Approaches to Genre: Epic and Saga

Taught in English; Reading Knowledge of Italian Desirable

The epic has traditionally been read as the most complete literary representation of a culture, its values, its “knowledges.” When Renaissance authors took up the epic under the aegis of a larger project of recovering the classical past, therefore, they were not only looking for the “poetic legitimation” available through the imitation of established Virgilian and other models, but also for a way of defining, “authorizing”, and/or critically exploring new socio-political structures.  First, of course, is the general question of adapting the epic to include the Christian critique of pagan culture (in the way of Augustine’s anti-Aeneid, the City of God), but the issues were far more varied and specific: the rise of centralized national states in Europe (or in the case of Italy, the failure to become a nation); the fragmentation of Christian culture between Reform and Counter-Reform; the discovery and colonization of the Americas; and so on.  In this course we will focus on the particular case of Italy, seen, however, in light of the classical past and, if there is time and student interest, with an eye to parallel and/or contrasting developments elsewhere, especially in England.  We will begin with a week on the classical epic, especially Virgil’s Aeneid, followed by another dedicated to late classical response and medieval responses to Virgil (especially Augustine’s City of God, Lucan’s Pharsalia and Dante's Commedia.  The body of the course will be dedicated to the two major Italian epics of the sixteenth century: Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso  and Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata.   In two final weeks we will look at examples of epic from elsewhere in Europe (England, Spain, Portugal, France, and so on), choosing according to the interests of the seminar participants.

The final paper should reflect the concerns of the course but can be focused according to the interests and the linguistic-literary competences of the student.

Requirements: active participation; two in-class reports; final research paper