02609 - Contemporary Italian Literature (S-Z)

Learning outcomes

At the end of this class, students are expected to achieve a wide knowledge of Italian Twentieth-Century literature, with a main focus on relationships between literature and sociology, anthropology and civilization; the course load goes together with general notions in criticism and textual analysis, in formal, structural, compositional matters, and in their reception as well. During the course students become able to analyze by themselves texts belonging to the contemporary Italian literary tradition.

Course contents

The course aims to analyze the metamorphoses of the body and identity in literary modernity, exploring the representations of the character through the themes of beauty, gender, eros, fashion and clothes, with particular attention to the evolution of femininity, from seduction to emancipation. Some narrative, critical and journalistic texts from the late Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries will be examined, following a path between male and female writers who have represented in a paradigmatic way the radical transformations of the self in the panorama of modernity, creating completely new characters who embody the anthropological mutation, the changes in sensitivity and perception of reality, neuroses, dissociations, the emergence of the unconscious and the feeling of crisis peculiar to the contemporary era. These phenomena will be examined in an interdisciplinary perspective aimed at intertwining literature with different fields of knowledge, in particular art, fashion, history of costume, cinema, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, psychoanalysis, science and technology, combining in-depth analysis of texts with the exploration of central figures and themes in the imaginary of modernity.

Readings/Bibliography

PRIMARY BIBLIOGRAPHY

- C. Baudelaire, Il pittore della vita moderna, a cura di Giuseppe Guglielmi e Ezio Raimondi, Milano, Abscondita, 2022

- G. d'Annunzio, Il piacere

- L. Pirandello, Quaderni di Serafino Gubbio operatore

- A. Moravia, Gli indifferenti

- S. Aleramo, Andando e stando. Prose, impressioni di viaggio e incontri

- P. Masino, Album di vestiti

- P.P. Pasolini, Scritti corsari

SECONDARY BIBLIOGRAPHY

- D. Baroncini, La moda nella letteratura contemporanea, Milano, Bruno Mondadori, 2010

- M.A. Bazzocchi, Il codice del corpo. Genere e sessualità nella letteratura italiana del Novecento, Bologna, Pendragon, 2016

- M.A. Bazzocchi (a cura), Cento anni di letteratura italiana 1910-2010, Torino, Einaudi, 2021

TEXTS TO BE STUDIED FOR THE 6 CREDITS COURSE

PRIMARY BIBLIOGRAPHY

- G. d'Annunzio, Il piacere

- A. Moravia, Gli indifferenti

- S. Aleramo, Andando e stando. Prose, impressioni di viaggio e incontri

SECONDARY BIBLIOGRAPHY

- D. Baroncini, La moda nella letteratura contemporanea, Milano, Bruno Mondadori, 2010

- M.A. Bazzocchi (a cura), Cento anni di letteratura italiana 1910-2010, Torino, Einaudi, 2021 (N.B. : Parte prima: Inizio secolo; Parte seconda: Nell'orbita del modernismo; Parte terza: Dalla fine del fascismo agli anni Cinquanta)

Teaching methods

Frontal lectures.

Interdisciplinary analyses.

Attendance is not mandatory, but strongly recommended to improve learning and the study method, in particular the ability to analyze text in depht, placing them in a broad vision of the topics covered in class.

Assessment methods

Oral exam.

During the oral exam the student must prove:

- complete and precise knowledge of all the mandatory reading as listed in the program

- critical consideration and interpretation of the relevant topics and texts

- ability to contextualize the authors and their works set in the literary and cultural backdrop of modernity, from the second half of Nineteenth century to the present day

In order to obtain an excellent evaluation, it is necessary to demonstrate an excellent knowledge of contents and topics; a sure ability to interpret the texts; critical and personal analysis of the themes; appropriate and effective presentation and language.

Teaching tools

Power point presentations with insights into the topics covered in class.

Presentation of images, paintings, videos on the topics examined in class.

Office hours

See the website of Daniela Baroncini