OVERVIEW

The teaching is one of the basic training activities of the three-year degree course in History, it gives 12 ECTS and introduces the student to the study of the main authors, the most significant works, the most relevant poetics and cultural movements in the history of Italian literature from the origins to the 20th century.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course aims to acquire the following skills, knowledge and competences: to know Italian literature in its evolution with particular attention to its relationship with history and with national and international culture; to acquire a method of critical reading of the texts of Italian literature, knowing how to use the basic bibliographic tools and the most common online resources; to know how to recognize in a personal way the value of a text of Italian literature within the poetics of its author and within a historical, artistic and cultural context.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course aims to illustrate (in a historical-critical perspective) a selection of significant works and authors of Italian literature, providing students with the methodological tools to understand the poetic language and to analyze a literary passage and its metric-stylistic elements.

At the end of the course the student will be able to:

a) recognize and present the most important moments of the Italian literary tradition

b) interpret, paraphrase and analyse autonomously literary passages in poetry and prose, recognising their structural aspects (genre, metric form, rhetorical apparatus) and linking them to the historical-cultural contexts in which they were composed

(c) make appropriate use of literary criticism terminology

(d) compare passages from different periods and authors

(e) to present and discuss the topics dealt with in written and oral form with clarity and language properties

PREREQUISITES

Basic knowledge (at high school level) of the history of Italian literature.

TEACHING METHODS

In the first part of the course the lessons will be held via Microsoft Teams, name “Letteratura italiana (Beltrami) – corso di laurea in Storia”, code: k251bol. About the second part, further information will be provided in relation to the evolution of the pandemic. The course will therefore include additional teaching tools (slides, audio PowerPoint, study support tools) that will be made available on a special section of the AulaWeb e-learning portal. During the lessons, questions and remarks by the students will be solicited.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Syllabus for attending students (12 ECTS)

The course will focus on the nets among literature, politics and history through the analysis of significant works of Italian literature. Particularly, the theme of the civil commitment of the writers will be addressed, with particular attention to exile and confinement:

- Dante's exile in the Divina Commedia (selected passages)
- "Io mi sto in villa": Machiavelli and Il Principe (selected passages)
- Leopardi, Canti: civil poems (selected passages)
- Novels from confinement: Cesare Pavese, Il carcere; Carlo Levi, Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (full reading of the two novels)

- selection of authors and texts of the history of Italian literature from its origins to the 20th century (the list of topics, authors and texts to be studied will be made available on AulaWeb at the beginning of the course). This section of the program will be largely entrusted to the autonomous study of the student.

Syllabus for attending students (9 ECTS)

The course will focus on the nets among literature, politics and history through the analysis of significant works of Italian literature. Particularly, the theme of the civil commitment of the writers will be addressed, with particular attention to exile and confinement:

- Dante's exile in the Divina Commedia (selected passages)
- "Io mi sto in villa": Machiavelli and Il Principe (selected passages)
- Novels from confinement: Cesare Pavese, Il carcere; Carlo Levi, Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (full reading of the two novels)

- selection of authors and texts of the history of Italian literature from its origins to the 20th century (the list of topics, authors and texts to be studied will be made available on AulaWeb at the beginning of the course). This section of the program will be largely entrusted to the autonomous study of the student.

Syllabus for attending students (6 ECTS)

The course will focus on the nets among literature, politics and history through the analysis of significant works of Italian literature. Particularly, the theme of the civil commitment of the writers will be addressed, with particular attention to exile and confinement:

- Dante's exile in the Divina Commedia (selected passages)
- Novels from confinement: Cesare Pavese, Il carcere; Carlo Levi, Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (full reading of the two novels)

- selection of authors and texts of the history of Italian literature from its origins to the 20th century (the list of topics, authors and texts to be studied will be made available on AulaWeb at the beginning of the course). This section of the program will be largely entrusted to the autonomous study of the student.

Syllabus for non-attending students

- Dante, Divina Commedia, full reading with paraphrase and comment on the following 15 cantos: Inferno, I, V, VI, X, XIII, XIX, XXVI, XXXIII; Purgatorio, III, VI, XVI; XXX; Paradiso, VI, XVII, XXXIII.

- Giorgio Inglese, Dante: Guida alla Divina Commedia, Roma, Carocci (chapters 1-5)

- Niccolò Machiavelli, Il Principe (chapters I, III, VII, XV, XVIII, XXV, XXVI) and La Mandragola (full reading)

- Riccardo Bruscagli, Machiavelli, Bologna, il Mulino (chapters 1-2, 4-5 and 8-9)

- Giacomo Leopardi, Canti (All’Italia, Sopra il monumento di Dante che si preparava in Firenze, L’infinito, Canto notturno di un pastore errante dell’Asia, Palinodia al marchese Gino Capponi, La ginestra o il fiore del deserto); Operette morali (Dialogo di Federico Ruysch e delle sue mummie, Dialogo di Plotino e di Porfirio, Dialogo di Tristano e di un amico)

- Marco Bazzocchi, Leopardi, Bologna, il Mulino

- Beppe Fenoglio, La malora (full reading) and Una questione privata (full reading)     

- Even non-attending students are required to prepare a selection of authors and texts of the history of Italian literature from its origins to the 20th century (the list of topics, authors and texts to be studied will be made available on AulaWeb at the beginning of the course).

