OVERVIEW

For students attending the course: categories and techniques of text analysis will be analysed and extended to all levels of text.

For students who do not attend: students are requested to acquire a basic knowledge of the main contemporary literary theories and to become familiar with the theory of the novel through private study.

Italian speaking students are not required to have a previous specific knowledge if they hold an adequate general cultural knowledge for admission to this Master’s course.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Without prejudice to the methodological and motivational outline of the teaching objectives laid down for the three-year TdL (to which we refer), also due to the current preparatory mismatch between teaching in the Bachelor’s degree and the specialised one, in the Master’s degree course the theoretical and practical analysis is extended to all text levels as is evident in the programme and it has a dual aim: *research - analysis and suggestion of further lines of enquiry in relation to the focal hubs of analysis of text or paratext, with particular reference to specifically narratological levels; this aspect aims to prepare those who intend to proceed with further specialised studies (beginning with a dissertation); and *teaching: studying the strategies of teaching, which is a suitable, correct and efficient mediation of text analysis for two school levels (lower and upper high school); this aspect is specifically intended for future teachers of Literature or Languages. 

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Taking apart’ a text requires a different perspective to a ‘logical-syntactic’ analysis (restricted to the period): the capacity to understand the supporting structures and overall frame of a linguistic artefact involves an increase of the mental faculties necessary to dominate, if only quantitatively, a body of vaster writing;
• understanding the techniques of assembling a text produces documented benefits on the quality of writing: in all school age phases - from middle school to University -, students who have practiced textual analysis, register evident improvements in their written production;
• acquiring composition techniques also enables evaluating the possible effects that a writer wishes to obtain from (or avoid in) the reader;
• the ‘literariness’ of texts here is assumed with the sole value of compositional complexity: if the students manage to dominate it even only cognitively, it can be easily hypothesised that they will be able to produce coherent and well-structured scripts in a smoother composition context like ‘service’ writing and essay writing (reports, dissertations, articles etc);
• further and complementary benefits are also gained from the stylistic aspect: even if the main objective is to train them to grasp the global articulations, the simple reading of varied narrative texts of a high value strengthens linguistic competencies per se through the enrichment of lexicon, grammar and rhetoric;
• exercising on ‘free’ texts, professionally disinterested but interesting and maybe even more attractive because of their otherness vis-à-vis the curricular, disciplinary contents can give rise to a process of loyalty of the student to reading: the more the capacity to enjoy expands, the more the pleasure of the text increases.
• finally, thanks to the ‘specious’ nature of narrative texts, bereft of the worry about contents, students can recognise, extrapolate and desirably introject (formal) structural junctions of the composition map more easily, exporting them into their future written production.

TEACHING METHODS

1. Exams with this programme begin in June 2018 and end in September 2018.
2. As well as online registration for the exam, it is necessary to register at least 10 days before the chosen date by sending an email in which the following data is specified: Name and Surname, Degree Course (Arts, Philosophy, …), Attending/Non-attending student, Programme and CFUs (Module I: 6 CFU; or Module I+II: 9 CFUs - there is no exam for 3 CFUs on only Module II), first/second time that the exam is being taken in the same academic year, course code no. My replying email in which the room and time of the exam is specified constitutes notification of confirmed exam registration.
3. The duration of the test is 45 minutes per questionnaire; at the end of the test (therefore, after 90 minutes maximum from the beginning) the test will be corrected and the score will be made known.
4. The score of the questionnaire is calculated on the basis of the number of mistakes (no answer or mistaken answer = -1 point): in the case of failure or rejection of the score obtained, it is possible to repeat the exam with the same programme only one more time; if a positive score is attained (≥18/30), this is understood as a minimum mark attainable in any repeat attempt at the questionnaire (it is up to the candidate to repeat the exam if dissatisfied with the score obtained, even if positive).
5. Non Attending students only take a written exam (there is no oral exam):

• in the case of 9 CFUs it is possible to take the programme for Module I in one session; if students pass the test, in a subsequent exam session (by September 2018), they can take the exam also or only on Module II;
• the final mark is a result of an arithmetic average of the (best) score obtained in both questionnaires of the two modules:
•  

For example: Module I+II:  Quest.I  = 20; Quest.II = 26; repeated in a subsequent session: Q.I  = 30; Q.II = 20 --> final mark: (30 Module I +26 Module II):2 = 28.

1. Attending students: only students who take the exam for 6 CFUs can take the questionnaire; for 9 CFUs: once the written exam is passed (and the mark has been accepted), the candidate will discuss a dissertation; the final mark is the result of the written mark (if ≥18) plus ‘x’ (with 6≥x≥1) points attained in the oral examination of the dissertation (as well as ‘honours’, for those who got 24/30 in the written exam); more in general, attending students have the advantage of being able to present and discuss, if they desire (or have to because of failing to reach the threshold in the questionnaire of textual analysis), the programme for non attending students;

The dissertation will analyse all the textual categories of short narrative texts chosen by students (excluding those analysed in lectures - at the end of the course more precise instructions will be given); the typewritten dissertation of at least 10 pages (as well as the texts analysed) must be handed in by the date set each time, before the oral exam, either by sending it to or leaving it in my letter box in the Department (DIRAAS, via Balbi 6, I piano, 16126 GENOVA) or by sending it to my private address (which will be communicated directly to any interested candidates). 

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Programme for students taking the course for 6 cfu

Attending students: bases of textual analysis aimed at research and teaching: the form of the literary text (levels 1-4: paratext, signifier, style, form of discourse);

Non Attending students: Panorama of 20th century literary theories.

Programme for students taking the course for 9 cfu

Attending students: Fundamentals of textual analysis aimed at research and teaching: forms of literary text (levels 1-4: Paratext, Signifier, Style, Form of discourse); the content of narrative text (elements of narratology: levels 5-6: History, Meaning).

Non Attending students: Panorama of 20th century literary theories; theory and history of the novel genre.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

TONINO TORNITORE (President)

ANDREA AVETO

LESSONS

EXAMS

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Attending students: A questionnaire of 30 multiple choice questions with textual analysis (6 CFU), preparatory to the discussion of a narratological dissertation (9 CFU). 

Non Attending students: One (6 CFU) or two questionnaires (9 CFU) with multiple choice questions exclusively on texts indicated above (alternative bibliographies will not be accepted).

In order to take the exam, it is OBLIGATORY to comunicate your personal data (surname, no. CFU, attending/non attending status) by email to tonino.tornitore@fastwebnet.it to receive text material and communications relative to the exam.

Exam schedule