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2019/2020

Latin Literature of the Imperial Period

Code: 100414 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500243 Classics OB 3 2
2501907 English and Classics OT 3 0
2501907 English and Classics OT 4 0

Contact

Name:
Ulisse Cecini
Email:
Ulisse.Cecini@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
catalan (cat)
Some groups entirely in English:
No
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
Yes
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
No

Prerequisites

It is necessary to have successfully taken Literature of the Republican age and have appropriate knowledge of the Latin language at the standard of a third-year undergraduate student  

Objectives and Contextualisation

The subject, which is part of the comprehensive subject of Classical Literature, is a compulsory one in the Degree of Classical Studies.
 
Its aim is to lead the student to the proficient knowledge of the literature of the period that goes from the time of Augustus until the end of the Imperial Age and its implications in society.
 
The objectives of the subject are as follows:
 
1. Know the authors, works and literary genres of Latin literature of the Imperial Age.
2. Understand the historical evolution of Imperial Latin literature and its cultural, social and political context.
3. Understand the transmission and preservation of Roman literary texts from the Imperial Age.
4. Understand and appreciate the survival and influence of imperial literature in texts and cultures of later periods.
5. Read and comment on the Ab Urbe condita of Titus Livius (Preface and book XXI).

Competences

    Classics
  • Identifying the classical literary fact and its transmission.
  • Students must be capable of explaining a literary text, applying their literary, metrical and stylistic knowledge.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
    English and Classics
  • Explain a literary text, applying their literary, metrical and stylistic knowledge.
  • Identify the classical literary fact and its transmission.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Analysing the literary phenomena in the texts of mandatory reading and its reception in the Western literatures.
  2. Demonstrating they know the main literary manuals and their various orientations.
  3. Explaining in oral and written form subject, literary genres, periods, authors and works and their continued existence.
  4. Producing a literary comment of a Greek or Latin texts (as appropriate) from a formal and content-related point of view, identifying literary motifs, style figures, rhetoric, and if necessary, metric forms.
  5. Recognising the definition and characteristics of the different literary genres from the meta-literary texts and identifying its realisation in concrete works.
  6. Using in an efficient and autonomous manner the basic philological tools.
  7. Using the specific technical vocabulary of interpretation and commentary of ancient texts.

Content

The basic contents of the of the subject are:

1. Definition and limits of what we call Latin literature of the Imperial Age: chronological and aesthetic limits.

2.  Literary genres and their evolution in the Imperial Age. General characteristics and innovations. Writing, reading and dissemination of books. Literature and politics. Literary innovations.

3. Historiography as a political genre: Titus Livius and the imperial historiographical model.

4. Christian Latin literature.

5. Translation and commentary on a selection of texts by Titus Livius.

Methodology

1) The directed activities will rely in equal measure on the theoretical foundation of the subject and the literary commentary of chosen passages of several authors. An active and participative attitude will be required in the presential sessions.

2) In supervised activities, the student must demonstrate the achievement of theoretical concepts and of skills acquired in the task of commentary by the translation of selected passages.

3) Alongside the theoretical activity on literary aspects, students will be reading and translating a selection of texts by Titus Livius in the classroom.

4) The students will have to attend the tutorial sessions in preparation for a paper that will be presented in class.

5) All activities will be evaluated.

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Theoretical-practical presentation - Student participation 45 1.8 1, 2, 4, 3, 5, 6
Verification exercises in the classroom 3 0.12 1, 2, 4, 3, 5, 6
Type: Supervised      
Tutorials 9 0.36 4, 6
Type: Autonomous      
Study of manuals and commentary on literary texts of the period object of study 45 1.8 1, 2, 4, 3, 5, 6

Assessment

The evaluation of the students will be based on the following elements, all of them compulsory:
 
1. Oral presentation in class (about a literary genre or author of the syllabus) (20%). The presentation must also be delivered in writing (10%). Weeks 14 and 15.
2. Two translation exercises of passages from Titus Livius's work
     2.1 Text seen in class. Without dictionary and with comment (20%). Week 7.
     2.2. Text not seen in class. With dictionary and comment (20%.). Week 11.
3. A final exam on literary history and theory (30%). Week 16
 
Re-evaluation: Only students who have not reached the sufficient qualification of "approved" as a result of the evaluations of the above mentioned tests will be admitted to re-evaluation. The re-evaluation exam gives the right to a maximum score of 5 points (approved).
  If a student submits one or more evaluation element (written papers, verifications and / or tests), he or she can no longer be qualified as "non-evaluable".

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Contribution of commentary and translation of texts in the classroom 40 % (20% + 20%) 25 1 1, 2, 4, 3, 5, 6, 7
Final exam (theory) on the subject 30% 1.5 0.06 1, 2, 4, 3, 5, 6, 7
Paper on a work, author or literary genre of the literature of the Imperial Age 30% (20% + 10%) 21.5 0.86 1, 2, 4, 3, 5, 6, 7

Bibliography

The reference manual of the course will be:

ALBRECHT, Michael von, Historia de la literatura romana desde Andrónico hasta Boecio, Barcelona, 1997-99, 2 vols. 
 
