OVERVIEW

The course is part of the Basic Learning Activities for the Bachelor’s course in Modern Languages and Cultures, and bestows 9 ECTS, corresponding to 54 hours of classroom teaching and 171 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 in the history of Italian literature; it contributes to the acquisition of knowledge and skills useful for the professional outlets envisaged by the bachelor degree course in Modern Languages and Cultures, and in particular for: 

• access to teacher training
• cultural services (publishing, journalism, radio and television, Italian and foreign cultural institutes and foundations, book heritage preservation)
• cultural tourism
• organization of artistic and cultural events and exhibitions.

This page relates to section C of Italian Literature (students P-Z).

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course aims to provide a picture of the Italian literary tradition from its origins onwards using exemplary texts, with reference to the different styles and genres, to the analysis of texts and cultural contexts, and to relations with foreign cultures.

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 essential conceptual and methodological tools to understand the poetic language and analyze a literary passage from a content and metric-stylistic perspective.

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

a) identify and define the most significant movements and poetics in the history of Italian literature

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) explain and discuss in oral form the topics discussed in class 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.

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 27 of the 54 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 examination programme. It is also recommended to attend the first lesson, during which the teaching programme and the exam rules will be presented.

Lectures will be held in presence, unless stated otherwise.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The lessons will be dedicated to the following topics.

PART ONE - Provençal poetry in Dante and Petrarch.

The first part of the second module investigates the legacy of troubadour lyric poetry first in Dante Alighieri's Vita nova and Divine Comedy and then in Francesco Petrarca's (Petrarch) Canzoniere, through the elements of novelty and rupture introduced by the two poets – the evolution from the "stilo della loda" to the exaltation of Beatrice as an iter ad Deum; the writing of interiority and Laura's earthly temporality – but also in the influences that Dante and Petrarch choose to welcome from the greatest Provençal authors, amid homages and quotations within the text and in its very structure.

SECOND PART - Paladins and picari in Italian and European chivalric literature.

The different interpretations of the paladin Orlando, the chivalric hero par excellence, are the basis of this second section of the second module, through the comparison of three main texts: on the one hand, Matteo Maria Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato, which introduces into the Carolingian literary universe the love theme, traditionally typical of the Breton cycle; on the other hand, Luigi Pulci's Morgante, where, in the first 23 cantari, caricature and comic parody of the genre's topoi are chosen; finally, Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, an extraordinary hybridization of fictional and epic, comic and elegiac materials, for an alternation of registers of undoubted modernity, capable of influencing even Cervantes' Quijote, a work that will sanction the genre's dissolution.

PART THREE - Italo Calvino and literature between structuralism and postmodernism.

The last module deals with Italo Calvino and his personal literary interpretation of some crucial twentieth-century cultural trends, such as metaliterature, rewriting, intertextuality, and combinatorial play, as they emerge in the two texts that will be to be read in their entirety – the hyper-novel Se una notte d’inverno un viaggiatore and the posthumous Lezioni americane, which were to be given at Harvard University – but also in their relationship with parallel European experiences, especially from the French area, with authors such as Perec and Queneau.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bibliography for attending students

• Dante Alighieri, Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso, a cura di Anna Maria Chiavacci Leonardi, Milano, Mondadori (or the edition by Giorgio Inglese, Roma, Carocci, or the one edited by Bianca Garavelli, Milano, Bompiani). Study of only the passages indicated in class is required.
• Dante Alighieri, Vita Nova, edited by Stefano Carrai, Milano, 2009. Study of only the passages indicated in class is required.
• Matteo Maria Boiardo, Orlando Innamorato (L’inamoramento de Orlando), edited by Andrea Canova, Milano, Rizzoli, 2011. Study of only the passages indicated in class is required.
• Luigi Pulci, Morgante, edited by Giuliano Dego, Milano, Rizzoli, 1992 (or other recent edition). Study of only the passages indicated in class is required.
• Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, edited by Emilio Bigi, Milano, Rizzoli, 2012 (or other recent edition). Study of only the passages indicated in class is required.
• Italo Calvino, Se una notte d’inverno un viaggiatore, Milano, Mondadori, 2022 (or other recent edition). Full reading of the work is required.
• Italo Calvino, Lezioni americane. Sei proposte per il prossimo millennio, Milano, Mondadori, 2022 (or other recent edition). Full reading of the work is required.

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

GIORDANO RODDA (President)

ANDREA LAZZARINI

MATTEO NAVONE

LESSONS

LESSONS START

Lessons will start on February 21st.

Class schedule

ITALIAN LITERATURE C

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The examination is an oral test lasting approximately 30 minutes and covering the entire programme.

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 examination.

There are six exam sessions each year (two per session), to which additional special sessions may be added, mainly for out-of-session students.

To take part in the tests, you must register at least five days before the date of the exam on the website https://servizionline.unige.it/studenti/esami/prenotazione.

Non-attending students must contact the teacher by email to arrange an alternative programme.

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;
• 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 27 of the 54 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 examination programme. It is also recommended to attend the first lesson, during which the teaching programme and the exam rules 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 contact teacher, Prof. Dickinson (sara.dickinson@unige.it).