The program corresponds to 12 ECTS. Non-attendant students who use 9 or 6 ECTS are requested to contact the teacher to agree on the appropriate changes.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bibliography for attending students

- Dante Alighieri, Divina Commedia, ed. by Anna Maria Chiavacci Leonardi, Milano, Mondadori; or ed. by Giorgio Inglese, Roma, Carocci; or ed. by Bianca Garavelli, Milano, Bompiani (selected passages)

- Niccolò Machiavelli, Il Principe, ed. by Giorgio Inglese, Torino, Einaudi, 2013 (selected passages)

- Giacomo Leopardi, Canti, ed. by Franco Gavazzeni and Maria Maddalena Lombardi, Milano, Rizzoli BUR, 2016 (selected passages)

- Carlo Levi, Cristo si è fermato a Eboli, Torino, Einaudi, 2014 (full reading)

- Cesare Pavese, Il carcere, Torino, Einaudi, 2018 (full reading)

- any additional lectures proposed in class, which will be made available on AulaWeb during the course

- It is recommended to use a recent anthological manual for high schools for the selection of authors and texts of the history of Italian literature from its origins to the 20th century (e.g. Giulio Ferroni, Andrea Cortellessa, Italo Pantani, Silvia Tatti, Storia e testi della letteratura italiana, Milano, Mondadori; or Romano Luperini, Pietro Cataldi, Lidia Marchiani, Franco Marchese, Le parole le cose, Palermo, Palumbo; or Cesare Segre, Clelia Martignoni, Testi nella storia, Milano, Edizioni Scolastiche Bruno Mondadori, or Leggere il mondo: letteratura, testi, culture, Milano, Edizioni Scolastiche Bruno Mondadori; or Guido Baldi, Silvia Giusso, Mario Ranzetti, Giuseppe Zaccaria, Le occasioni della letteratura, Milano-Torino, Pearson Italia-Paravia; or others)

Bibliography for non-attending students

- Dante Alighieri, Divina Commedia, ed. by Anna Maria Chiavacci Leonardi, Milano, Mondadori; or ed. by Giorgio Inglese, Roma, Carocci; or ed by Bianca Garavelli, Milano, Bompiani

- Giorgio Inglese, Dante: Guida alla Divina Commedia, Roma, Carocci, 2012

- Niccolò Machiavelli, Il Principe, ed. by Giorgio Inglese, Torino, Einaudi, 2014; La Mandragola, ed. by Giorgio Inglese, Milano, Rizzoli BUR, 2009

- Riccardo Bruscagli, Machiavelli, Bologna, il Mulino, 2008

- Giacomo Leopardi, Canti, ed. by Franco Gavazzeni and Maria Maddalena Lombardi, Milano, Rizzoli BUR, 2016; Operette morali, ed. by Laura Melosi, Milano, Rizzoli BUR, 2008

- Marco Bazzocchi, Leopardi, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2008

- Beppe Fenoglio, La malora, Torino, Einaudi, 2014 and Una questione privata, Torino, Einaudi, 2014

- It is recommended to use a recent anthological manual for high schools for the selection of authors and texts of the history of Italian literature from its origins to the 20th century (e.g. Giulio Ferroni, Andrea Cortellessa, Italo Pantani, Silvia Tatti, Storia e testi della letteratura italiana, Milano, Mondadori; or Romano Luperini, Pietro Cataldi, Lidia Marchiani, Franco Marchese, Le parole le cose, Palermo, Palumbo; or Cesare Segre, Clelia Martignoni, Testi nella storia, Milano, Edizioni Scolastiche Bruno Mondadori, or Leggere il mondo: letteratura, testi, culture, Milano, Edizioni Scolastiche Bruno Mondadori; or Guido Baldi, Silvia Giusso, Mario Ranzetti, Giuseppe Zaccaria, Le occasioni della letteratura, Milano-Torino, Pearson Italia-Paravia; or others)

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

LUCA BELTRAMI (President)

MARTINA CATERINO

MATTEO NAVONE (Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

First Semester: 29 September 2020

Second Semester: 16 February 2021

Class schedule

ITALIAN LITERATURE

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

If the necessary safety guarantees are restored, the exam will consist of a written test and an oral test. If, on the other hand, there are still restrictions on access to rooms of the University, the exam will take place only in oral form. If it is not possible to take the written test, more dates will be set in addition to the official exams to allow students to take the oral part of the program originally planned for the written test.

The written test (or the eventual oral interview) focuses on the selection of authors and texts of the history of Italian literature from its origins to the 17th century.
The oral test focuses on the topics covered in the lesson and specified in the program, to which is added the selection of authors and texts from the 18th to the 20th century.

The same exam methods also apply to non-attending students, who will therefore be required to take the written test (or the eventual oral interview) on the selection of authors and texts of the history of Italian literature from its origins to the 17th century and the oral test on the authors and works indicated in the program for non-attending students, as well as the selection of authors and texts from the 18th to the 20th century.

It is necessary to have taken the written test in order to access the oral test. It is not possible to take the written and oral test on the same date.

The final grade is obtained by comparing the results obtained in the two tests.

During the course you will be given further information about the dates and the course of the exams.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The written test includes some open-ended questions and is aimed at verifying the ability to paraphrase and comment on a literary piece, the possession of some basic knowledge of Italian literary history, the ability to write in proper Italian.

The oral exam consists of an interview on the topics discussed during the lessons, to evaluate the skills to contextualize a literary text in the frame of the Italian cultural history; to illustrate its metric-stylistic features; to make connections and comparisons among Italian and foreign literatures; to expose the contents with an appropriate language and to discuss the topics learned during the lessons.

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

Non-attending students, as well as attending ones, are requested to register for the course in AulaWeb.