HUNTER COLLEGE (CUNY)
Department of Romance Languages
Prof. M. Calabritto Room 1308W
Spring 2007 610 HW 4:10-5:25
Italian 370.70/Compl 380.88/Cla 240.82
3 credits
Office hours: Tue 3-4, Thu 2:45-4
or by appointment
E-mail: mcalabri@hunter.cuny.edu
The Epic Tradition
Course description: The course offers an overview of the genre of epic. The texts range
from Homer’s Odyssey to Milton’s Paradise Lost. Topics include:
 the definition of epic genre in relation to the distinction between “primary”
and “secondary” epic
 the insertion of the epic—Virgilian—model into the tradition of the Italian cantari
and chivalric poems
 the synthesis, development and elaboration of the epic and “romance” genres in
Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso and Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered, which forecast the
advent of the novel.
Reading list (these books are available at Shakespeare & Company)
Primary sources (required):
 Homer, The Odyssey, tr. R. Fagles (Viking Penguin, 1996)
 Virgil, Aeneid, tr. R. Fitzgerald (Randome House, 1990)
 Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, tr. G. Waldman (Oxford UP, 1983)
 Torquato Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered, tr. Anthony M. Esolen (Johns Hopkins UP, 2000)
 John Milton, Paradise Lost (sections photocopied)
Secondary sources (required):
 Sergio Zatti, The Quest for Epic. From Ariosto to Tasso, University of Toronto Press,
2006
 Photocopied material on reserve
Participation and attendance: You are allowed to miss only 3 classes. If you make more than 3
absences, you are strongly encouraged to schedule an appointment with me, or your grade will be
lowered by half letter grade. Late work is graded similarly. You are required to participate in
class and expected to come on time.
Course requirement: The course will be in English. Each student is expected to come to class
ready to discuss the assignment and to participate in class discussion. Students who take the
course for credits will write a 10-page final paper. The final paper will consist in a comparative
analysis of two primary sources among those read in class. For the final paper the students will be
required to use other secondary and primary sources to support their argument, either from the
photocopied material on reserve or from other texts.
In order to facilitate the work required in the final paper, the students will be asked to write short
textual analyses of passages extracted from the weekly reading assignment. These analyses need
to be 1 and1/2 -page long, typewritten, double-spaced and will be graded. I do not accept
handwritten assignments. Beginning in the third week of class students will discuss with me the
topic of their final essay. Between the fifth and the seventh they will hand in a first draft. In the
last week of class, the students will hand in the final submission of the paper. There will be a
mid-term and a final exam.
Statement on academic integrity: “Hunter College regards acts of academic dishonesty (e.g.,
plagiarism, cheating on examinations, obtaining unfair advantage, and falsification of records and
official documents) as serious offenses against the values of intellectual honesty. The College is
committed to enforcing the CUNY Policy on Academic Integrity and will pursue cases of
academic dishonesty according to the Hunter College Academic Integrity procedures.”
Should a paper turn out to be the result of plagiarism, the grade for the assignment will be zero
and the even will be reported to the Dean of Students of Hunter College.
The final grade will be arrived at by the following formula:
 Class participation
20%
 Short analysis
15%
 Final paper
30%
 Mid-term exam
15%
 Final exam
20%
Schedule of classes (subject to change)
January 30
February 1
February 6
February 8
February 13
February 15
February 20
February 22
February 27
March 1
March 6
March 8
March 13
Introduction: Themes of the course and methodology
The Odyssey 1-4. Telemachus’ quest. John Miles Foley, “Epic as genre”
in The Cambridge Companion to Homer, ed. R. Fowler (Cambridge:
Cambridge UP, 2004) pp. 171-87
The Odyssey 5-8. Odysseus’ wanderings. Robin Osborne, “Homer’s
Society” in Fowler, pp. 206-219.
The Odyssey, 9-12. Odysseus’ wanderings. Emily Kearns, “The Gods in
the Homeric epics” in Fowler, pp. 59-73
The Odyssey, 13-16. Odysseus’ nostos. Nancy Felson and Laura Slatkin,
“Gender and Homeric Epic” in Fowler, pp. 91-114
Follows a Monday schedule
The Odyssey, 17-20. Erich Auerbach, “Odysseus’ Scar” in Erich
Auerbach, Mimesis. The Representation of Reality in Western Literature
(Princeton: Princeton UP, 1953)
The Odyssey, 21-24. Richard Buxton, “Similes and other Likeness” in
Fowler, pp. 139-155.
Aeneid, 1, 3, 4. The epic past and the romance. Joseph Farrell,” Roman
Homer” in Fowler, 254-71
Aeneid, 6, 9, 12. The underworld, the elegiac and the epic. Duncan F.
Kennedy, “Virgilian Epic” in The Cambridge Companion to Virgil, ed.
Ch. Martindale (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1997.
Orlando Furioso, 1, 4, 5, 6. Sergio Zatti, “The Furioso between Epos
and Romance” in Sergio Zatti, The Quest for Epic. From Ariosto to
Tasso (University of Toronto Press, 2006) 13-37
Orlando Furioso, 7, 8, 9, 10
Orlando Furioso, 11, 12, 14, 16. Zatti, “The Quest: Considerations on
the Form of the Furioso” in Zatti, 38-59
March 15
March 22
March 27
March 29
April 1-10
April 12
April 17
April 19
April 24
April 26
May 1
May 3
May 8
May 10
May 15
May 17
May 22
Orlando Furioso, 18, 19, 21, 22. First draft of the paper due.
Midterm
Orlando Furioso, 23, 24, 25, 27. Zatti, “Turpin’s Role: Poetry and Truth
in the Furioso” in Zatti, 60-94
Orlando Furioso, 28, 29, 30, 34
Spring break
Orlando Furioso 35, 37, 39, 41. Zatti, “The Shattering of the Chivalric
World: Ariosto’s Cinque Canti” in Zatti, 114-134
Orlando Furioso, 42, 43, 46.
Jerusalem delivered, 1, 2, 3. Zatti, “Tasso versus Ariosto?” in Zatti, 95113
Jerusalem delivered, 4, 5, 6. Zatti, “Christian Uniformity, pagan
Multiplicity” in Zatti, 135-159
Jerusalem delivered, 7, 9, 10. Zatti, “Errancy, Infirmity and Conquest:
Figures of Conflict” in Zatti, 160-194.
Jerusalem delivered, 12, 13, 14. Zatti, “Torquato Tasso: Epic in the Age
of Dissimulation” in Zatti, 195-215
Jerusalem delivered, 15, 16, 18, 20. Colin Burrows, “ Virgils, from
Dante to Milton” in Martindale, 79-90
Paradise Lost, 1, 2, 6.
Paradise Lost, 8, 9. David Quint, “ Tasso, Milton, and the Boat of
Romance” in David Quint, Epic and Empire. Politics and Generic Form
from Virgil to Milton, (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1992.
Paradise Lost, 10, 12.
Final discussion regarding the major themes discussed in the course.
Final paper due
Final exam 1:45-3:45 PM