Theatrical Literature of Ancient Greece

Teaching activity will be delivered with two methods: classroom learning (on Friday) and distance learning (on Wednesday and Thursday); but also the classroom meetings will be available at distance (synchronic, on platform Teams). The goal is to present to the students different approaches to the Attic drama: in Unit A a literary and theatrical interpretation of Sophocles' Philoctetes (myth, treatment of the characters, message, relation to the political situation of Athens, comparison with the two homonymous plays of Aeschylus and Euripides); in Unit B a discussion of the dramaturgical problems which arise in the study of Sophocles' Ajax (scenic space, movements of the characters and the chorus, re-definition of the scenic space after the chorus exit, staging of the protagonist's suicide); in Unit C the Fortleben of Sophocles' Oedipus rex on the modern stage (with focus on same influential translations and performances). In the Units A and B the teacher will read, translate and discuss a selection of lines (about 500 lines for each play); he will try to stimulate the interests of the students by asking questions, which they will answer either directly during the lesson or by posting their reactions in the Forum of the platform Ariel. Unit C will be organised as a laboratory: students will be invited to translate passages of the Oedipus rex and, in turn, to discuss the translations presented by their classmates. On the platform Ariel the students will find useful preparation material for the exam: the Greek texts with Italian translation, lecture notes.