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 refers to Section A of Italian Literature, which includes students whose surnames begin with the letters A through K.

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 lectures with the aid 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 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.

An optional workshop on paraphrasing and the analysis of literary texts will be offered outside regular class hours during the months of March and April. The workshop is open to all students, but it is especially recommended for those who feel they may need additional academic support in these areas.

Lectures will be held in presence. 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.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

General Section

The general section covers the history of Italian literature from its origins to the twentieth century, limited to a selection of topics and authors that will be published on AulaWeb at the beginning of the course.

This section will be only partially covered in class and will otherwise be assigned as independent study.

Monographic Section

The monographic section is dedicated to the theme of autobiography in Italian literature, understood not as a simple record of lived experience but as a literary construction of identity. The course is structured into three units.

1. Dante: the new “novel of the self”

This unit focuses on selected cantos (in full or in part) from the Commedia in which the poet appears as both character and narrator. The aim is to reconstruct, through the text, a literary and implicit biography of Dante—shaped by confessions, omissions, and narrative reticence—along a path in which experience and invention are programmatically interwoven.

2. Foscolo and the fiction of the "I"

This section centers on the autobiographical dimension of Ugo Foscolo, from the Ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis to the Notizia intorno a Didimo Chierico, passing through the Sonetti and Odi. It examines the points of contact between Ugo and Jacopo in the epistolary novel, which later give way to the bitter irony, mediated by the Sternian model, of the sixteen chapters of the Notizia, while keeping in view the renewed European interest in the autobiographical genre between the second half of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth.

3. Gadda and Ginzburg: family as autobiography

Through two major twentieth-century novels—La cognizione del dolore and Lessico famigliare, both of which students are required to read in full—this unit explores forms of indirect, family-centered autobiography. In Gadda, this involves the unresolved relationship with his mother and the death of his brother, sublimated in the fictional setting of Villa Pirobutirro; in Ginzburg, it takes the form of a remembered language of domestic life, unfolding across the most dramatic decades of twentieth-century Italian history.

Class attendance is not mandatory but is strongly recommended.

Non-attending students must contact the instructor at the beginning of the course to agree on an alternative exam syllabus.

For further details, please refer to the sections on Reccomended Readings/Bibliography, Teaching Methods, and Assessment Methods.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bibliography for attending students

General section

- Ugo Dotti, Storia della letteratura italiana, Rome, Carocci, 2020
(Note: only the sections indicated by the instructor at the beginning of the course are required for study.)

Monographic section

All teaching materials used during the lessons and made available on AulaWeb.

- Dante Alighieri, Divina Commedia, edited by Anna Maria Chiavacci Leonardi, Milan, Mondadori (or the edition edited by Giorgio Inglese, Rome, Carocci, or that edited by Bianca Garavelli, Milan, Bompiani). Only the passages indicated during the course are required for study.

- Ugo Foscolo, Ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis, edited by Pierantonio Frare, Feltrinelli, 2013 (or a comparable edition). Only the passages indicated during the course are required for study.

- Ugo Foscolo, Sepolcri, Odi, Sonetti, edited by Donatella Martinelli, Mondadori, 2019 (or a comparable edition). Only the passages indicated during the course are required for study.

- Full reading (in any edition, including eBook) of the following novels:

• Carlo Emilio Gadda, La cognizione del dolore
• Natalia Ginzburg, Lessico famigliare

The reading list may be subject to change. It is therefore recommended to wait until the start of the course and the presentation of the syllabus by the instructor before purchasing or borrowing any texts. The bibliography for the monographic section may be supplemented with additional readings provided on AulaWeb during the course.

Non-attending students are required to contact the instructor by email to arrange an alternative reading list.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

GIORDANO RODDA (President)

MATTEO NAVONE

ANDREA LAZZARINI (Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

Classes will begin on Thursday, 19 February 2026. The schedule is as follows:

• Monday, 15:00–17:00 (Aula Magna, Polo Didattico)

• Tuesday, 9:00–10:00 (Aula Magna, Polo Didattico)

• Thursday, 8:00–10:00 (Aula Magna, Polo Didattico)

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Students may choose between two alternative examination formats:

• First option: written and oral examination.

