CIVILIZATION AND LANGUAGE OF MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY GREECE

The course is intended to provide, beyond the fundamentals of modern Greek language, a general knowledge of modern and contemporary Greek civilization (literature, myth, folklore, history, art, music), through the analysis of the “vicissitudes” of loanwords, the relationship between cinema and Greek history/civilization, the historiographical and philological prejudices, and literary and philological questions. The aim is also to give students an opportunity to satisfy the increasingly demanding expectations of job market with a broader liberal arts perspective, for favoring professions in education, tourism, journalism, international relations, and publishing work. In this regard the course can be considered preliminary to the achievement of the International Certification of Attainment in Modern Greek Language (Hellenic Ministry of Education) in order to be employed in the touristic, editorial, or commercial field (Free preparation course organized by the Chair, Ministerial Examination Center).

Lectures, exercise sessions, simulations, seminars.

Together with the possibility of efficiently communicating in modern Greek, the program aims to introduce students - through the topoi of the “different”, the “crime”, and the “escape/journey” - to the critical investigation of texts (literature, cinema, and music) and historical sources, and to the knowledge of the relations among Greece, Europe, and Turkey in modern and contemporary age, highlighting the contrast between ideal and actual language, the conflict between urban imaginary and town plan, among engagement, contestation and dictatorship, the woman and the weak/disabled, the phenomena of migrancy and ethnic or religious hatred, as well as the processes of constructing the national identity. The syllabus comprises three modules and also allows a breath of scope to multimedia applications (electronic media management of texts and search engines in Greek, film screening, listening to music), and to workshop drills of translation (literary, touristic, commercial, journalistic).

A. “Is Modern Greek language in crisis?”. Aspects of modern Greek language, of literary translation and of its relations with Italian language:

- M. Peri, Gli scambi linguistici fra Italia e Grecia. Compendio di una storia dimenticata, in Greco antico, neogreco e italiano. Dizionario dei prestiti e dei parallelismi, Zanichelli, 2008, pp. 26-102; or in substitution the following three texts: S. Nicosia, Etimologie neogreche, e E. Giakumaki, Della sorte di alcuni prestiti italiani in neogreco. Mutamenti semantici in senso dispregiativo, in Italia e Grecia: Due culture a confronto, Univ. di Palermo, 1991, pp. 93-103, 195-199; V. Rotolo, Interesse del neogreco per gli studi classici, e L’insegnamento del neogreco nelle scuole italiane, in Id., Scritti sulla lingua greca antica e moderna, Univ. di Palermo, 2009, pp. 9-28, 373-377.

- A text of your own choice: K. Papatheu, L’universo dei derelitti e il mondo dell’idillio, Bonanno, 2011, pp. 13-99; A. Di Gregorio, Vademecum del traduttore. Idee e strumenti per una nuova figura di traduttore, Dante Alighieri, 2014 [157 p.] (recommended for students interested in in literary translation and publishing work).

- Hand-outs available on Studium: Ellinikà Tora 1+1, pp. 21-69 (Fundamentals of Modern Greek Language comics, puzzles, advertising material, different types of modern songs).

B “Proud to be Greek”. Superheroes, myths, reality or propaganda? Traditions and contradictions of Nation among dictatorships, genocides, wars and terrorism.

- La politica culturale del fascismo nel Dodecaneso, Esedra, 2009, pp. 15-48, 63-73, 137-148.

- Greci e turchi. Appunti fra letteratura, musica e storia, Bonanno, 2007, pp. 35-77, 117-149.

- M. Peri, Ebrei di Salonicco. Appunti sull’ “Umanità italiana”, in Studi Storici 48/2 (2007), pp. 341-359.

- Movies: Mediterraneo; Il mio grosso grasso matrimonio greco; Un tocco di zenzero; Il mandolino del capitano Corelli; I due colonnelli.

- Readings 1: K. Papatheu, Konstantinos Theotokis, Dodici Storie di Corfù; F. Grasso, Andreas Karkavitsas, “Capo Malea” e altri racconti da “Parole della prora”; D. Sotiriu, Addio Anatolia.

- Readings 2 (a text of your own choice) A. Arslan, La masseria delle allodole o La strada di Smirne; J. Eugenides, Middlesex; P. Markaris, I labirinti di Atene (pp. 73-86, 141-156).

C “Does fear come from Athens?”. Madonnas, Maddalenes, monsters, migrants, corrupts, escapees and tax evaders, and other derelicts and crimes.

- M. Vitti, Storia della letteratura neogreca, Carocci, 2001 (pp. 195-434: only the authors suggested in class).

- M. Peri, Donna/Donnola, e R. Lavagnini, Le donne cattive, in La presenza femminile nella letteratura neogreca, Univ. di Roma, 2003, pp. 31-40, 41-47.

- P. Militello, La terra ai profughi. I Graecorum casalia in Sicilia (XV-XVI secolo), in Id. Storie mediterranee. Destini di uomini e cose tra XV e XIX secolo, Carocci, 2108, pp. 21-38.

- A text of your own choice: G. Spadaro, Influssi occidentali in Grecia dalla IV Crociata alla caduta di Creta in mano ai Turchi, or G. Spadaro, La novella della Matrona di Efeso in un testo greco medievale, in Id., Letteratura cretese e Rinascimento italiano, Rubbettino, 1994, resp., pp. 79-89, 207-229.

- A text of your own choice: E. Benedetti, Poesia e pensiero della Grecia classica nell’opera di Giorgio Seferis, in Omaggio a Seferis, Liviana, 1970, pp. 25-143; M. Peri, Quattro saggi su Kavafis, Vita e Pensiero, 1977 (a chapt. of your own choice).

- Readings (one text of your own choice): K. Kavafis, Poesie (ital. transl. by F.M. Pontani or A. Di Gregorio); T. Patrikios, Le parole nude; P. Matesis, Madre di cane; a novel of Pètros Màrkaris; Trenta e un racconto dal Novecento greco, ed. by M. Perlorentzou, Argo, 2019.

- Documentary Film: Passato e Presente: Panagulis e la Grecia dei Colonnelli (https://www.raiplay.it/video/2018/11/Passato-e-Presente-Panagulis-e-la-Grecia-dei-Colonnelli-58fcee9c-e8e6-43da-8631-7d13098d9bd7.html).

Please remember that in compliance with art 171 L22.04.1941, n. 633 and its amendments, it is illegal to copy entire books or journals, only 15% of their content can be copied.

For further information on sanctions and regulations concerning photocopying please refer to the regulations on copyright (Linee Guida sulla Gestione dei Diritti d’Autore) provided by AIDRO - Associazione Italiana per i Diritti di Riproduzione delle opere dell’ingegno (the Italian Association on Copyright).

All the books exceeding 15% listed in the programs can be consulted in the Library, while the remaining texts are available on open-access platform Studium.