30125 - Comparative Literatures (LM)

Learning outcomes

The course aims to strengthen in students the awareness of the specificity of literary language, both as an expression of collective and individual imaginary and as a lens for interpreting reality. This awareness is acquired primarily through the knowledge of the methodologies of literary inquiry, and the ability to use them in the reading of individual works. The course promotes as well a notion of literature as a transnational phenomenon, and thus the ability to compare different languages, traditions and socio-cultural contexts. Students will especially be able (i) to explore rhetorical techniques and themes in a cross-cultural manner, and to grasp analogies and discontinuities on both the historical and geographical levels; (ii) to compare literary language with other forms of expression such as visual arts, cinema, theater, and music; (iii) to identify different domains of cultural production, such as “high” literature, popular literature etc. The course also aims to stimulate critical independent thought on literary and, more broadly, cultural phenomena.

Course contents

TOPIC

 Paper: theme, object, subject, substance, record, medium

The nineteenth century has been defined by many historians as “the century of paper”: certain phenomena characteristic of modernity – from bureaucracy to the development of increasingly complex administrative and judicial systems, from the introduction of paper money to the development of postal networks, from the birth and expansion of journalism to the capitalist organisation of literary production – led to a dramatic increase in the demand for paper and made its social and cultural function as a medium for writing increasingly crucial. Literature shows an extraordinary awareness of these phenomena, often placing paper at the centre of the plot and representation, questioning the multiple guises of this omnipresent and elusive entity, and reflecting on the very medium that allows literary texts to exist materially and circulate. The course aims to investigate the representation of paper in 19th-century novels and, at the same time, to reflect on the notion of literary theme, on the processes by which we establish that a text “talks about” something, and on the limits and potential of thematic criticism.

 Timing of the course: first semester (Novembrer-December 2024).

Readings/Bibliography

LITERARY TEXTS

Honoré de Balzac, Illusions perdues

Charles Dickens, Bleak House

Herman Melville, Bartleby the scrivener 

Henry James, The Aspern Papers

Edgardo Franzosini, Il mangiatore di carta, Sellerio

 

CRITICAL TEXTS

Daniele Giglioli, Tema, edizioni del Verri

Pierre-Marc de Biasi, La carta: avventura quotidiana, Electa

Donata Meneghelli, "Segni: tra solidità e dissoluzione", in Id., Il valore degli oggetti, nottetempo, pp. 23-102

Jacques Derrida, "Io e/o la carta (nuove speculazioni su un lusso dei poveri), in il Verri, n. 85, giugno 2024, pp. 16-40

The reading list is NOT yet final and may undergo some changes before the start of the semester.

 

  

Teaching methods

This 30 hours course is based on the reading, analysis and discussion of literary and non-literary texts. During classes, students will be invited to take an active part in the course, by formulating questions and giving their own insights.
Further downloadable materials in support of the lessons such as digital images, power point presentations and readings will be uploaded on the Moodle Unibo Virtuale during the course.

Assessment methods

The abilities acquired during the course will be evaluated through an oral test aimed at ascertaining a deep knowledge of all the topics covered during the course. The oral test consists in an interview aimed at evaluating the students' critical and methodological skills. Students will be invited to discuss the texts in the reading list and comment on them. Therefore students must demonstrate an appropriate knowledge of the recommended reading list.

Students who are able to demonstrate a wide and systematic understanding of the issues covered during the course, to tackle them critically, and who master the critical jargon of the discipline will be given a mark of excellence. Students who demonstrate a mere mnemonic knowledge of the subject together with a more superficial analytical ability to synthesize, a correct command of the critical jargon but not always appropriate, will be given a ‘fair' mark. A superficial knowledge and understanding of the course topics, a scarce analytical and expressive ability will be rewarded with a pass mark or just above a pass mark. Students who demonstrate gaps in their knowledge of the main topics, inappropriate language skills, lack of familiarity with the syllabus reading list will not be given a pass mark.

Office hours

See the website of Donata Meneghelli