As additional reading, we suggest below further works on Latin literature:
 
 ANRW = Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt, Berlin-New York, vol.I.2 i vols.II.30 en endavant. 
 BARDY, Gustave- DI NOLA, Gerardo, Storia della letteratura cristiana antica latina, Città del Vaticano, 1999 (edició actualitzada de la de 1929). 
 BAIER, Thomas  (Hrsg.),  Götter und menschliche Willensfreiheit : Von Lukan bis Silius Italicus, München, 2012. 
 BAYET, J., Literatura latina, Barcelona, 1984. 
 BICKEL, Ernst, Historia de la literatura romana, Madrid, 1982. 
 BIELER, Ludwig, Historia de la literatura romana, Madrid, 1969. 
 BRAUND, Susanna Morton, Latin Literature, London-New York, 2002.
 CAVALLO, Guglielmo-FEDELI, Paolo-GIARDINA, Andrea (Edd.), Lo Spazio letterario di Roma antica, Roma, 1989- 1991, 5 vols. 
 CITRONI, Mario, COSOLINO, Franca, LABATE, Mario,  NARDUCCI, Emanuele, Letteratura di Roma Antica, Roma-Bari 1997.
 CODOÑER, Carmen (ed.), Historia de la literatura latina, Madrid, 1997. 
 CONTE, Gian Biagio., Latin Literature. A History, Baltimore and London, 1994. 
 CUPAIOLO, Fabio, Storia della letteratura latina. Forme letterarie, autori e società, Napoli, 1994. 
 FERRERO HERNÁNDEZ, Cándida (ed.), Autores hispanos de la literatura latina clásica,  Bellaterra, 2011.
 FLOCCHINI, Nicola, Argomenti e problemi di letteratura latina, Milano, 1977. 
 FONTAINE, Jacques, La littérature latinechrétienne, Paris, 1970. 
 FUHRMANN, Manfred (ed.), Literatura romana, Madrid, 1985. 
 GENTILI, B.- STUPAZZINI, Luciano- SIMONETTI, Manlio, Storia della letteratura latina, Roma, 1992. 
 GIANOTTI, Gian Franco.- PENNACINI, Adriano, Società e comunicazione letteraria di Roma antica, Torino, 1986, 3 vols. 
 GÓMEZ PALLARÈS, Joan, Studiosa Roma. Los géneros literarios en la cultura romana, UAB Bellaterra, 2003. 
GRIMAL, Pierre, La littérature latine, Paris, 1994. 
HABINEK, Thomas, The politics of Latin Literature: writing, identity and empire in Ancient Rome, Princeton 1998.
HABINEK, Thomas, The world of Roman Song: from ritualized speech to social order, Baltimore 2005. 
HARRISON, Stephen, A Companion to Latin Literature, Oxford 2005. 
HERZOG, Reinhart- SCHMIDT, Peter Lebrecht (eds.), Nouvelle histoire de la littérature latine, Turnhout, 1993, Vols. 4 i 5. 
HUTCHINSON, Gregory Owen, Latin Literature from Seneca to Juvenal. A Critical Study, Oxford 1993.
 KENNEY, Edward J.- CLAUSSEN, W. (eds.), Historia de la literatura clásica. Vol. II: Literatura latina, Madrid, 1989. 
 LABRIOLLE, Pierre, Histoire de la littérature latine chrétienne, Paris, 1947, 2 vols. 
 LANA, Italo- MALTESE, Enrico V., Storia della civiltà letteraria greca e latina, Torino, 1998, 3 vols. 
 MARTIN, René-GAILLARD, Jacques, Les genres littéraires à Rome, Paris, 1981. 
 PALADINI, Virgilio-CASTORINA, Emanuele, Storia della letteratura latina, 2 vols., Bologna, 1969-1972. 
 QUINN, Kenneth, Texts and Contexts, London 1979.
 ROSTAGNI, Augusto, Storia della letteratura latina, Torino, 1964, 3 vols. 
 SALLES, Catherine, Lire à Rome, Paris, 1992.
SULLIVAN, John Patrick, Literatura and Politics in the Age of Nero, Cornell 1985.
TAPLIN, Oliver (ed.), Literature in the Greek and Roman Wordls, Oxford 2000.

Livius: Editions and commentaries:

Ab urbe condita, Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1919-1974 (5 vols.)
 Ab urbe condita, Stvtgardiae : Teubner, 1966- (Lib.21-22). 
Història de Roma; introducció d'Antonio Fontán ; text revisat, traducció i notes d'Antoni Cobos, Barcelona : Fundació Bernat Metge, 2002-, vols. 1, 2 i 11. 
 Ab urbe condita. Libro XXI, Madrid : Gredos, 1971. 
 Da Sagunto a Zama : pagine della terza decade, Torino : S. Lattes, 1957. 
Els Orígens de Roma : Ab urbe condita liber I; introducció, traducció i notes de Bàrbara Matas i Bellés, Barcelona : Edicions de la Magrana, 1999. 
 Hannibal : the scourge of Rome : being selections from Livy XXI, London : Cambridge University press, 1976. 
 Libro XXI (edición, estudio preliminar y comentario de Vallejo), Madrid : Instituto "Antonio de Nebrija", 1946. 
 LIVY in fourteen volumes, London : William Heinemann, 1964-1976.
Storia di Roma: Libri XXI-XXII, Milano : Arnoldo Mondadori, 1998.
 TITO LIVIO e le istituzioni giuridiche e politiche dei romani . Testi interpretati da Luigi Labruna Publicació Napoli : Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 1984.