OVERVIEW

The course is part of the Basic Learning Activities for the Degree Course of History (literary and historical-artistic disciplines), and bestows 12 ECTS, corresponding to 80 hours of classroom teaching and about 220 hours reserved for personal study. It introduces the student to the study of major authors, most significant works, main poetics, and most relevant cultural movements of Italian Literature history, from its origins to the twentieth 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 oral form with clarity and language properties

PREREQUISITES

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

TEACHING METHODS

The course includes frontal lessons with the help of multimedia tools and materials. During the lectures there will be commented readings of literary excerpts and in-depth cultural studies aimed at contextualising the works examined: both the readings and the in-depth studies are to be understood as examples of work on the literary text, hopefully aimed at stimulating the reflections of the students, who will often be invited to actively participate with interventions and questions. The teacher will also make available to students, in a special section of the AulaWeb e-learning portal, the slides used in the classroom and other study support materials.

Lectures will be held in presence, unless stated otherwise by the University or by local authorities. The possibility of distance learning via Teams platform (streaming and recording) will also be activated. Any students interested in distance learning will have to make an explicit request to the lecturer to be included in the dedicated channel; those requesting access will be considered distance learning students and will have to follow a specific program, distinct from both that of in-presence students and that of non-attending students (see below). Distance attending students will not be able to take the optional in-person tests (see “Exam Description”), which only in-person attending students will be able to participate in. Any further guidance on this will be provided at the beginning of the course.

Course attendance is not compulsory, but warmly recommended. Students who, for justified reasons, expect not to be able to attend at least 50% of the lessons (i.e. at least 40 of the 80 hours of classroom teaching) will be allowed to take the exam only as non-attending students: these are required to contact the teacher by e-mail at the beginning of the course to arrange an alternative examination programme.

In any case, it is recommended to attend the first lecture, during which the syllabus and the exam description will be presented.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Syllabus for attending students (12 ECTS)

MODULE 1

This module (divided into four parts) includes the topics covered in class, which will focus on the relationships between literature and history through the analysis of significant works and moments in Italian literature.

PART ONE - Late Middle Ages Florence in Dante’s Divine Comedy

The Divine Comedy, in addition to being one of the greatest masterpieces of world literature, is also an important historical source, thanks to the wealth of information Dante provides us with about himself, his ancestors, his friends and enemies, and in general about contemporary Italy and Europe. This part of the course will examine a number of passages from the three canticles, in which Dante – with an often polemical and sometimes bitter and melancholy tone – speaks of his native city, Florence, delivering an extraordinary portrait of its institutions and its political and cultural life: during the readings, some historical references will be explored in depth, trying also to grasp the links between these passages and the different phases of Dante’s long exile in which they were composed. Particular attention will be paid to the paraphrase and to linguistic and stylistic analysis of the poetic text.

PART TWO - The representation of war in epic-chivalric poems

The 16th century experienced conflicts characterized by a violence unknown to previous eras, also derived from the introduction of new military techniques and new weapons. This phenomenon also had reflections on the literary production of the time, and particularly on a highly successful literary genre deputed mainly to the representation of war: the epic-chivalric poem. After a presentation of the history and characteristics of this genre, excerpts from its greatest exponents (Ariosto and Tasso, with hints about other authors, such as Boiardo and Marino) will be examined, with the aim of highlighting its different ways of representing conflict, the enemy and contemporary military events.

PART THREE - 18th century Europe and America in the works of Vittorio Alfieri

An intellectual of European stature, Vittorio Alfieri (1749-1803) undertook several journeys during his lifetime through the major European nations (the Italian states, France, England, Holland, Prussia, Sweden, and others) and broadened his gaze beyond the continental borders, taking an interest in the birth of the United States of America. In the lessons dedicated to this topic, a series of readings taken from various works by Alfieri (e.g. the Vita, the Satire, the Misogallo, the Ode all’America libera) will be presented, with the aim of deepening and contextualising the judgements (often polemical) pronounced by the writer on the nations he visited and on the main historical and cultural events that affected Europe and North America in the second half of the 18th century.

PART FOUR - Italian Resistance novels (1947-1964).

This last part will focus on the Resistance novels composed between the second half of the 1940s and the first half of the 1960s, and mainly on Italo Calvino’s Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno, Renata Viganò’s L’Agnese va a morire, Beppe Fenoglio’s Una questione privata and Luigi Meneghello’s I piccoli maestri, which students are asked to read in full. The four novels will be presented during the lectures, reading selected passages and exploring their relationship to the historical and cultural context of the early postwar period, with particular attention to the debate on Neorealism.

MODULE 2

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)

MODULE 1 (PART ONE, TWO and THREE only: see above for details) + MODULE 2 (see above for details)

Syllabus for attending students (6 ECTS)

MODULE 1 (FIRST and SECOND PART only: see above for details) + MODULE 2 (see above for details)

NB: students who use the teaching for 9 ECTs may, if they wish, substitute the SECOND or THIRD PART for the FOURTH PART, just as students who use it for 6 ECTs may substitute the SECOND for the THIRD or FOURTH PART; in either case, they must agree on the change with the teacher by contacting him at the beginning of the course.

