“Introduction to Classics”: culture altre alla scoperta del latino

A frequent objection that is posed to classicism, and at times makes it dangerously close to the danger of cancel culture, is the accusation of not only temporal but cultural out-of-dateity: production of white western males, "heterosexual", "cisgender"; vehicle of negative values: belligerence, submission of women and other cultures, etc. Teaching classicism to the new European citizens would therefore result, in this perspective, to a form of neo-colonialism, or in any case to a cultural proposal perceived as foreign. But what do the bearers of “other” cultures really think when exposed to ancient European cultures? The author has taught multicultural and multilingual university classes for two years at the School for International Education of "Cà Foscari" Venice. In his speech he illustrates the methods and results of the teaching of antiquity to such an unusual audience, to show that sometimes nemo prophet in patria.