IT3430 Of Women, Knights, Weapons and Loves: the Italian chivalric tradition

IT3430 Of Women, Knights, Weapons and Loves: the Italian chivalric tradition

Terms 1 and 2

Convenor: Dr Stefano Jossa

Assessment
Essay 1(40%) 2,000-2,500 words 
Written Examination (60%)
Plus a formative piece of work, not counting towards the final mark

Overview
The course focuses on an in-depth study of Ariosto’s major work, the Orlando Furioso which will be studied for its content, themes, genesis and links to aspects of contemporary politics, culture and society. The last quarter of the course will be devoted to studying the transmission and translation of Ariosto’s poem into other languages and into other artistic media, including especially opera and film.

The course introduces students to the culture of the northern Italian courts especially Ferrara, the city with which Ariosto is particularly associated, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The course aims to develop further the integrated study of earlier periods of literature begun in previous years through a consideration of the characteristics of court culture and patronage in these centres.

Bibliography:

Set text: Ariosto – Orlando Furioso

Recommended reading: General and Introductory
Brand, C. P., Ludovico Ariosto : a preface to the 'Orlando furioso' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1974)
Ariosto today: contemporary perspectives, edited by D. Beecher, M. Ciavolella and R. Fedi, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003)
Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, trans. with an introduction by B. Reynolds, 2 vols, (Harmondsworth: Penguin,1977)