This course is focused on mythical and archetypal motives in Medieval cultures that developed from the so-called 'Old Germanic' language group. After a general introduction into the notions of 'myth' and 'archetype'., we will be selecting some examples of mythical/archetypal motives to be detected in manuscript and visual sources from the 'Old Germanic' and Medieval cultural stages. An interesting, discussion-fostering corpus might consist in the motives of the Deluge, the voyage into the forest, the fight against a monster, the cosmic tree, the hero/heroine, and so on.

This course is also meant as an immersive learning process into the 'heroic' dimension. This process shall lead the students through frontal lessons into a laboratory, where we will be working partly within the master level philology course, partly together with some students from the bachelor philology classes. We will be working on various sources from the Ancient Germanic and European Middle Ages, as well as from the present times. We will be raising questions such as: 

- What is a hero?

-  Can we formulate a univocal definition of 'heroic', one that may explain and take account of the use of the terms hero/heroine regardless of time and cultural context?

- What is a 'hero' from a psychological and imaginary-narrative perspective? Is it a myth? Or an archetypal image? Or both, or something else? 

- Should we approach the notion of 'heroic' from a gender-related perspective or rather from an all-comprehensive 'human' perspective?

- is the figure of the hero linked to a specific fictional genre such as the heroic poem or is it rather a genre-bridging figure?

-  Are there any historical periods when we can detect more 'heroic figures' than in others? Why / why not? What about the Covid era?

- Have I met / acted / experienced any behavior, situation, or person I would define as heroic so far in my life? Where do I express my 'heroic' qualities? Can I employ them as professional competencies and skills? 

The course is conceived as a  two-level learning pathway: a theoretical level and a practical, experience-oriented level. Therefore, you will be taking part in frontal lessons AND in workshops/labs ("laboratori"). The frontal teaching units shall introduce the main hero theories (Campbell, Jung, Neumann, Propp, Vogler...) and the main manuscript sources for hero and heroine stories from the so-called Ancient Germanic world. In the laboratory hours, you will be creating individual and group projects focused on the experience of the 'heroic' through work with different sources and approaches (see below, "Program"). A part of the labs is also devoted to other aspects of a philologist's work (s. below, Program information).

The ultimate goal of this course is that participants comprehend 'heroism' on a deeper cognitive-emotional level, and therefore why accounts of heroes and heroines have been topical in all human cultures beyond time and space. On an existential level, this course shall have fulfilled its task if it shall have helped participants to acquire a deeper awareness of some aspects of themselves. On an educational and professional level, the 'heroic' experience shall help develop the following competencies and skills: 

- hard skills (in the 'notion-based' frontal hours): mastering philological and hermeneutical knowledge; (in the 'project-based' lab hours): applying that knowledge to empirical data and building case studies; 

- soft skills (in the 'project-based' lab hours): relational skills in group dynamics; developing your awareness about what problem-solving resources you dispose of and which of them you can apply in specific situations.

A) 20 FRONTAL TEACHING HOURS (in plenum; same contents for all):

1. Myth and archetype theories. Selection from archetypal motives in manuscript sources (including rune-written texts) and visual sources (manuscript illumination; fresques; manufacts; etc.) from cultures of the so-called 'Old-Germanic' language family and resulting medieval languages. Building a corpus of evidence for specific archetypal and mythical motives (the forest; the cosmic tree; the deluge; the hero/heroine; etc.).

2. Hero theories: Campbell, Jung, Neumann, Propp, Vogler. 

3. Representations of the hero/heroine in fictional works from languages stemming from the Old Germanic language familiy: for example, from Beowulf, The Battle of Finnsburgh, verse Edda, Snorra Edda, Scandinavian sagas, Hildebrandslied, Ludwigslied, Nibelungenlied, Parzival.

