13800 - Italian Literature in the Renaissance

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students are expected to acquire: a sound knowledge of a specific cultural context (the Italian Renaissance) through the reading of literary texts in an interdisciplinary perspective; the ability to analyse and interpret literary texts (in linguistic, rethorical and philological perspective)

Course contents

The course is divided in two parts: the module A will be dedicated to a discussion of the 'Renaissance' as a cultural context and historical category as well as to crucial themes and authors of the period, from the end of the XV Century to the end of the XVI Century. The themes that will be pointed out in this first part of the course will be:

• The XV Century roots of the Renaissance;
• The new places of the knowledge, the main characters, the new institutions: the print, the Academies, the courts, the Universities, the censorship;
• The concept of imitation: imitatio/aemulatio;
• The debate about language as example of relationship between classics and moderns;
• The Petrarchism and its variations;
• Storytelling ('novella') after Boccaccio's Decameron;
  
• Courtly and behavioral treatises;
• Political treatises;
• Love treatises;
  
• Epic poems from Ariosto to Tasso;
• The rediscovery of Aristotele’s Poetica and the discussion above epic poem;
• The Counter-Renaissance;
• The digital tools for the study of Renaissance.
  

 

The module B will instead be dedicated to the deepening of a specific theme: "Dante between Fifteenth and early Sixteenth Centuries". The lessons intend to analyze the wide debate on the figure of Dante and his masterpiece in the early Renaissance - in particular in the century of Humanism which still speaks predominantly Latin - and therefore in the mature Renaissance (first half of the sixteenth century), when the Comedy, together to the winning model of the Canzoniere, is at the center of the famous "language dispute".

Readings/Bibliography

MODULE A

For the first part of the course students are expected to know:

 

a The fundamental features of the history of Italian literature of the end of XV and all the XVI Century. Recommended texts:

G. Alfano, C. Gigante, E. Russo, Il Rinascimento, Roma, Salerno ed., 2016 (excluding the final "Schede", which are left to the student's curiosity)

or:

G. Alfano - P. Italia - E. Russo - F. Tomasi, Profilo di letteratura italiana. Dalle origini a fine Ottocento, Milano, Mondadori, 2021, pp. 191-392

 

b Students are required to prepare at least one of the following books (at least two for non-attending students):

1. Jacob Burckhardt, Il Rinascimento italiano. Civiltà e arte, Torino, Einaudi, 2023 (solo la prima parte, La civiltà del Rinascimento in Italia, pp. 6-363);
2. Catherine Fletcher, Il libro nero del Rinascimento, Milano, Garzanti, 2022;
3. Nicola Gardini, Rinascere. Storia e maestri di un’idea italiana, Milano, Garzanti, 2019;
4. Gigliola Fragnito, Rinascimento perduto. La letteratura italiana sotto gli occhi dei censori (secoli XV-XVII), Bologna, il Mulino, 2019;
5. Lionello Sozzi, La dignità dell'uomo. Attualità e continuità di un dibattito, Alessandria, Edizioni dell'Orso, 2022.

 

c Full reading (unless otherwise indicated) of at least one of the following works (two for non-attending students):

- Poliziano, Stanze per la giostra (edited by F. Bausi: Manziana 1997; Utet 2006; Messina 2016);

- Bembo, Asolani (edited by C. Dilemmi, ed. Accademia della Crusca; edited by C. Dionisotti, ed. Utet o TEA) or Prose della volgar lingua (edited by C. Dionisotti, ed. Utet o TEA);

- Machiavelli, Il principe (edited by G. Pedullà, Donzelli 2013) + Ariosto, Satire, edited by E. Cavazzoni, Il Saggiatore, 2021;

- Ariosto, Orlando furioso, (10 cantos chosen by the student; edited by E. Bigi - C. Zampese, Bur, 2016);

- Guicciardini, Ricordi (edited by C. Varotti, Roma, Carocci, 2013);

- Castiglione, Il cortegiano (edited by A. Quondam, ed. Garzanti);

- Folengo, Baldus (edited by M. Chiesa, ed. Utet);

- Bandello, Novelle (suggested edition: edited by E. Menetti, Milano, Bur, 2022);

- Aretino, Sei giornate (Ragionamento-Dialogo, edited by  Bàrberi-Squarotti - Forno, Bur 1988; 2001)

- Tasso, Gerusalemme liberata (10 cantos chosen by the student; edited by F. Tomasi, Bur 2009)

 

MODULE B

Students frequenting lessons are required to study the following essays:

Eugenio Garin, Dante nel Rinascimento, «Rinascimento», s. II, 7 (1967), pp. 3-28

Davide Colombo, Dante “alter Homerus” nel Rinascimento, «Rivista di Letteratura Italiana», XXV/3 (2007), pp. 21-51 (pdf su Academia)

Francesco Bausi, Dante e i filologi. Landino e Poliziano di fronte alla “Commedia”, in Suggestioni e modelli danteschi tra Medioevo e Umanesimo. Atti del Convegno internazionale di Roma 22-24 ottobre 2018, pp. 315-353

Laurent Vallance, Dante nella polemica linquistica cinquecentesca, "Humanistica", 2014, pp. 143-187.

 

Not-frequenting students, besides the bibliography quoted above, are requested to study:

G. Tanturli, Il disprezzo per Dante da Petrarca al Bruni, "Rinascimento", 25, (1985), pp. 199-219

G. Sasso, Dante, in Enciclopedia machiavelliana, 2014, disponibile online (https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/dante_%28Enciclopedia-machiavelliana%29/)

Teaching methods

Frontal lessons, supported by ppt files, aimed at fully understanding the texts and discussing interpretative hypotheses with all the course participants.

Assessment methods

Oral exam consisting of a discussion (approx. 30-40 minutes) of both the general and the monographic section. Students are required to show the ability to discuss and interpret the assigned texts clearly and persuasively, relating them to their cultural context. Also the student's ability to express himself with clarity and language properties will be evaluated. The standard of oral expression will also be assessed.

• The lack of ability to orientate itself in the literary panorama of Renaissance culture and to recognize the fundamental characteristics of the major texts of the late 15th and 16th centuries of the program will entail negative voting;
• The student who will grasp the fundamental aspects of the works and authors proposed during the course and will recognize the fundamental questions and the salient features of the most important works of Renaissance literature and its protagonists will achieve a positive evaluation (vote: 26-28);
• An in-depth knowledge of humanistic texts and literature will imply a very good (29-30) and even excellent (30L) evaluation. To achieve excellence, a complete understanding of all the topics covered is required, and also the firm possession of the literary chronology (the dates of the major works' output of the authors treated are important), the use of precise technical terminology (in the rhetorical domain) , philological-literary, etc .. eg: to know being able to say the precise literary genre to which the mentioned works belong, or to indicate the chronological range of composition in the case of very famous works, such as L'Orlando furioso or Il Cortegiano) and, moreover , a personal critical elaboration of the acquired contents.

Teaching tools

Ppt files, which will be made available to the student on Virtuale.

Office hours

See the website of Andrea Severi