28991 - Contemporary Italian Literature (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student will know the main historical and critical questions posed by authors and texts of the contemporary italian literature. He/She also will know the lines of the critic debate and use the main methods to analise literary texts.

Course contents

Italian literature and world literature

During the course we will increase the knowledge of individual authors developing a comparative reading of the texts in the programme. The course will focus on the techniques that imaginative writers use to articulate local and global dimensions and on the relationships between novel and new media. Lessons will focus on the dystopian literature that shows the clash between cultures and on the representation of the city as heterotopic space.

 

Readings/Bibliography

Students will fully read four of the following texts:

Italo Calvino, Le città invisibili, Mondadori, 1996

Paolo Volponi, Il pianeta irritabile, Einaudi, 2014

Sebastiano Vassalli, 3012, Einaudi, 1995

Roberto Saviano, Gomorra, Mondadori, 2006

Tommaso Pincio, Cinacittà, Einaudi, 2008

Scurati, La seconda mezzanotte, Bompiani, 2011

 

They will also study:

G.Benvenuti e R.Ceserani, La letteratura nell'età globale, Il Mulino, 2012

Francesco Muzzioli, Scritture della catastofe, Roma Meltemi, 2007, pp. 9-42 e pp. 141-154

Teaching methods

The lessons are, most of all, lectures held by the teacher. During the lessons, students will be encouraged to participate. We will use also some tools to support teaching, especially power-point. Movies and documentaries will be shown for the contextualization of readings scheduled. Finally, scholars will be invited for some specific issues and for the presentation of some texts and authors.

Assessment methods

The oral test consists in an oral interview which has the aim of evaluating the critical and methodological ability of the students. The students will be invited to discuss the tests on the course programme. The student must demonstrate an appropriate knowledge of the bibliography in the course programme.

Those students who are able to demonstrate a wide and systematic understanding of the issues covered during the lessons, are able to use these critically and who master the field-specific language of the discipline 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.

Teaching tools

In addition to lectures, held by the teacher, audiovisual tools will be used to support the teaching. Scholars will also be invited to bring a significant contribution to increasing the issues upon which focuses the course.

Office hours

See the website of Giuliana Benvenuti