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| Last update 06-09-2023 |
HU Credits:
2
Degree/Cycle:
2nd degree (Master)
Responsible Department:
Romance Studies
Semester:
1st Semester
Teaching Languages:
English
Campus:
Mt. Scopus
Course/Module Coordinator:
prof Rapisarda Stefano
Coordinator Office Hours:
Upon student request
Teaching Staff:
Prof Stefano Rapisarda
Course/Module description:
What is ‘difference’, ‘otherness’, between cultures? How can it be defined? What happens when two or more very different cultures meet each other in the same spatial scenario? Which are the different possibilities? Cultural transfer, dialogue among them, mutual acknowledgement or mutual indifference, or hostility and refutation? Are there forms or figures of mediation? Can written texts of the past help us to answer these questions and even bring suggestions to contemporary issues?
This course intends to study what past culture and written texts can teach us about cohabitation, convivence, symbiosis or struggle between communities. It shall introduce students to texts, genres, institutions, and authors operating in two crucial crossroads of cultures as Spain and Sicily during the period traditionally defined as Western Middle Ages (5th-15th centuries), in order to delineate a landscape of interactions (or sometimes clashes) between the different civilizations of the Mediterranean basin: Latin, Romance Vernacular, Hebrew, Arabic, Greek-Byzantine. Two other very important crossroad, as Byzantium and the Crusaders States of the Levant, will be object of future Seminars.
We will study here the origin of the cultural and linguistic connections between West and East in Western Middle Ages and the development of main genres (lyric poetry, epic poetry, short stories) in Medieval Latin, Romance Vernaculars, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew literatures, seen through their (eventual) interaction. Special attention will be given to the cross-cultural encounters: reports of pilgrims, foreign travelers, description of ‘aliens’, but also artistic manufacts: epigraphies, coins, architecture. Knowledge of the abovementioned languages is not required. Texts and secondary literature will be read in American/English. If not available, translations will be provided by the teacher.
Course/Module aims:
This course intends to take benefit of what written texts of the past can teach us about cohabitation, convivence, symbiosis or struggle between communities. It shall introduce students to texts, authors, genres, operating in two crucial crossroads of cultures as Spain and Sicily during the period traditionally defined as Western Middle Ages (5th-15th centuries), focusing on possible cross-influences between different civilizations of the Mediterranean basin: Latin, Romance Vernacular, Hebrew, Arabic, Greek-Byzantine.
Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
Students shall have gained conscience of the cultural dynamics operating into the principal communities living in Spain and Sicily. They shall know the most influential authors and texts and shall understand the problem of influence between genres, distinguishing between real interaction, indifference or cultural hostility.
Attendance requirements(%):
Students are required to read the texts closely beforehand and participate actively in the classes by preparing specific questions to be handed in before the class and then raised during the class.
Teaching arrangement and method of instruction:
The teacher shall pose questions (e.g. is it there a clash of religion between Moors and Christians in the Poem of the Cid ? Is it there a connection between Arabic conception of love,al wadd, as reflected in the Andalusian “The Neck-Ring of the Dove” by Ibn Hazm, and Romance courtly love, “finamor”?) and shall give to the class textual document to answer to that question.
Course/Module Content:
Schedule
1) 05.12.2023
Introduction to the Course
Alfonso X el Sabio, Crónica general [excerpts on Islam and Jewish civilisation]
2) 06.12.2023
The Chanson de Roland and El Cantar del Cid [excerpts on the struggle with the Moors].
3) 19.12.2023
Ibn Hazm, The Ring of the Dove: A Treatise on the Art and Practice of Arab Love, trans. A. J. Arberry, London 1994
4) 20.12.2023
Anónimo, Libro de Calila e Dimna, ed. by José Manuel Cacho Blecua y María Jesús Lacarra, Madrid
5) 26.12.2023
Sem Tob de Carrion Proverbios morales and Spanish texts in Arabic and Hebrew alphabet, aljamido morisco literature
6) 27.12.2023
Sicilian multilingual documents and epigraphies
Karla Mallette, The Kingdom of Sicily, 1100-1250: A Literary History, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 2005 [excerpts on the travel of Ibn Jubayr and Arabic poetry in Sicily]
7) 28.12.2023
Sicilian multilingual documents and epigraphies
Karla Mallette, The Kingdom of Sicily, 1100-1250: A Literary History, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 2005 [excerpts on Hebrew texts in Sicilian vernacular alphabet and multilingual documents and epigraphies]
Required Reading:
Reference Books
Mallette Karla, The Kingdom of Sicily, 1100-1250: A Literary History, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 2005
Menocal Maria Rosa, The Ornament of the World. How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain, Back Bay Books, 2014
Primary sources
Alfonso X el Sabio, Cronica general, Cátedra. Letras Hispánicas, Madrid
Anónimo, Libro de Calila e Dimna, ed. by José Manuel Cacho Blecua y María Jesús Lacarra, Clásicos Castalia, Madrid [Partial and not philological English translation by Ramsey Wood, Kalila and Dimna, Fables of Conflict and Intrigue, 2 vols.