4. The heroic poem as a literary genre: structure, meter, lexicon, topoi.

5. Reception and adaptation of heroic themes from ancient sources into present-day cultures: especially, movie adaptations of Beowulf;  Norwegian TV-series "Olav" ( https://tv.nrk.no/serie/olav/sesong/1/episode/1/avspiller)

6. Other sources for hero/heroine representations (to be selected by the course participants, in plenum).

B) 20 LABORATORY HOURS (Individual and teamwork projects. AS A COURSE PARTICIPANT, YOU HAVE TO TAKE PART IN AT LEAST ONE LAB. PLEASE DO CHOOSE THE LAB YOU PREFER AS YOUR MAIN FOCUS). As this is part of the course is meant as your creative contribution, you (as an individual or as a part of a team) will be allowed to build your own project to be pursued completely within one lab, or as a lab-bridging project (for example, if you choose the videomaking lab in 1, you may build your project by using the theater lab activities in 2 as your filming object, and so on).

1. DIGITAL HUMANITIES LAB "TEXTUS INVISIBILIS" 

In this lab, you will be creating your own individual or team project through at least one of the following activities:

- digital edition of a parchment manuscript;

- databasing manuscript fragments from the State Archive in Urbino, the University Library in Urbino, the historic Library of the St. Francis monastery in Urbino, historic Libraries and Archives in Cagli and nearby territories

- contribution to the website of the Textus invisibilis fragmentology project (www.textusinvisibilis.it, in progress);

- Multimedia story telling for the humanities and cultural heritage;

- graphic design for the humanities and cultural heritage;

- digital text analysis projects with Old English (Beowulf text);

- creating educational projects on Medieval manuscript culture with primary and secondary school youths in Urbino and surroundings.

2. THEATER LAB "WE CAN BE HEROES"

In this lab, we will be creating a short theater piece by taking inspiration from the heroes and heroines dealt with in this course and from our life.

- Mind mapping: heroes and heroines from all over the world;

- elements of theater writing;

- Workshop: dream drawing ('disegno onirico') with elements of psychodrama;

- Theater worskshop.

3. UNIVERSITY GOVERNANCE LAB "EFFECTS OF STUDENT INVOLVEMENT IN UNIVERSITY GOVERNANCE". The aim of this lab is to create a new arena for students' awareness of their own agency potential in university governance processes. We shall be engaged in major fields of students' agency such as preparation for Erasmus, social visibility of Uniurb, and other fields. This lab will use labs 1 and 2 as a testing field.

Previous attendance of a course with a philological focus might be useful to better understand the issues addressed in the present program. However, no bridging courses are required. 

Here is an overview of the Dublin Descriptors for the Masted level as they are practiced in this philology course (adapted to philology from the Appendix III, pp. 1-2, to the EHEA Paris 2018 Communiqué):

DD1: acquire (demonstrate) knowledge and understanding in philology. Students consolidate their knowledge of the principles of philology and they practice philological work.

DD2: apply knowledge and understanding within philology and related fields; basing on knowledge from DD1, demonstrate the competence  to sustain arguments and  solve problems in  other fields. Students learn to apply the principles of philological work on texts from non-Germanic and non-ancient cultures and learn to make connections with academic fields outside philology.

DD3: gather and interpret relevant data within philology to inform judgements that include reflection on relevant social, scientific and ethical issues. Students become aware of the ethical implications of some fundamentals of philology in present-day society: for instance, respect for the authenticity of sources as pursued in philology as a means to detect fake-news and source manipulation in power-led human interactions, or the relevance of the hermeneutical ability to 'understand through contextualizing' as applied in real-life situations besides their philological work.

DD4: can communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialist and non-specialist audiences within and outside philology. Philology students acquire high confidence in their own linguistic skills through thorough linguistic analysis of sources; they train their rhetorical skills by analyzing the rhetorical component of texts as well as preparing written and oral presentations. They train these competences both in the regular course and in the labs.

DD5: have developed those learning skills that are necessary for them to continue to undertake further study and undertake investigations also outside philology with a high degree of autonomy. Students learn and train these skills in this philology seminar by designing their own interest-driven examination project.

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it