OVERVIEW

Italian theatrical literature combines the study of theatrical texts with the broader study of the relationships between text and theatre. The discipline uses a philological and historical methodology applied to the texts which prepare, preserve or replace the spectacular event. Its main object are therefore the literary texts that, in different ways, followed the history of the Italian spectacle from the 15th century to the present day.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The teaching is intended for second-year students of second year of the three-year degree in Lettere, Musica e Spettacolo. Students are expected to acquire an overview of the Italian theatrical literary panorama, with particular regard to the historical, thematic and linguistic evolution and to the philological issues. The educational aim is to make students conceive the unitary character of the discipline, highlighting the importance of the intertwining of literature and performance as a key to understanding cultural history, also in its contemporary outcomes.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

Participation in the activities and / or individual study will allow the student to:

• demonstrate knowledge of the forms of the theatrical text from the 15th century to the present day (in particular, authors and texts in the syllabus);
• employ basic elements of theatrical philology and drama vocabulary;
• understand the texts in the syllabus and recognise and place unfamiliar theatrical texts in historical context;
• analyse a theatrical text highlighting its main features (genre, structure, themes, setting, relationships between characters, etc.);
• describe and interpret texts according to their dramatic function.

PREREQUISITES

Good command of Italian literature and History of the performing arts.

TEACHING METHODS

In-presence teaching

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

All students:

a) The theatrical text: formal, linguistic and structural characteristics; theatrical text analysis.

b) Italian historical panorama: Poliziano's Orfeo and court theatre; comedy and tragedy of the 16th and 17th centuries; birth and development of the third genre; commedia dell'arte; comedy and tragedy of the 18th century (Goldoni and Alfieri); bourgeois drama and opera libretto in the 19th century; crisis and new models in the 20th century.

A full reading of:

1- Niccolò Machiavelli, Mandragola

2- Ruzante, Primo dialogo (Parlamento); Gian Giorgio Trissino, Sofonisba; Giambattista Giraldi Cinzio, Orbecche (one text to be chosen)

3- Giovan Battista Guarini, Il pastor fido (one text to be chosen)

4- Giovan Battista Andreini, Le due comedie in comedia o Schiavetto (one text to be chosen)

5- Federico Della Valle, Iudit; Vittorio Alfieri, Saul (one text to be chosen)

6- Pietro Metastasio, L’olimpiade; Lorenzo Da Ponte, Così fan tutte (one text to be chosen)

7- Carlo Goldoni, Il teatro comico; Carlo Gozzi, L’amore delle tre melarance (one text to be chosen)

8- Francesco Maria Piave, La traviata

9- Giuseppe Giacosa, Come le foglie

10- Luigi Pirandello, Sei personaggi in cerca d’autore

11- Raffaele Viviani, La musica dei ciechi

12- Eduardo De Filippo, Napoli milionaria o Sabato, domenica e lunedì (one text to be chosen)

13- Dario Fo, Morte accidentale di un anarchico

For students who take 9 cfu:

Theatre texts to be read in full

14- Pier Paolo Pasolini, Orestiade

15- Enzo Moscato, Signurì, Signurì

16- Giovanni Testori, L’Arialda; Vitaliano Brancati, La governante (one text to be chosen)

17- Ascanio Celestini, Storie di uno scemo di guerra o La pecora nera. Elogio funebre del matrimonio elettrico; Stefano Massini, Lehman Trilogy; Davide Enia, Italia-Brasile 3 a 2 (one text to be chosen)

A focus on Pirandello in the run up to production Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore, direction of Valerio Binasco (Teatro Nazionale in Genoa, 9-14 May 2023).

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

a) + b): Simona Morando, Testi teatrali, in Il testo letterario, a cura di Emilio Russo, Roma, Carocci, 2020; handouts on Aulaweb.

Pocket editions of the texts in the syllabus.

A file with detailed bibliographical indications will be available on Aulaweb and unaviable texts will be uploaded.

Analysis form will be presented in class and shared on Aulaweb.

c) Pocket editions of the theatrical texts on the programme.

Optional readings:

Luigi Pirandello, Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore, a cura di Guido Davico Bonino, Einaudi, Torino 1993 (or reprints)

Claudio Vicentini, Pirandello e il disagio a teatro, Marsilio, Venezia 1993 (or reprints)

Bibliography for students not proficient in Italian language may be arranged individually in other languages (English, French or Spanish).

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

EMANUELA CHICHIRICCO' (President)

SIMONA MORANDO

LESSONS

LESSONS START

February 2023

Class schedule

ITALIAN THEATRICAL LITERATURE

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Oral / written exam. The analysis form is to be handed by email 5 days before the oral exam.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Oral exam on the texts in the syllabus and analysis of a dramatic text in the syllabus; evaluation grid shared with the class.

The analysis form verifies the analysis method and the correct understanding of the text.

The oral exam verifies the knowledge of theatrical literature panorama and the knowledge and understanding of the texts in the syllabus.

Exam schedule