In this case, two assessments are required: a written examination on the first section of the general and monographic syllabus (Dante), and an oral examination (which coincides with the final exam) on the second and third sections of the general and monographic syllabus (Alfieri / twentieth century).

The written examination is a prerequisite for the oral examination and must therefore be taken beforehand. If the written examination is passed, the corresponding part of the syllabus will not be examined again during the oral examination; if it is not passed, that part will instead be included in the oral examination.

• Second option: oral examination only.

In this case, the entire syllabus (general and monographic sections) will be examined during the final oral examination, and no written examination is required.

The grade communicated at the end of the oral examination may be declined. In the event of an unsuccessful examination or a declined grade, students may retake the exam starting from the next available exam session. The written test, however, may not be retaken. Further information regarding the examination procedures will be provided during lectures.

At least seven oral exam sessions and two written examinations are scheduled each academic year.

Registration for the written examinations will be carried out via AulaWeb, while registration for the oral examinations must be completed through the University’s online student services (https://servizionline.unige.it/studenti/esami/prenotazione), at least five days prior to the date of the exam session

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The optional written examination (see “Exam description”) consists of two open-ended questions, one of which includes the paraphrasing and analysis of a literary text. The written examination is designed to assess students’ knowledge of the passages from the Divine Comedy discussed during lectures, as well as of the chapter of the course textbook devoted to Dante.

The oral examination consists of an interview lasting approximately 30 minutes and is intended to assess students’ ability to:

• analyse a literary passage;
• contextualise the works studied from a historical and cultural perspective and describe their metrical and stylistic features;
• establish connections and comparisons between the topics covered;
• use clear, appropriate, and effective academic language;
• develop a personal and well-argued critical interpretation of the topics discussed.

Those students who demonstrate an organic vision of the topics addressed, combined with the ability to add personal contributions, to master the tools of literary analysis and the specific vocabulary, to use effective and appropriate exposition, will be given a mark of excellence.

Those students who demonstrate a mnemonic knowledge of the subject with a more superficial analytical ability and ability to synthesize, a correct command of the language but not always appropriate, will be given a fair mark.

A superficial knowledge and understanding of the material, a scarce analytical and expressive ability that is not always appropriate will be rewarded with a pass mark or just above a pass mark.

Students who demonstrate gaps in their knowledge of the subject matter, inappropriate language use, lack of familiarity with the literature in the programme bibliography will not be given a pass mark.

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.

For students who have valid certification of physical or learning disabilities, please note that, to request adaptations during the exam, it is necessary to first insert the certification on the University website on the servizionline.unige.it page in the "Students" section. The documentation will be verified by the University's Services Sector for the inclusion of students with disabilities and DSA (https://rubrica.unige.it/strutture/structure/100111).

Subsequently, significantly in advance (at least 10 days) of the exam date, it is necessary to send an e-mail to the instructor, including in copy both Prof. Sara Dickinson (sara.dickinson@unige.it), the Department's disability liaison and the Sector indicated above (disabili@unige.it or dsa@unige.it). In the email you must specify:

- the name of the course

- the date of the appeal

- the student's surname, name and student number

- the compensatory tools and dispensatory measures deemed functional and required.

The Department's disability liaison will confirm to the instructor that the applicant has the right to request adaptations during the exam and that these adaptations must be agreed with the teacher, who will respond by communicating whether it is possible to use the requested adaptations.

Requests must be sent at least 10 days before the date of the exam to allow the teacher to evaluate their content. If you intend to use concept maps for the exam (which must be much more concise than the maps used for the study), the sending must respect the expected times, otherwise there will not be the technical time necessary to make any changes.

For further information regarding the request for services and adaptations, consult this document.