28927 - History of Literary Criticism (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the students have a good knowledge about movements, episodes, and representatives of modern literary criticism, with a special focus on methodologies developed in the twentieth century - especially in the field of the theory of literature - and their influence on critical praxis. They can also master critical problems and interpretative models about literary periodization and historiography. They can analyse critical texts and elaborate autonomous reflections on theoretical and methodological questions.

Course contents

READING, CRITICISM, INTERPRETATION

Literary discourse is marked by some distinctive features: ambiguity, semantic density, connotative multiplicity, and resistance to univocal and definitive readings. These are the qualities that differentiate literary texts from other types of discourse or cultural production. Dealing with textual alterity is thus the challenge of literary criticism, whose proper task is to generate questions, to enrich and multiply the meanings, to place works of the past within new theoretical and hermeneutical frameworks. The course will focus on a corpus of exemplary European literary texts particularly suitable for generating puzzles, theoretical debates, and interpretive conflicts. In this way, it will also be possible to retrace key moments in the history of twentieth-century criticism, in its various forms (structuralism, psychoanalytic criticism, stylistic criticism, reader-response criticism, thematic criticism, postcolonial studies, etc.).

The syllabus is the same for non-attending students.

Course period: Fourth cycle (April–May 2026)

Class times, rooms, start dates: Please refer to the teacher’s website.

Readings/Bibliography

The syllabus is the same for non-attending students.

I. Narrative Texts

• Honoré de Balzac, Sarrasine (1830), Feltrinelli (or as an appendix to Roland Barthes, S/Z, Einaudi; a pdf version is available on Virtuale)
• Edgar Allan Poe, La lettera rubata (1844), in Opere scelte, "Meridiani" Mondadori, pp. 792-814 (a pdf version is available on Virtuale)
• Hermann Melville, Bartleby lo scrivano (1853), recommended edition by Feltrinelli, edited by Gianni Celati
• Robert Louis Stevenson, Lo strano caso del dottor Jekyll e del signor Hyde (1886), Einaudi
• Henry James, Il giro di vite (1898), recommended edition by Marsilio, edited by Giovanna Mochi
• Joseph Conrad, Cuore di tenebra (1899), Feltrinelli
• Italo Calvino, Le città invisibili (1972), Mondadori

II. Critical Texts

This section is divided into three parts: A) A selection of major classics of literary criticism; b) A list of textbooks about the history of literary criticism; C) A list of selected readings and interpretations of the narrative texts in the syllabus. Students will read one text of their choice from Group A, one text of their choice from Group B, and two texts of their choice from Group C.

A) Classics of literary criticism (1 text of your choice)

• Erich Auerbach, Mimesis. Il realismo nella letteratura occidentale, 2 volumes, Einaudi
• Erich Auerbach, Letteratura mondiale e metodo, edited by Guido Mazzoni, Nottetempo
• Michail Bachtin, Estetica e romanzo, Einaudi
• Walter Benjamin, Angelus Novus. Saggi e frammenti, edited by Renato Solmi, Einaudi
• Ernst Robert Curtius, Letteratura europea e Medioevo latino, La Nuova Italia
• Giacomo Debenedetti, Il romanzo del Novecento, Garzanti or La Nave di Teseo
• Northrop Frye, Anatomia della critica, Einaudi
• Jurij M. Lotman, La struttura del testo poetico, Mursia
• György Lukács, Saggi sul realismo, Einaudi
• Vladimir J. Propp, Morfologia della fiaba, Einaudi
• Viktor B. Šklovskij, Teoria della prosa, Einaudi
• Susan Sontag, Contro l’interpretazione, Nottetempo
• Tzvetan Todorov (edited by), I formalisti russi, Einaudi

B) Textbooks about the history of literary criticism (1 text of your choice):

• Stefano Brugnolo, Davide Colussi, Sergio Zatti, Emanuele Zinato, La scrittura e il mondo. Teorie letterarie del Novecento, Carocci
• Alberto Casadei, La critica letteraria contemporanea, il Mulino
• Francesco Muzzioli, Le teorie della critica letteraria, Carocci

B) Selected critical readings (2 texts of your choice; unavailable texts will be uploaded on the course website):

About Sarrasine:

• Roland Barthes, S/Z. Una lettura di “Sarrasine”, Einaudi

About The Purloined Letter:

