14057 - Comparative Literatures (1) (A-L)

Learning outcomes

Learning and skills to be acquired

At the end of the course in Comparative literatures, via the careful analysis of significant works of western literature, students acquire the knowledge allowing them to deal with some of the main methodological nuclei of comparative studies; from the examination of the close intertwining existing between different national cultures, to the study of the complex relationships between literature and other languages (be they those of science, philosophy or criticism, or expressive ones such as painting, music, photography, theatre, cinema), up to the reconstruction of the recurrence of long lasting literary themes, spanning multiple nationalities.

Course contents

Course programme/Contents

Shadows, traces, the Panopticon: literature and photography

Starting from the birth of Daguerre’s invention, there have been very few writers capable of resisting the enticement of the photographic sign, its mysterious nature of trace, testament to a presence. In the texts chosen for the course – belonging to what Nicolas Mirzoeff calls the «age of photography», moreover considering it over – the multiple strategies used by some novelists to talk about photography in their tales. In the texts by Hawthorne, Nabokov, Cortázar, Perec, Auster and Sebald, some common motifs emerge: together with the ambiguous charm connected to the possibility of duplicating the world, shadows, obscurity and darkness invade the pages and the obsessive threat of an eye capable of an all embracing vision nothing can elude seems more or less declaredly to take shape.

Readings/Bibliography

Literary Texts

· N. Hawthorne, The House of he Seven Gables

· V. Nabokov, Invitation to a Beheading

· J. Cortázar, Las babas del diablo; Los pasos en las huellas; Apocalipsis de Solentiname; Algunos aspectos del cuento

· G. Perec, W ou le souvenir d'enfance

. G. Celati, Quattro novelle sulle apparenze

· P. Auster, The Invention of Solitude

· G.W. Sebald, Austerlitz

Critical Texts

· W. Benjamin, Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit (The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility)

· R. Barthes, La chambre claire. Note sur la photographie (Camera Lucida) or S. Sontag, On Photography

 . M. Foucault, Surveiller et punir. Naissance de la prison. Part. III. Chap. III. Le panoptisme

· N. Mirzoeff, An Introduction to Visual Culture (Introduction, Chapter II, Chapter III)

Film

- M. Antonioni, Blow-up

- W. Wenders, Alice in den Städten (Alice in the Cities)

- G. Celati, The World of Luigi Ghirri

- M. Romanek, One hour photo

Students planning to take 12 credit exam will have to read the texts of six authors chosen amongst the seven listed with extreme attention, as well as, obviously, the critical essays listed.

Students planning to take 6 credit exam will have to read the texts of three authors chosen amongst the seven listed with extreme attention, as well as, obviously, the critical essays listed.

Non-attending students will have to read both the texts by Sontag and Barthes (in addition, obviously, to other texts listed).

Teaching methods

Teaching methods

The course is based upon 60 hours of lectures: students are invited to actively take part during the lectures and debate the subjects proposed.

Assessment methods

Assessment methods

The final exam, consisting of face to face interviews, aims at verifying knowledge acquired through the reading of the works proposed and assess students’ critical skills. The students’ capacity to navigate literary and critical texts, contextualising them appropriately, shall be positively evaluated. An assessment of excellence will indicate an hermeneutical capacity on the part of the student to create connections between literary and critical texts, together with ascertained expository skills. Possible gaps in knowledge on matters discussed during the course and inappropriate, or confused language will entail low marks.

Teaching tools

Teaching Tools

Lectures will make use of Power Point slides, as well as film viewings. Any additional teaching material shall be made available to students on the site (via the link Teaching tools - Materiale didattico).

Office hours

See the website of Ferdinando Amigoni