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Advanced Seminar in the Humanities 2018– 2019
Literature and Culture in the Ancient Mediterranean: Greece, Rome, and the Near East

From March 12 to March 23, 2018 Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, in cooperation with Venice International University, will offer an advanced seminar on “Literature and Culture in the Ancient Mediterranean: Greece, Rome and the Near East”.

The Program

The program is conceived as a two year commitment over two successive years (2018 and 2019). The first session (March 12-23, 2018) will consist of lectures by scholars with a seminar approach on the origins and development of literary genres and literacy in Ancient Greece, Rome and the Near East. Some of the lectures will run simultaneously and will be devoted respectively to the interpretation of specific classical and near Eastern texts, with more focus on textual analysis. An evening lecture by an invited speaker special is also under consideration.

The lectures will alternate with a series of site visits, for example, to the Marciana Library, the Library of San Lazzaro degli Armeni, and the Basilica of San Marco.

The aim of the program is firstly to investigate the relationship between themes, motifs and structures of the texts and/or of the myths involved, starting with the early examples of epic poetry and of wisdom and didactic literature; secondly, to examine the processes involved in their transmission and preservation in both oral and written forms. A variety of issues concerning recently published texts and/or the history of literate cultures may also be reviewed, such as, for example, the textual traditions, the creation and organization of libraries, the classification of genres, and the relationship between literature and politics, and between literature and religion.

During the first session the fellows will identify a research project according to their own scholarly interests and under the supervision of one of the faculty. The research project will be presented in the form of an essay of about 15/20 pages in the second session of the seminar, which will run in 2019 (an 8-day slot, still to be determined).

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(Photo: "library" by Viva Vivanista, licensed under CC BY 2.0)