The course offers an introduction to Greco-Roman civilisation in its various aspects: history, literature, society, customs and daily life. The main focus will be on communication and its centrality in the ancient world, equal if not superior to that of the modern world.
Roman Jakobson's model of communication (Linguistic and Poetics, In T. Sebeok (Ed.), Style in Language, Cambridge Mass. 1960, 350-377) is therefore adapted and from the title of a famous essay by B. Gentili (Poetry and Its Public in Ancient Greece. From Homer to the Fifth Century. Translated, with an introduction by A. Thomas Cole, John Hopkins University Press 1988. Origin. Roma-Bari 1984) will be proposed an overview that will focus on the relationship between communication and audience in the Greco-Roman world.
Students will acquire basic information on the main historical and literary events of the Greco-Roman world, to be considered as a unity born of the fusion of two originally different civilisations, the specificities of each of them and the results of their encounter and fusion; special attention will also be paid to the question of the legacy of classical culture in the modern world, its role in our society and the recent voices proposing its removal (cancel culture).
Since the only source of information on the ancient world are the texts come down to us, constant reference will be made during the lessons to specific passages and a reading in translation and commentary will be proposed in order to focus on their peculiarities.