JAPANESE PHILOLOGY

Knowledge and Understanding:

By the end of the course in Japanese Philology every student should be much more confident in reading and translating short sentences written in classical language and in understanding its typical grammar. The course will provide the study of several texts, which, in their turn, will enable students to gain competences in deciphering the ancient language.

The course in Japanese Philology will give the student the chance to improve his proficiency in consulting Chinese Characters and Classical Japanese Dictionaries.

Applying Knowledge and Understanding:

The course in Japanese Philology will give the student many fruitful opportunities to compare old and contemporary Japanese language, and to think about its evolution. Students will be able to analyze short texts and sentences. Most importantly, they will gain competences in linguistic and glottology. They will also be able to recognize the basic structures and to compare them with their modern counterparts.

Making Judgment:

By studying the classical language, every student will be able to think about the evolution of Japanese language. Furthermore, by reading and analyzing texts and excerpts coming from different literary works, dating from different times, students will also have the chance to think about a very long literary tradition.

Communication Skills:

The study of classical languages often constitutes an unrepeatable chance to improve knowledge and competences in contemporary language. At the same way, by studying the kogo, students will be able to improve their modern Japanese. By reading old texts, they will familiarize with a different context. The study of a classical language always represents a good instrument of comparison and mutual understanding.

Learning Skills:

The course will constitute the first step toward an independent research activity and a personal engagement with Japanese ancient texts. This will be a great challenge and, at the same time, an opportunity of personal enrichment.

Frontal teaching, practice activities and written exams.

The course is divided into two different sections: one will consist in an introduction to the structures of classical Japanese language, starting with the presentation of the old syllabary and its typical pronunciation (rekishitekina kanazukai), following with the verbs and their classes, and ending with the adjectives and pseudo-adjectives; the other will dwell on inflecting suffixes and will provide the presentation of short excerpts from works dating from Heian (794-1185) and Kamakura (1192-1333) periods.

Komai, Akira, Rohlich, Thomas, An Introduction to Classical Japanese. (Chapters 1 – 4.8, pp. 1-175)

Morino, Muneaki, Ise monogatari. Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1977

Nishio, Minoru, Hōjōki. Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1957

Noguchi, Motohiro, Taketori monogatari. Tokyo: Shinchōsha, 2014