysis
- knowledge of Old Germanic literatures and history.
Students who pass the written exam will be admitted to the oral part, based on the topics covered during the second part of the course, and on the reading of Old Germanic texts and their relative literature according to the student’s first language. The examiners will also assess the relevance and coherence of the students' answers, their communication skills, their capacity for making judgements and express opinions on a topic in a structured way, their language accuracy and their style.
The final mark will be calculated as the average between the marks obtained in the written and oral exams.
Students who are not satisfied with the mark they have been given in the written examination, can take an oral exam on all the topics covered during the course.
Course program
The students, who attend the course, will accompany the lectures with a bibliography of reference to which they should add the complete reading of some Old Germanic literary works. Extra material will be provided during the lessons.
In the first part of the course the student will be acquainted with the fundamentals of Germanic philology: in particular, we will deal with both the linguistic features (phonological, morphological, syntactic and lexical) of the Germanic family, following the principles of comparative linguistics, and the main aspects concerning the history, culture and literature of the Ancient Germanic peoples. Emphasis will be given to the Old English and Norse literature. In particular, in the second part, we investigate the theme of new medievalism in literature and in movies.