Ibn Hazm, The Ring of the Dove: A Treatise on the Art and Practice of Arab Love. trans. A. J. Arberry. London: Luzac Oriental, 1994
La Chanson De Roland, ed. by Gerard J. Brault, Student Edition Oxford Text and English Translation (English and French Edition), 2013
Sem Tob de Carrion, Proverbios morales, Cátedra. Letras Hispánicas, Madrid, 1998
The Poem of the Cid: Dual Language Edition, Penguin Classics, Paperback
Additional Reading Material:
Burnett Ch., The Institutional Context of Arabic-Latin Translations of the Middle Ages: A Reassessment of the “School of Toledo", in Vocabulary of Teaching and Research between the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Proceedings of the Colloquium, London, Warburg Institute, 11-12 March 1994, a cura di O. Weijers, CIVICIMA, Etudes sur le vocabulaire intellectuel du moyen âge, 8, Brepols, Turnhout 1995, pp. 214–35
Casassas Canals Xavier, La literatura aljamiado-morisca en el marco de la literatura islámica española: siglos XIII-XVII (una variedad del castellano vinculada al hiero-sprachbund islámico), en Benlabbah, Fatiha y Chalkha, Achouak. (Eds.), Los moriscos y su legado desde ésta y otras laderas, Rabat, 2010, pp. 368-396.
D’Alverny Marie-Therese, Les traductions à deux interprètes d’arabe en langue vernaculaire en latin, in Traductions et traducteurs au Moyen Age, Paris, 1989, pp. 193-206.
Johns Jeremy and Nadia Jamil, Signs of the Times: Arabic Signatures as a Measure of Acculturation in Norman Sicily, in “Muqarnas”, 21, Essays in Honor of J. M. Rogers (2004), pp. 181-192
Johns Jeremy, The Arabic Inscriptions of the Norman Kings of Sicily. A Reinterpretation in Maria Andaloro (ed.), The Royal Workshops in Palermo during the Reigns of the Norman and Hohenstaufen Kings of Sicily in the 12th and 13th century, Catania: Giuseppe Maimone, 2006, pp. 324–337
Kaplan, G., Sem Tob’s Proverbios Morales. The Epitome of Jewish Cuaderna Vía Poetry, in “Jewish Poetry and Cultural Coexistence in Late Medieval Spain”, 2019, pp. 43-66, Amsterdam University Press.
Rapisarda S., Discussion on Karla Mallette, European Modernity and the Arab Mediterranean. Toward a New Philology and a Counter-Orientalism, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010, in «Revue Critique de Philologie Romane», 12-13 (2011-2012), pp. 140-157, with a reply of Karla Mallette, pp. 157-167
Rapisarda S., Filologia e critica delle situazioni di contatto: Andalusia e Sicilia, in “Medioevo Romanzo e Orientale. Linee storiografiche e nuove prospettive di ricerca (Roma, 27-28 febbraio 2018 - Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei), a cura di A. Pioletti, F. Bellino, E. Creazzo, Rubbettino 2019, pp. 23-48
Rapisarda S., Would Another Roland Be Possible? Ganelons Reasons, Atti del convegno Figure della memoria culturale. Tipologie, identità, personaggi, testi e segni (Macerata, 9-10-11 novembre 2011), a cura di M. Bonafin, in “L’immagine riflessa”, Testi, società, culture, 22 (2013), pp. 151-175
Roth Norman, "Deal gently with the young man": Love of Boys in Medieval Hebrew Poetry of Spain, in “Speculum”, 57, 1982, pp. 20-51
Schippers Arie, Arabic and Hebrew Love Poetry in Sicily in the Middle Ages and their Contacts with Early Romance and German Poets in Sicily: Suffering of Love in Sicilian Poetry, “Quaderni di Studi Arabi”, n.s. 10 (2015), pp. 87-102
Wacks D.A., The cultural context of the translation of Calila e Dimna, in Framing Iberia. Maqāmāt and Frametale Narratives in Medieval Spain, pp. 86–128, Brill, 2007, E-Book
Grading Scheme :
Essay / Project / Final Assignment / Home Exam / Referat 60 %
Active Participation / Team Assignment 30 %
Submission assignments during the semester: Exercises / Essays / Audits / Reports / Forum / Simulation / others 10 %
Additional information:
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Students needing academic accommodations based on a disability should contact the Center for Diagnosis and Support of Students with Learning Disabilities, or the Office for Students with Disabilities, as early as possible, to discuss and coordinate accommodations, based on relevant documentation.
For further information, please visit the site of the Dean of Students Office.
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