92960 - Literature and Visual Culture (1) (Lm)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students will have acquired knowledge of the relationships between Italian Literature and Visual Culture, from the second half of the twentieth century to the first decade of the new millennium, with a focus on photography, graphic novel, advertising, cinema, television and videogames. Students will be able to identify and analyze the interactions between different languages and they will be capable of contextualizing them in the contemporary cultural environment.

Course contents

Literature and comics: iconotexuality and intertextuality at the turn of the Italian 1960s

This is the first integrated module of the Contemporary Literary Cultures (C.I.) (LM) course, which explores various ways in which words and images have interacted and shaped Italian culture in the 20th and 21st centuries.

The Literature and Visual Culture course aims, more specifically, to explore the relationships between Italian literature and comic-book narrative in the 20th century, highlighting the fundamental role played by comics in the personal development and creative work of some authors. The first few lectures will provide an initial theoretical framework on the relationships between text and image, and between literature and visual arts, equipping students with key theoretical concepts to map this range of relationships, such as iconotextuality, intertextuality and double talent. The course will then trace the historical development and spread of comic book fiction in Italy, focusing in particular on the turning point of the 1960s. During this decade, in fact, the comic strip in Italy gained its first solid cultural legitimacy, and some writers produced works explicitly influenced by their childhood experience of reading comics (Italo Calvino) or became authors themselves of what we would now call graphic novels (Dino Buzzati). We will therefore analyse and discuss in class their interpretations of comic book characters and serialised stories, as well as the different ways in which comics are incorporated into their texts, whilst keeping in mind the historical context, characterised by a wave of calls for social and cultural renewal and the rise of pop culture in our country.

Readings/Bibliography

In order to take the exam, students must read the following texts in their entirety.

Narrative texts:

• Italo Calvino, Tutte le cosmicomiche [The Complete Cosmicomics] (1997), Mondadori, 2023 (or any other edition): all the short stories listed below:
  1. La distanza della Luna [The Distance of the Moon];
  2. Sul far del giorno [At Daybreak];
  3. Un segno nello spazio [A Sign in Space];
  4. Tutto in un punto [All at One Point];
  5. Senza colori [Without Colours];
  6. Giochi senza fine [Games Without End];
  7. Lo zio acquatico [The Aquatic Uncle];
  8. Quanto scommettiamo [How Much Shall We Bet?];
  9. I Dinosauri [The Dinosaurs];
  10. La forma dello spazio [The Form of Space];
  11. Gli anni-luce [The Light-Years];
  12. La spirale [The Spiral];
  13. La molle Luna [The Soft Moon];
  14. L’origine degli Uccelli [The Origin of the Birds];
  15. I cristalli [Crystals];
  16. Il sangue, il mare [Blood, Sea];
  17. Priscilla;
  18. I meteoriti [The Meteorites];
  19. Il cielo di pietra [The Stone Sky];
  20. L'altra Euridice [The Other Eurydice];

• Dino Buzzati, Poema a fumetti [Poem Strip] (1969), Mondadori, 2017 (or any other edition);
• Italo Calvino, Il castello dei destini incrociati [The Castle of Crossed Destinies] (1973), Mondadori, 2023 (or any other edition);

Critical essays:

• Umberto Eco, Apocalittici e integrati [Apocalypse Postponed], Bompiani, 2001 (or any other edition): Prefazione [Apocalyptic and Integrated Intellectuals: Mass communications and theories of mass culture]; Apocalittici e integrati: la cultura italiana e le comunicazioni di massa [Reactions of Apocalyptic and Integrated Intellectuals: Then (1964); Reactions of the Author: Now (1974 and 1977)]; Lettura di Steve Canyon [A Reading of Steve Canyon]; Il mondo di Charlie Brown [The World of Charlie Brown];
• Italo Calvino, Lezioni americane [Six Memos for the Next Millennium], Mondadori, 2022 (or any other edition);
• Daniele Barbieri, Breve storia della letteratura a fumetti, Carocci, 2014 or Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics. The Invisible Art [Capire il fumetto. L’arte invisibile], HarperCollins, 1993 (or any other edition).

Additional reading materials useful for exam preparation will be uploaded to the VIRTUALE platform.

Teaching methods

Classes consist of a series of lectures interspersed with seminar sessions. Students are expected to participate in all class activities, actively contribute to class and group discussions and do all required readings.

Students with SLD or temporary or permanent disabilities: it is suggested that they get in touch as soon as possible with the relevant University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en ) and with the lecturer in order to seek together the most effective strategies for following the lessons and/or preparing for the examination.

Assessment methods

The oral examination consists of an interview that, by inviting students to discuss the course topics, aims to assess their critical and methodological ability. Students will be asked questions intended to enable them to demonstrate an accurate knowledge of the texts included 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 (28-30/30L).

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 (23-27).

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 (18-22).

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.

The mark for the Contemporary Literary Cultures (C.I.) (LM) exam will be calculated by averaging the Literature and Visual Culture module mark with the one obtained in the Literature and the Arts (1) (LM) oral exam.

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

Lectures will be supported by slides presentations as well as audio and video materials.

Office hours

See the website of Beniamino Della Gala