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 teaching aims to illustrate (in a critical-historical 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 text 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 literary texts 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

The lessons will be held in person (reservation required, see the app) with the possibility of distance learning via Microsoft Teams, “Lezioni di Letteratura italiana (Storia) – a.a. 2021-2022”, code: qai0fu4. The course will therefore include additional teaching tools (slides, powerpoints, study support tools) that will be made available on a special section of the AulaWeb e-learning website. During the lessons, questions and remarks by the students will be solicited.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Syllabus for attending students (12 ECTS)

Part 1

The course will focus on the relationships between literature and history through the analysis of significant works of Italian literature. Particularly, topics and genres of satirical writing will be argued according to the list below:

a) «L’altro è Orazio satiro che vene». Selected passages from Dante, Divina Commedia

b) Satirical writings from Ariosto to Alfieri 

c) Leopardi from "prosette satiriche" to Operette morali

d) Montale, Satura

Part 2

e) 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 programme will be largely entrusted to the autonomous study of the student.

Syllabus for attending students (9 ECTS)

Part 1

The course will focus on the relationships between literature and history through the analysis of significant works of Italian literature. Particularly, topics and genres of satirical writing will be argued according to the list below:

a) «L’altro è Orazio satiro che vene». Selected passages from Dante, Divina Commedia

c) Leopardi from "prosette satiriche" to Operette morali

d) Montale, Satura

Part 2

e) 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 programme will be largely entrusted to the autonomous study of the student.

Syllabus for attending students (6 ECTS)

Part 1

The course will focus on the relationships between literature and history through the analysis of significant works of Italian literature. Particularly, topics and genres of satirical writing will be argued according to the list below:

a) «L’altro è Orazio satiro che vene». Selected passages from Dante, Divina Commedia

c) Leopardi from "prosette satiriche" to Operette morali

Part 2

e) 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 programme will be largely entrusted to the autonomous study of the student.

Syllabus for non-attending students

Part 1

- 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)     

Part 2

- Even non-attending students are required to study 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 programme 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

Part 1

- 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)

- Ludovico Ariosto, Satire, ed. by Emilio Russo, Roma, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2019 (selected passages)

- Vittorio Alfieri, Satire, ed. by Gabriella Fenocchio, Milano-Udine, Mimesis, 2017 (selected passages)

- Giacomo Leopardi, Operette morali, ed. by Laura Melosi, Milano, Rizzoli BUR, 2008 (selected passages)

- Eugenio Montale, Satura, ed. by Riccardo Castellana, with essays by Romano Luperini, Franco Fortini, Milano, Mondadori, 2018 (selected passages)

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

Part 2

- 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)

The list could be subject to change and it is recommended to wait for the start of the lessons and the presentation of the programme by the lecturer before purchasing or borrowing.

Bibliography for non-attending students

Part 1

- 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

Part 2

- 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

ANDREA LANZOLA (Substitute)

MATTEO NAVONE (Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

September 27, 2021

Class schedule

ITALIAN LITERATURE

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The exam is oral. During the course, a number of optional mid-term tests will be scheduled in addition to the official exam dates to allow students to split the syllabus over two dates. Each student will have the opportunity to take part in a mid-term interview in which to discuss a section of the syllabus. If successful, the topics discussed in the mid-term interview will no longer be the subject of the final exam.

In more detail, the mid-term interview will focus on an anthological selection of authors and texts representative of the main outlines of the history of Italian literature from its origins to the Seventeenth century.

The final exam, instead, will focus on the topics argued during the lessons and specified in the programme (part 1), plus the anthological selection of authors and texts from the Eighteenth to the Twentieth century.

If desired, the students can discuss the entire programme by taking only the final exam. The same exam procedures also apply to non-attending students.

During the course, further details will be provided regarding the dates of the mid-term inteviews and exams.

Unless otherwise specified due to the evolution of the pandemic, the exam will be presential. Otherwise, if safety standards cannot be guaranteed for any reason, the exam will be provided on Microsoft Teams, "Esami di Letteratura italiana - corso di laurea triennale in Storia”, code: d7zgon2.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The oral exam tests the expertise to paraphrase and comment a literary text in poetry or prose. It aims to assess the skill to contextualise the texts in the frame of the Italian cultural history; to illustrate their metrical and stylistic features; to make connections and comparisons among different authors and works, 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.