OVERVIEW

Ah, everything is symbol and analogy! (...) Everything we see is something else. (...) Everything we have is oblivion./ The cold night, the passing of the wind / are shadows of hands whose gestures are / the illusion mother of this illusion. Fernando Pessoa.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The main purpose of the discipline is to lead female students and students to reflect critically on the intertextual practices of transposition of the literary text into other media (musical, visual, scenic and cinematographic), identifying and comparing different transformative processes, which allow content and narrative forms to migrate in different sign systems; establishing and testing the possible equivalence relations and the conditions of translatability e transferability between different semiotic contexts. The analysis of cases of intersemiotic translation (adaptations, reworkings, rewritings), particularly significant from a historical, aesthetic, or interpretative, it allows us to verify the strength and usefulness of the majority pregnant theoretical models developed to question this phenomenon, define it, classify it and think about it in its complexity. Following i sinuous experimental paths of these wandering narratives, yes study how much and how the semantic, morphological, stylistic aspects linguistic and linguistic aspects of the literary text are redefined and remodeled at the same time that they redefine and reshape the media that support them they welcome.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course students will be able to

• know and reciprocally compare the main theoretical concepts regarding intertextuality and intermediality

• apply the different theoretical positions to the concrete practice of concrete intersemiotic translation cases analysis, knowing how to evaluate the congruence of theoretical choice, in relation to the class of texts to which it is decided to apply 

• critically master the theoretical categories for intertexuality amalysis, increasing abilities for abstract reflection and argumentative skills, sensitive to contexts

• demonstrate the historical awareness of the different theoretical positions and the ability to conceive their possible interpretative function ​​ relatively to contemporary literary phenomena

PREREQUISITES

The theoretical characterization of the discipline engages a dialogue with the course of Comparative Literature, developing and deepening, its aformative objectives, according to a different and more specific methodological perspective.

TEACHING METHODS

In its 60 hours of lessons, the course will provide for a close and continuous interconnection between frontal lessons (presenting analytical methodologies and synoptic historiographic frameworks) and participatory activity of students (collectively discussing  theoretical models, and analysing literary, musical and cinematographical texts in their intersemiotic relations). Active participation in lessons is therefore very important for the full achievement of the learning objectives.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Faust II. Goethe rewriting Tragic.

A dizzying translation of the spirit of classical tragedy into the fairy-tale forms of Mozart's Singspiel, a disguise of a medieval sacred representation in a drama of bourgeois modernity, Goethe's Faust, in its transfiguring reflection of past tradition created a world-work of inexhaustible generative force. The course aims to analyze the forms through which Goethe's Faust II reworked the morphological models of classical tragedy and modern melodrama to define a new paradigm of literary analogical thought to be developed  not only in literature but also in music and in the arts of the twentieth century.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

The bibliography, indicative of the critical and literary texts to be analyzed in the course, will be integrated in relation to the participating students’ interests. 

1. General handbooks on intertexuality/intermediality 

[to have a general idea of the concpetual contexts for intertextuality theories:

Laura Neri, Giuseppe Carrara, Teoria della letteratura. Campi, problemi, strumenti, Carocci 2022 or Stefania Sini, Franca Sinopoli, Percorsi di teoria e comparatistica letteraria, Pearson 2021 ]

Gerard Genette, Palimpstes, Seuil [Palinsesti, Einaudi 1997]

Lubomir Dolezel, Heterocosmica, [Bompiani 1999]

2. Theoretical and Critical Texts

Gyòrgy Lukàcs, Studi sul Faust [Abscondita 2014]

Michel, Butor, Henri Pousseur, Votre Faust, Fantaisie variable genre opéra: Première partie (une version),  ‘La Nouvelle Revue française’ 10, no. 109 (January 1962)

 3. Fictional Texts:  

W. Goethe Faust  [trad. Franco Fortini, Mondadori 2016]

Paul Valéry, Mon Faust, Gallimard 1988 [in Faust: dalla leggenda al mito. Variazioni sul mito, Marsilio 2021]

Fernando Pessoa, Faust [Einaudi, 1997]

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

LESSONS

LESSONS START

on Monday 17th February

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The exam consists of a written (a) and an oral (b) part.

(a) redaction of an essay of a length appropriate to the chosen topic, previously agreed and discussed with the teacher, presented in its final form at least one week before the exam. In the paper, one of the methodological approaches addressed during the course must be applied, in a critical and personal way, to detect, describe and interpret a case of intertextual (for the 6 credits) or intermedial  (for the 9 credits) translation of the examined literary texts (section 3 of the Bibliography). It will be possible to define different presentation / argumentative methods connected to specific students’ professional training interests (educational projects, journalistic reviews, editorial materials, ...)

(b) critically discussion of the written paper, placing the chosen methodological intertextual approach in the context of the main literary theories of the twentieth century (explored with the help of one of the manuals indicated in section 1 of the Bibliography).

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The evaluation of the paper (a) will consider:

• the terminological property of the analysis [elocutio]

• the understanding of the critical model and the ability to personal re-elaboration of the studied contents [inventio]

• the reflection on the formal organization [dispositio] in the presentation of the research results

• the effectiveness of the analytical model application n to the text reading

The evaluation of the oral discussion (b) will consider:

• the general knowledge of the discipline contents o

• the degree of the contents’ personal critical re-elaboration

• the ability for abstract reflection and argumentative ability, sensitive to the contexts of discourse

• the awareness of the essential historical relationships between texts and theories

FURTHER INFORMATION

Non attending students should contact the teacher (+39 345 455 8112)  in order to define a personal program related to her/his interests and curriculum.

Erasmus students not proficient in Italian may request a substitutive bibliography, and take the examination in English.