13338 - Contemporary Italian Literature (N-Z)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course the student has acquired a working knowledge of wide areas of twentieth-century literary history, with special emphasis on the relation between literature and historical, social, anthropological, and more broadly cultural phenomena. Study is assisted by secondary literature and face-to-face tuition and covers close reading of the text as well as problems of form, structure, composition, and reception.

Course contents

Specific topic 2017-2018: "Periodical" system. The "unfinishable century" of Italian literary reviews.

This course lasts 60 hours, and equals to 12 credits. It is a "no authors" course, whose aim consists of the study of periodicals as a connective tissue and a moving context in 20th and 21th Century Italian literature. This course assumes a basic knowledge of Twentieth-Century Italian literature.

During the lectures we'll read and discuss poems, narrative, and criticism from the major 20th Century and contemporary literary periodicals, according to the following units [with the specific references to study for each unit]:

1. the beginning of 20th Century and WWI [a., c., g., i. texts];

2. the literary context under fascism [a., b., g., i. texts];

3. the Resistance, and the cultural debate in the Fifties [a., d., g., h., i. texts];

4. "neo-avantgarde" and "neo-experimentalism" [a., d., h., i. texts];

5. the postmodern turn, and the counter-cultures [a., e., f., i. texts];

6. periodicals and their changing on the world wide web [a., e., f., i. texts].

Lectures start on Monday 29th January, 2018, and go further with the following schedule:

Monday, 1-3 pm, Room II, Via Zamboni 38;

Tuesday, 1-3 pm, Room II, Via Zamboni 38;

Thursday, 1-3 pm, Room II, Via Zamboni 38.

Readings/Bibliography

Bibliographical references are designed as follows:

a. - Sistema periodico. Il secolo interminabile delle riviste, ed. by Francesco Bortolotto, Eleonora Fuochi, Davide Antonio Paone, Federica Parodi, Bologna: Pendragon, 2018 [only in those parts that concern the selected units];

b. - Maria Teresa Carnevale-Sciaudone, Il ruolo delle riviste letterarie nella cultura italiana tra le due guerre, Naples: Conte, 1985 ["La Ronda", 17-22; Le riviste di Piero Gobetti. "Il Baretti", 23-30; "Solaria", "La riforma letteraria", "Argomenti", 31-43];

c. - Elisabetta Mondello, L'avventura delle riviste. Periodici e giornali letterari del Novecento, Rome: Robin, 2012 [Introduzione, 5-10; I periodici e i fogli letterari della prima metà del Novecento, 11-74];

d. - Elisabetta Mondello, Gli anni delle riviste. Le riviste letterarie dal 1945 agli anni Ottanta, Lecce: Milella, 1985 [Premessa, 5-8; La "ripresa" del dopoguerra, 9-22; I "dieci inverni", 23-35; Da "Il verri" alla neoavanguardia, 36-48; Gli anni Sessanta e le riviste "politiche", 49-56; La "crisi" delle riviste e gli anni Settanta, 57-70];

e. - Gian Carlo Ferretti - Stefano Guerriero, Storia dell’informazione letteraria in Italia dalla terza pagina a Internet. 1925-2009, Milan: Feltrinelli, 2010 [1968-1980, 192-243; 1980-1992, 244-309; 1992-2009, 310-384];

f. - Francesco Guglieri - Michele Sisto, Verifica dei poteri 2.0. Critica e militanza letteraria in internet (1999-2009), «Allegoria», 61, 2010, 153-174;

g. - Andrea Battistini - Ezio Raimondi, Le figure della retorica. Una storia letteraria italiana, Turin: Einaudi, 1996 [60. Le riviste e l'arte di persuadere: verso un'organizzazione della cultura, 442-448; 61. L'"instauratio" letteraria della rivista. Il genere assoluto,  448-457; 62. Le monadi paradigmatiche della lirica, 457-473; 63. La negazione crociana della retorica e delle sue figure, 473-482; 64. Retorica "utens" del narratore: da Gadda a Calvino, 482-496];

h. - Emanuele Zinato, Letteratura come storiografia? Mappe e figure della mutazione italiana [Introduzione: letteratura come storiografia?, 9-16; I. "Mi ricordo questo futuro": l'attualità di "Officina", tra storia e prefigurazione, 19-40; II. L'esperienza del "Menabò", 41-54];

i. - Alberto Casadei, Il Novecento, Bologna: Il Mulino, 2005 (even in further reprints).

Students who are not going to attend our classes are requested to acquire a basic knowledge upon the Italian literature of the 20th century by reading a handbook recently published by Giulio Ferroni, Storia della letteratura italiana. Il Novecento e il nuovo millennio, Turin: Einaudi, 2012; as an alternative, several other handbooks can be considered suitable as well.

Useful directions on these resources and others will be provided throughout the class. Copies will be partially made available to students on time with a view to the exam; any other information will be available through a dedicated mailing list.

Italian students who attend the course for six credits are expected to choose and study three units on those making up the course as a whole.

Overseas and Erasmus+ exchange students who are attending the course for 6 credits will be requested to compose a short essay (up to 20000 bytes) upon a specific topic related to the course programme. This topic will be negotiated with the teacher, who will assign a specific set of bibliographical references. The essay will be discussed at the oral examination session. Overseas and Erasmus+ exchange students who are attending the course for 12 credits will be requested to study at least one unit among those included in the course programme, and explain it briefly during the oral examination session. 

Teaching methods

Traditional lectures with a strong interaction between students and teacher.

Assessment methods

The final exam consists of an oral appointment, which aims to verify some methodological, personally developed skills. It lasts approx. 20 minutes, split in two parts. The first one focuses on the main theoretical matters approached throughout the class, verifiyng the preparation upon at least two units among those included in the study programme. The second one will consist of the brief exposition of an individual in-depth analysis, even written if preferred, upon a review, a topic or a period included in the study programme itself. 

A positive or excellent score (27 to 30/30, with possible distinction) corresponds to a full mastering of technical, theoretical, historical and terminological resources of Twentieth-Century and contemporary literature, and to a proved ability to make connections among single aspects of the course contents, and to show awareness of textual features with appropriate language; an average score (23 to 26/30) goes to students who reveal some lacks in one or more topics or analytical proofs, or are able to use just mechanically their ability in interpretation; a pass or low score (18 to 22/30) to students with severe lacks in one or more topics or exercises, or not enough accurate while they use or quote notions and samples. A negative score is to be assigned to students who are not able to recall general notions in a sample of text and/or in general.

Students must sign up at the AlmaEsami web site (https://almaesami.unibo.it). The registration ends two days before the oral examination.

Teaching tools

Excerpts from texts and criticism in digital scans.

Office hours

See the website of Stefano Colangelo