• Jacques Derrida, Il fattore della verità, Adelphi
• Norman N. Holland, Re-Covering “The Purloined Letter”: Reading as a Personal Transaction, in Susan R. Suleiman, Inge Crosman (eds.), The Reader in the Text. Essays on Audience and Interpretation, Princeton University Press, pp. 350-370
• Jacques Lacan, Il seminario su “La lettera rubata”, in Jacques Lacan, Scritti, Einaudi, vol. I, pp. 7-58

About Bartleby:

• Giorgio Agamben, Bartleby o della contingenza, in Gilles Deleuze, Giorgio Agamben, Bartleby. La formula della creazione, Quodlibet, pp. 45-89
• Gilles Deleuze, Bartleby o la formula, in Gilles Deleuze, Giorgio Agamben, Bartleby. La formula della creazione, Quodlibet, pp. 7-44

About The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde:

• Elaine Showalter, Dr. Jekyll’s Closet, in Elaine Showalter, Sexual Anarchy. Gender and Culture at the Fin de Siècle, Viking, pp. 105-126
• Guido Fink, Robert Louis Stevenson. Lo strano caso del dottor Jekyll e del signor Hyde, Lindau
• Vladimir Nabokov, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Il Dottor Jekyll e Mister Hyde”, in Vladimir Nabokov, Lezioni di letteratura, Adelphi

About The Turn of the Screw:

• Giovanna Mochi, Le “cose cattive” di Henry James, in Henry James, Il giro di vite, Marsilio, pp. 9-42
• Edmund Wilson, L’ambiguità di Henry James, in Edmund Wilson, Il pensiero multiplo, Garzanti, pp. 101-146

About Heart of Darkness:

• Peter Brooks, Un rapporto illeggibile. "Heart of Darkness", in Peter Brooks, Trame. Intenzionalità e progetto nel discorso narrativo, Einaudi, pp. 249-274
• Edward Said, Two Visions in “Heart of Darkness”, in Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism, Vintage Books, pp. 19-31
• Tzvetan Todorov, Conoscenza del vuoto. Cuore di tenebra, in Tzvetan Todorov, Poetica della prosa, Bompiani, pp. 171-86

About Le città invisibili:

• Mario Lavagetto, Le carte visibili, in Mario Lavagetto, Dovuto a Calvino, Bollati Boringhieri, pp. 15-22
• Claudio Milanini, Arte combinatoria e geografia mentale: «Il castello dei destini incrociati» e «Le città invisibili», in Claudio Milanini, L’utopia discontinua, Garzanti, pp. 127-47

Teaching methods

The course consists of approximately 30 hours of lectures, during which students will still be encouraged to participate and discuss the topics addressed.

Assessment methods

The exam consists of an oral test (20-30 minutes) that will assess the knowledge of the texts and the student’s critical and interpretative skills.

The exam will be divided in two parts:

1) Textual identification and analysis. As a first step, a short textual fragment (10-15 lines) taken from the narrative texts listed in bibliography (section I) will be submitted to the student, who must identify the text, the author, the date of publication, and must contextualize it with regard to the plot, the characters and the narrative situation. The positive outcome of this first step allows the student to access the next one. A partial of defective identification of the text allows to proceed anyway (but with a pass or “fair” mark), while a complete misunderstanding leads to the failure of the exam.

2) Critical questions. In the following step, the student must answer to some questions: a) About the critical texts (see bibliography, section II); b) About the narrative texts (section I), questioned both in a notional and in a critical-interpretative way.

The exam will also assess the student's methodological awareness, the ability to master the bibliography in the course programme and the the field-specific language of the discipline. The ability to establish links between the theoretical framework and the texts will be especially appreciated. A wide and systematic knowledge of the texts, interpretative insight, critical understanding, and rhetorical effectiveness will be evaluated with a mark of excellence (27-30), while 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 evaluated with a “fair” mark (24-26). A superficial knowledge and understanding of the material, a scarce analytical and expressive ability will be evaluated with a pass mark (18-23) or a negative mark.

Students with SLD or temporary or permanent disabilities. It is necessary to contact the relevant University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en) with ample time in advance: the office will propose some adjustments, which must in any case be submitted 15 days in advance to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of these in relation to the teaching objectives.

Teaching tools

PowerPoint slides presentations will be used. For further teaching materials and non available texts, please visit the Professor's website and "Virtuale".

Office hours

See the website of Federico Bertoni