Non-attending students (i.e., those who have not attended at least 50% of the lectures) are required to contact the lecturer by e-mail to agree on an alternative syllabus to the one indicated here.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bibliography for attending students

MODULE 1

PART ONE

- 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 (only the passages read in class)

PART TWO

- Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando furioso, ed. by Emilio Bigi, a cura di Cristina Zampese, Milano, Rizzoli, 2012, or another recent edition (only the passages read in class)

- Torquato Tasso, Gerusalemme liberata, ed. by Franco Tomasi, Milano, Rizzoli, 2009 or another recent edition (only the passages read in class)

PART THREE

- Vittorio Alfieri, Vita, ed. by Carla Forno, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2020 or another recent edition (only the passages read in class)

PART FOUR

- Italo Calvino, Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno, Milano, Mondadori, 2016 (or other edition)

- Renata Viganò, L’Agnese va a morire, Torino, Einaudi, 2014 (or other edition)

- Beppe Fenoglio, La malora, Torino, Einaudi, 2014 e Una questione privata, Torino, Einaudi, 2014 (or other editions)

- Luigi Meneghello, I piccoli maestri, Torino, Einaudi, 2013 (or other edition)

MODULE 2

- Giancarlo Alfano, Paola Italia, Emilio Russo, Franco Tomasi, Profilo di letteratura italiana. Dalle origini a fine Ottocento, Milano, Mondadori, 2021 (or the two-volume version: Letteratura italiana. Dalle origini a metà Cinquecento, vol. 1, and Letteratura italiana. Da Tasso a fine Ottocento, vol. 2, Milano, Mondadori, 2018).

Further bibliographical information relating to module 2 will be provided during the course.

The list of texts is subject to change and it is therefore advisable to wait until the start of the lessons and the presentation of the programme before purchasing or borrowing. The bibliography of module 2 will in any case be supplemented with additional readings presented in class and made available on AulaWeb during the course.

Non-attending students must contact the teacher to arrange a specific bibliography.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

MATTEO NAVONE (President)

LUCA BELTRAMI

LUCA PASTORI (Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

Second semester classes will begin on 13 February 2023.

Class schedule

ITALIAN LITERATURE

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The examination is conducted in oral form. During the period of the course, a number of optional mid-term tests will be set in addition to the official exams to allow students to split the syllabus over two dates. During these tests, each student will have the opportunity to take an interview on a part of module 2; in case of a positive outcome of the test, this part will no longer be subject to verification in the final exam.

NB: only in-person attending students can take the optional mid-term tests; distance learning and non-attending students cannot take them (see “Teaching Methods”).

The final exam will focus on the topics covered in class (module 1), to which is added the remaining part of module 2 (for those who have successfully taken the midterm test) or all of module 2 (for those who have not taken the midterm test or have failed it).

The final examination is an oral test lasting approximately 30 minutes. 

Students are free to take the exam as many times as they wish to improve their mark.

During the course, further information will be provided regarding the conduct of the mid-term tests and of the exam.

There are seven exam sessions each year, to which additional special sessions may be added, mainly for out-of-session students.

To take part in the tests, you must register on line at least five days before the date of the exam.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The oral test consists of an examination on the topics included in the syllabus and aims to assess the ability to:

- paraphrase and summarise a literary passage;

- contextualise the works studied from a historical and cultural point of view and illustrate their metrical and stylistic characteristics;

- make connections and comparisons between the topics covered in the course;

- use appropriate and effective exposition;

- sustain a discussion regarding the topics covered;

- develop a personal critical opinion on the topics covered.

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

Students who, for justified reasons, expect not to be able to attend at least 50% of the lessons (i.e. at least 40 of the 80 hours of classroom teaching) are required to contact the teacher by e-mail at the beginning of the course in order to agree on an alternative syllabus. It is also recommended to attend the first lesson, during which the teaching programme and the exam description will be presented.

All students, whether attending or not, are kindly requested to enrol in AulaWeb to receive communications and notices regarding the course.

Erasmus students or non-native Italian speakers are kindly requested to contact the teacher to agree on the examination programme.

Students with a certified DSA, disability or other special educational needs are recommended to contact the prpfessor at the beginning of the course to agree on teaching and examination methods that, while respecting the teaching objectives, take into account individual learning methods and provide suitable compensatory tools. The same students are also invited to make use of the various services the University offers to support them (for further information see https://unige.it/disabilita-dsa). In e-mail communications to the teacher, please always copy the relevant sector (dsa@segreterie.unige.it or disabili@segreterie.unige.it) and the contact teacher, Prof. Petraccia (maria.federica.petraccia@lettere.unige.it).