28484 - Contemporary Italian Literature (1) (LM) (M-Z)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student understands a literary text in its ideological, structural and stylistic elements and in its dialectical-social relations, with particular attention to the cultural and symbolic semantics of language. They are able to approach the text through a critical-narratological reading.

Course contents

The appearance of the gaze


This course addresses the theme of the relationship between narrative and visual in contemporary Italian literature from the 1980s to the present. This is a fundamental theme for understanding the changes in perspectives that occurred in the second half of the twentieth century, in relation to the new scientific discoveries and philosophical reflections characteristic of postmodernity, which continue to affect the way we look at and narrate the world. The course begins by comparing the two opposing and complementary perspectives on the theme of the gaze in literature: Calvino's impossible search for the word that can describe every slightest variation of light; Manganelli's search for the impossible meanings that lurk in the shadows of words. Also in all the other authors/authors on the program, reflection on the question of the gaze in literature, in particular the ways of telling about it, and on the concept of appearance in the postmodern era, in which literary, gnoseological and scientific instances converge, plays a fundamental role.


The topics addressed during the course are 1) the relationship between literature and visuality 2) the question of the gaze in literature 3) the concept of appearance 4) literature and the new scientific discoveries 5) literature and the challenges of postmodernity.

Readings/Bibliography

Students must read the following texts in full:

• Literary texts:
  

  Part 1 (6 CFU)

1. Italo Calvino, Palomar, Einaudi, 1983 (nuova edizione Mondadori 2022)
2. Giorgio Manganelli, Dall’inferno, Rizzoli, 1985 (nuova edizione Adelphi 1998)
3. Daniele Del Giudice, Atlante occidentale, Einaudi, 1985 (nuova edizione Einaudi 2019)

   Part 2 (6 CFU)

4. Gianni Celati, Quattro novelle sulle apparenze, Feltrinelli, 1987 (nuova edizione Quodlibet 2016)
5. Tiziano Scarpa, Occhi sulla graticola, Einaudi 1996 (nuova edizione Einaudi 2014)
6. Helena Janeczek, La ragazza con la Leica, Guanda 2017

 

• Critical essays (mandatory):

1. Italo Calvino, Lezioni americane, Garzanti, 1988 (nuova edizione Mondadori 2022)
2. John Berger, Sul guardare, 1980, Bollati Boringhieri, 2017
3. All teaching materials uploaded onto the VIRTUAL platform

 

Non-attending students add:
Cento anni di letteratura italiana 1910-2010, edited by Marco A. Bazzocchi, Einaudi, 2021

Teaching methods

Lessons, class discussion, active participation in class, videos, power points, movies.

Assessment methods

The oral test consists in an oral interview which has the aim of evaluating the critical and methodological ability of the students. The students will be invited to discuss the texts on the course programme. The student must demonstrate an appropriate knowledge of the bibliography 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.

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.

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.

Teaching tools

In addition to lectures, held by the teacher, audiovisual tools will be used to support the teaching. Students will also be invited to bring a significant contribution to enreach the issues upon which the course focuses.

Office hours

See the website of Filippo Milani