Germanic philology LM. Manuscript and Textual Studies (2018/2019)

Learning outcomes

Germanic philology LM. Manuscript and Textual Studies

The MA course Manuscript and Textual Studies covers methodologies and cultural contents of Germanic Philology, that is textual criticism and digital philology, paleography, codicology, cultural history and historical linguistics (all referred to the Germanic languages and their traditions)

Expected Outcomes
- Advanced knowledge on methodologies and cultural contents which are necessary to analyse and interpret Germanic linguistic and literary traditions.
- Delve into the main multidisciplinary aspects of Germanic Philology and reinforce the mastery of a correct and accurate specialistic terminology.
- Delve into the main specialistic fields of Germanic Philology (textual criticism and digital philology, paleography and codicology, cultural history, and historical linguistics) , mainly focussing on textual and literary interpretation, in compliance with the learning outcomes of the Master Degree in Comparative European and Non-European Languages and Literatures.

Course Title – Editing Early Middle High German ‘Alexanderlied’: Digital Perspectives

The course will be divided into two main parts, according to the schedule here below:
- Part A (12 hours) will consist in a survey of the interdisciplinary aspects of Germanic Philology (texual criticism and digital scholarly editing, historical linguistics, the growth of literacy in the Germanic-speaking countries);
- Part B (30 hours) will consist in a reassessment of
- the issues posited by the vernacular traditions of the Middle Ages (on the instance of the Middle High German poem known as ‘Alexanderlied’);

- methods and procedures of textual criticism;

- of Digital Scholarly Editing

During the course, students will be taught to read the text from its manuscripts and to transcribe them in diplomatic and normalized form (in compliance with the XML/TEI standard).

SUGGESTED READINGS:
Part A
As a survey of the history of textual criticism:

David Greetham, ‘A history of textual scholarship’, in The Cambridge Companion to Textual Scholarship, ed. by N. Fraistat and J. Flanders, Cambridge: University Press, 2013;

As a survey of the main features of the Germanic languages, in diachronic and comparative perspective:

Robinson, Orrin W., Old English and its closest relatives: a survey of the earliest Germanic languages. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1992.

As a survey of the main aspects of the Digital Humanities:

Susan Schreibman, Ray Siemens, John Unsworth (eds.), A Companion to Digital Humanities, Oxford, Blackwell 2004:
<http://digitalhumanities.org:3030/companion/view?docId=blackwell/9781405103213/9781405103213.xml&chunk.id=ss1-3-2&toc.depth=1&toc.id=ss1-3-2&brand=9781405103213_brand>
The History of Humanities Computing;
Lexicography;
Linguistics Meets Exact Sciences;
Literary Studies;
How the Computer Works;
Classification and its Structures;
Databases;
Marking Texts of Many Dimensions;
Text Encoding;
Modeling: A Study in Words and Meanings;
Stylistic Analysis and Authorship Studies;
Preparation and Analysis of Linguistic Corpora;
Electronic Scholarly Editing;
Textual Analysis;
Thematic Research Collections;

Parte B
As a survey of the spread of the Alexander legende in the Middle Ages:

Z. David Zuwiyya (ed.), A Companion to Alexander Literature in the Middle Ages, Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2011
Chapter 1: Richard Stoneman Primary Sources from the Classical and Early Medieval Periods;
Chapter 9: Laurence Harf-Lancner, Medieval French Alexander Romances;
Chapter 12: Danielle Buschinger, German Alexander Romances;
Chapter 13: David Ashurst and Francesco Vitti, Alexander Literature in Scandinavia

As a survey of text-critical issues (with reference to European literatures of the Middle Ages) and of digital editing:

Elena Pierazzo, Digital scholarly editing: theories, models and methods, Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2015

Susan Schreibman, Ray Siemens, John Unsworth (eds), A New Companion to Digital Humanities, Oxford: Blackwell, 2016
Willard McCarty, Becoming Interdisciplinary;
Lorna Hughes, Panos Constantopoulos, and Costis Dallas, Digital Methods in the Humanities: Understanding and Describing their Use across the Disciplines;
Julia Flanders and Fotis Jannidis, Data Modeling;
Elena Pierazzo, Textual Scholarship and Text Encoding;
Daniel Paul O’Donnell, Katherine L. Walter, Alex Gil, and Neil Fraistat, Only Connect: The Globalization of the Digital Humanities;
William G. Thomas III, The Promise of the Digital Humanities and the Contested Nature of Digital Scholarship;

Adele Cipolla (ed.), Digital Philology: New Thoughts on Old Questions, Padova: libreriauniversitaria.it, 2018
Thomas Bein, Walther von der Vogelweide: Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft der Edition seiner Texte;
Marina Buzzoni, Reconstruction vs Documentation: A Survey of Editorial Conundrums and (Ir)reconcilable Positions;
Adele Cipolla, Intractable Cases and Digital Hopes: How New Media Can Help with Interpreting Multi-Version Vernacular Texts;
Paolo Trovato, What if Bédier was Mistaken? Reflections of an Unrepentant Neo-Lachmannian

Teaching
Teaching modalities are different for attendees and non-attendees. Only for attendees: ongoing self-evaluation test (it will be scheduled during the course).
Throughout the entire academic year, the instructor is available weekly during her visiting hours (schedule available on this webpage, but can be subject to variations), generally with no need to arrange an appointment, unless there are specific announcements.

At the beginning of the course attendees will receive a complete schedule of the teaching activities (including class dates and place). Possible postponements of the classes will be announced via the e-learning platform.
Non-attendees are kindly requested to contact the instructor. Possible updates will be made available in good time also by means of dedicated posts on the e-learning platform. Therefore, everybody is supposed to subscribe to it.
Content of textbooks, as well as of classes and exercise held during the course comply with the syllabus. Further materials are available on the e-learning platform.

Oral exams during the official exam sessions scheduled and published by the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures.
 Assessment will include:
ATTENDEES--> ongoing preliminary test referring to the 1st part of the programme  + oral exam on the other part of the programme.
NON-ATTENDEES--> oral exam on the whole programme.
Objective of assessment
ATTENDEES--> In the middle of the course (after the 5th week), students can take a written test (which will be corrected and discussed within the class with self-evaluation), aimed at assessing students' knowledge on the introductory parts of the programme (it will deal with the first 5 weeks of classes) and the corresponding bibliography.
The intermediate written exam will be structured according to groups of questions related to the main themes of the course; the preparation of the exam will be supported by learning materials which will be prepared ad hoc. The evaluation is expressed in 30/30. The written exam will be subject to an evaluation which the student will integrate with the oral exam.
The oral exam will deal with the development of issues related to the written test and to report on it.
The oral exam will assess:
- depth and extent of acquired knowledge
- accuracy of acquired vocabulary
- ability to link aspects concerning both parts of the programme
To foster the correct understanding of the contents and of the modalities of the ongoing written test during the classes the test of last year will be discussed (it is already available on the e-learning).
NON-ATTENDEES-->The oral exam will be on the entire programme. The final evaluation is expressed in 30/30.
The oral exam will assess:
- depth and extent of acquired knowledge
- accuracy of acquired vocabulary
- ability to link aspects concerning both parts of the programme
Erasmus students are kindly requested to contact the instructor at the beginning of the course to arrange both learning and assessment modalities.

STUDENT MODULE EVALUATION - 2017/2018