Learning objectives
The course aims to provide students with an overview of the main
concepts and ideas of textual criticism applied to ancient and modern
literary texts, focusing on their linguistic status, their transmission, and
their manuscript and print traditions. The course, aimed to beginners, will
inspire students with basic knowledge of: - textual criticism; - digital
encoding; - introduction to scholarly editing.
- KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING: by the end of the course the
students will be provided with basic skills in the fields of modern
philology and Digital Humanities. Special attention will be given to the text close-reading, to ecdotic methodologies, and to the major digital
enconding practices.
- APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING: students will be able to
apply their knowledge in order to achieve basic skills in the field of Digital Humanities. In particular, the autonomous analysis of scientific apparatus
of poetic and prose texts will be developed. By the end of the course students will be able to understand and to place in a hierarchy the information gathered during the classes and to translate it into a digital
language.
- MAKING JUDGMENTS: the students will improve their ability to make
judgments through the analysis of different case studies in the field of
Digital Humanities. They will also develop autonomous thinking, including cross-cultural and interdisciplinary thinking on cultural and scientific topics connected to the judgements expressed.
- COMMUNICATION SKILLS: the study of digital languages is expected to impact in a positive way on communication skills. The students will be able to report and discuss the notions learned during the classes and from the texts, with particular attention to the accurate use of language, concepts and categories, and will be able to make an appropriate use of
the specific vocabulary.
- LEARNING SKILLS: the students will improve their autonomous learning ability getting used to develop a critical attitude towards the sources and the texts.
Prerequisites
Basic notions of philology.
Course unit content
Introduction to: Modern italian Philology (from XIIIth to XIXth century);
Standard Encodig Languages; Digital Scholarly Editions. Training
sessions.
Bibliography
The students will study the texts read and explained during the classes and uploaded on the e-learning platform Elly.
They will also study the following text:
- Che cos’è un’edizione scientifica digitale, ed. by Tiziana Mancinelli and
Elena Pierazzo, Roma, Carocci, 2020.
And a selection of 3 readings:
- Simone Albonico, Sull’utilizzo della codifica TEI in filologia, in Il manuale TEI Lite. Introduzione alla codifica elettronica dei testi letterari, ed. by F. Ciotti, Milano, Edizioni Sylvestre Bonnard, 2005, pp. 239-256.
- Matthew J. Driscoll, The Words on the Page: Thoughts on Philology, Old and New, in Creating the Medieval Saga: Versions, Variability, and Editorial Interpretations of Old Norse Saga Literature, ed. by J. Quinn and E. Lethbridge, Odense, University Press of Southern Denmark, 2010, pp. 85-102: http://www.driscoll.dk/docs/words.html
- Paola Italia, Il lettore Google, «Prassi Ecdotiche della Modernità Letteraria» (PEML), 1/1, 2016, pp. 1-12.
- Jerome McGann, Ritorno alla filologia. La memoria del passato nel contesto digitale, in Teorie e forme del testo digitale, ed. by M. Zaccarello, Roma, Carocci, 2019, pp. 197-207;
- Peter Robinson, Il contesto “collaborativo” degli studi letterari e la dimensione “sociale” delle edizioni scientifiche, ivi, pp. 115-134;
- Patrick Sahle, What is a Scholarly Digital Edition (SDE)?, in Digital Scholarly Editing: Theory, Practice and Future Perspectives, ed. by Matthew Driscoll and Elena Pierazzo, Cambridge, Open Book Publisher (OBP), 2016, pp. 19–39: https://books.openedition.org/obp/3427
- Peter Shillingsburg, La svolta digitale e lo studio della letteratura nel nuovo contesto, ivi, pp. 71-84.
- Lorenzo Tomasin, Nove tesi e mezza per la filologia nell'era della liquidità digitale, «Storie e linguaggi», 5/2, 2019, pp. 19-33.
Or:
- Francesco Stella, Testi letterari e analisi digitale, Carocci, 2018.
Teaching methods
Lectures (reading, commentary of texts) and training sessions with practical encoding exercises. The activities will take place in classroom. Classes will be given both in synchronous and asynchronous mode (uploaded on the Elly page of the course). The texts analyzed during the classes will be uploaded on the elearning platform Elly.
Assessment methods and criteria
Oral examination: the evaluation test will assess the achievement of the specific learning goals for the course.
Discussion topics and questions will focus on: 1. Modern philology and
Digital Scholarly Editing; 2. Case studies; 3. Bibliography.
The most relevant criteria for the evaluation include:
- Unsatisfactory grade (score <18/30): lack of the basic skills of the
course.
- Passing grade (score 18-24/30): the exam is deemed to be passed with a minimum of 60% of right answers.
- Positive grade (score 24-27/30): students can certificate a good
knowledge of basics; they give good oral exposition and develop critical thinking.
- Excellent grade (score 28-30/30 cum laude): excellent knowledge of
basics and advanced competences. Very good abilities to use specific
language skills; excellent historical knowledge; argumentation
consistency.
