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

Aim of the course is acquiring the following skills, knowledge and competences: knowing Italian literature in its evolution with particular attention to its relationship with history and with national and international culture; gaining 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; knowing 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.

Classes will be held in-person unless otherwise specified by the University. The possibility of attending lectures at a distance via the Teams platform (streaming and recording) will also be activated. Any students interested in online teaching will have to make an explicit request to the lecturer to be included in the dedicated channel; those requesting access will be considered non-attending students and will have to follow a specific syllabus. Any further instructions in this regard will be provided at the beginning of the lectures.

Class attendance is not compulsory, but is strongly recommended. Students who, for justified reasons, expect not to be able to attend at least 50 percent of the classroom lectures (i.e., at least 40 hours out of 80), will be able to take the exam only as non-attending students: these are required to contact the professor at the beginning of the lectures to agree on an exam program different from the one indicated here, supplemented with additional bibliography.

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 mainly on the relationships between literature and history through the analysis of significant works and moments in Italian literature.

PART ONE - Forms of satire and comedy in Dante and Boccaccio

Is it possible to define the Divine Comedy as a satirical poem? What genres of medieval comic literature can be found in the masterpieces of Dante Alighieri and Giovanni Boccaccio? In the first part of the course, an attempt will be made to answer these questions, starting from the Latin genesis of satire in verse and its subsequent evolution, as well as from the definition of "comic" proper to medieval rhetoric, and then moving on to a series of anthology readings taken mainly from Dante’s Inferno and Boccaccio’s Decameron.

SECOND PART - Satirical poetry in Italy between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.

In connection with the topics covered in Part I, this second section will examine the evolution of Italian verse satire between the 16th and 18th centuries, focusing on Ludovico Ariosto's Satire, Giuseppe Parini's Giorno and Vittorio Alfieri's Satire. Through the analysis of excerpts read in the classroom, some historical-social themes dealt with by Ariosto, Parini and Alfieri will be explored, also trying to show how these three poets related to the great models of Latin satire (Horace and Juvenal in primis).

PART THREE - Telling the War. A journey from Scapigliatura to the literature of World War I.

The theme will be approached starting with the classroom presentation of texts by authors who dealt (sometimes with clear propagandistic intentions, other times adopting an anti-militarist and pacifist perspective or more nuanced points of view) with the main war events in Italian history at the turn of the 19th and early 20th centuries, from the Third War of Independence to World War I. Planned readings will include passages by Ugo Iginio Tarchetti, Giovanni Verga, Giovanni Pascoli, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Luigi Pirandello, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Clemente Rebora, Federico De Roberto, and Emilio Lussu.

PART FOUR - Beppe Fenoglio narrator of the Resistance

The last part of the course will be dedicated to Beppe Fenoglio's two major Resistance novels, Una questione privata (1963) and Il partigiano Johnny (1968), which will be read in their entirety. An anthology reading will be proposed in the classroom, in which various aspects of these works will be analysed, including the story of their composition, the ways in which the partisan war is represented, and the links with Anglo-Saxon narrative.

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 professor to agree on a different syllabus.

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)

- Giovanni Boccaccio, Decameron, ed. by Amedeo Quondam, Maurizio Fiorilla e Giancarlo Alfano, Milano, BUR-Rizzoli, 2013, or other recent edition (only the passages read in class)

PART TWO

- Ludovico Ariosto, Satire, ed. by Emilio Russo, Roma, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura (BIT&S Testi e Studi), 2019 (free download here). Only the passages read in class

- Giuseppe Parini, Il giorno-Le odi, ed. by Giuseppe Nicoletti, Milano, Rizzoli-BUR, 2011 (or other recent edition). Only the passages read in class

PART THREE

- Emilio Lussu, Un anno sull’altipiano, introduzione di Mario Rigoni Stern, Torino, Einaudi, 2014 (unabridged)

PART FOUR

- Beppe Fenoglio, Una questione privata, Torino, Einaudi, 2014 or other recent edition (unabridged)

- Beppe Fenoglio, Il partigiano Johnny, Torino, Einaudi, 2022 or other recent edition (unabridged)

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 are required to contact the professor to arrange a bibliography in addition to the one given here.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

MATTEO NAVONE (President)

LUCA BELTRAMI

LUCA PASTORI (Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

22 February 2024 (second semester)

Class schedule

ITALIAN LITERATURE

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The examination is conducted in oral form. During the class period, a number of optional in-progress tests will be set in addition to the official appeals to allow students to spread the topics of the exam program over two dates. During these tests, each student will have the opportunity to take a preliminar test on a part of Module 2; if the test is successful, this part will no longer be tested in the final exam.

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 (disabili@unige.it or dsa@unige.it) and Professor Elisabetta Colagrossi (elisabetta.colagrossi@unige.it).