Linguistics

STEFANO PIETRO LUIGI ASPERTI
STEFANO PIETRO LUIGI ASPERTI

- Students will achieve knowledge of the scientific literature on the topics dealt with and will be able to comment on it critically;
- they will be able to apply their knowledge developing research questions and formulating hypotheses on the basis of the acquired analytical concepts and tools in the philological and literary field;
- they will be able to integrate their new knowledge with the previous ones in order to face the theoretical and practical complexity of acquired concepts and methods;
- they also will manage to communicate knowledge entering in discussion with specialists of philology and linguistics of the romance Middle Ages and non-specialists.
- They will lastly be able to study autonomous topics proposed during the course and will be encouraged to cultivate their own scientific interests independently/individually.

The course is aimed at students of master's degrees who already possess basic knowledge of Romance philology and linguistic and intends to present a case-study (an author, a text, a genre ...) of exemplary importance, placing it into the appropriate historical-literary context, highlighting the most relevant philological problems, inserting it in current discussion on the subject.
Specific objectives that are meant to be reached are the acquisition of in-depth expertise and critically evaluated skills around key problems of romance philology; acquisition of a secure methodology of work (critical analysis of the current literature, the ability to work directly out of ancient texts), in relation to the most recent research directions; ability to confront with the current critical literature. Students will develop more advanced critical skills in the analysis of texts through their formal characters and the comparison between related objects, refining the ability of contrastive analysis concerning texts, forms, genres, thematic clusters.

Basic knowledge of linguistics and literary history about medieval romance literatures and of the main problems of methods posed by the field of study. Knowledge of the tools of linguistic, literary and philological analysis and at least minimal skills for autonomous intervention on medieval texts of various kinds and traditions. Instrumental knowledge of the main vehicular languages for the use of scientific bibliography.

Brunetto Latini’s Tresor in the context of Italian literature of the 13th Century.

1) TESTI : Brunetto Latini, Li livres dou trésor (1267). Édition critique par Francis J. Carmody, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1948 (digital copy); Brunetto Latini, Poesie, a c. di S. Carrai, Einaudi; other textes ed. by the the theachers.

2) LITERARY HISTORY: chapters on the literature in the Tuscany of 13th century in a good school manual; A scuola con ser Brunetto. Indagini sulla ricezione di Brunetto Latini dal Medioevo al Rinascimento. Atti del convegno internazionale di studi, Università di Basilea, 8-10 giugno 2006, a cura di Irene Maffia Scariati, Firenze, Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2008;

3) CRITICISM: anthology of critical texts edited by the lecturer, available online

4) LINGUA : an Old-French grammar, at choice, as a reference tool.

The course is directed to graduate students of master's degree courses who already possess basic notions of Romance philology; it is essential to attend classes regularly, with active participation in the development of the course, which will last one year (it is otherwise preferable to refer to the program for non-attending students or to contact the teacher for an alternative). Reading the mss. requires the knowledge of elementary principles of paleography or the willingness to acquire them.

The course will be seminar-based and as a whole (12 CFU) will last the whole year. The first semester will be devoted to the overall presentation of Brunetto Latini's work and the Trésor in particular. In the second semester, in-depth studies will be developed on some sections of the Trésor and on the Tesoretto. The active participation of students will be encouraged. Attendance is therefore strictly compulsory; those who are unable to attend but are nevertheless interested in the contents or intend to sit the exam in any case are invited to contact Prof. Asperti for indications or for an alternative program.

Oral Exam: A linguistic, philological, and literary commentary on some of the texts taken during the course. During the year students will be required to prepare an oral public delivery on an assigned theme. In particular, it will be evaluated the student's ability to take into account the texts and themes examined (for literary and historical-literary, philological and linguistic aspects), and to place them in a correct perspective also in relation to current trends in criticism and in literary historiography.

linguistic / philological / literary-historical analysis and cultural-historical commentary of a text / portion of text / group of texts