2024/2025
Ethiopian literature
Type:
Optional course (faculty)
Delivered by:
Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies
When:
4 module
Open to:
students of one campus
Instructors:
Maria Bulakh
Language:
English
ECTS credits:
3
Course Syllabus
Abstract
The course “Ethiopian literature” is offered to the students of the 2nd or 3rd year. The aim of the course is to make the students acquainted with the literature of Ethiopia as an African country with a rich written tradition. The course includes the late antique and medieval literature in Old Ethiopic and the modern literature in Amharic, the most important language of Ethiopia today. Thus, the course encompasses the time period from the 4th to the 20th cent. AD. Since translated works constitute an important part of Old Ethiopic literature, the students will have the opportunity of studying several important Jewish and Christian apocrypha such as Book of Jubilees, Book of Enoch, Ascension of Isaiah, The Shepherd of Hermas. The original Old Ethiopic literature includes hagiographies, theological treatises, historiography, religious poetry, magic literature. In the second part of the course, the students learn the history of emergence and development of the Amharic literature of Ethiopia as an example of a modern literature of Africa. They get acquainted with biographies and works of the most important Amharic writers, starting from Afewerq Gebreyesus and Heruy Welde Selassie, the founders of modern Amharic literature, and tracing the history of Amharic literature to the end of the 20th century.
Learning Objectives
- Учащиеся знают основные произведения эфиопской литературы аксумского периода
- Учащиеся знают основные произведения эфиопской литературы постаксумского периода
- Учащиеся знают основные особенности развития амхарской литературы
Expected Learning Outcomes
- A student describes and analyzes the main Geez apocrypha of the Aksumite period
- A student summarizes and analyzes the most important Geez texts of the post-Aksumite period, enumerates and analyzes the most popular genres
- A student enumerates the basic facts of the emergence of Amharic literature
- A student summarizes the contents of the most important pieces of Amharic literature
Assessment Elements
- Participation in the seminarsStudents actively participate in the discussion of the topic during the seminars and submits on time (before the beginning of the seminar) a written summary of the assigned paper
- ExamThe students get questions to which they must give answers in the written form
- attendance of the classes
Interim Assessment
- 2024/2025 4th module0.45 * Exam + 0.45 * Participation in the seminars + 0.1 * attendance of the classes
Bibliography
Recommended Core Bibliography
- Ethiopia : history, culture and challenges / edited by Siegbert Uhlig, David Appleyard, Alessandro Bausi, Wolfgang Hahn, and Steven Kaplan. (2017).
- Languages and cultures of Eastern Christianity : Ethiopian, , 2012
Recommended Additional Bibliography
- 9789004419582 - Samantha Kelly - A Companion to Medieval Ethiopia and Eritrea - 2020 - Brill - http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=2371874 - nlebk - 2371874