90841 - Contemporary Italian Literature

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student is expected to acquire knowledge and skills in the field of contemporary Italian literature from the origin of modernity up to the present, with particular reference to the themes of fashion, dress, body, beauty and lifestyles; knows significant texts for the interweaving of literature and fashion not only in the Italian scene, but also in Europe and America; is able to critically interpret the most representative works of contemporary imagery between literature and fashion also in an interdisciplinary perspective.

Course contents

Bodies Under Pressure: Spaces, Norms, and Transformations in Contemporary Italian Literature

The course explores the theme of the body in contemporary Italian literature, considering it not as a purely natural or private reality, but as the site where social norms, power relations, trauma, and historical transformations are inscribed. The texts examined portray bodies subjected to forms of control and discipline, and marked by violence, desire, illness, and loss.

The course is structured around the close reading of four novels: Alba de Céspedes’s Nessuno torna indietro (1938), Goliarda Sapienza’s L’università di Rebibbia (1983), Pier Vittorio Tondelli’s Camere separate (1989), and Giorgio Vasta’s Il tempo materiale (2008).

Through works written between the 1930s and the first decade of the twenty-first century, the course traces several crucial phases of twentieth-century Italian history: the Fascist period, the years of protest and repression, the crisis of traditional family and affective models, the political violence of the 1970s, and its later narrative reworking.

In the novels under consideration, the body encounters different spaces and institutions — the boarding school, the prison, the school, the family, the couple, and the hospital — which regulate its movements and define its margins of freedom. The analysis will focus both on the relationship between individual experience and collective history and on the formal choices through which the body is represented, including the construction of narrative voices and the portrayal of gestures and relationships.

The reading of the texts will be accompanied by selected theoretical contributions from body studies and gender studies, which will provide useful perspectives on desire, vulnerability, identity, and exclusion.

Readings/Bibliography

Students are expected to read the following texts in full:

Alba de Céspedes, Nessuno torna indietro, Milan, Mondadori, 2022 (or any other edition).

Goliarda Sapienza, L’università di Rebibbia, Turin, Einaudi, 2016 (or any other edition).

Pier Vittorio Tondelli, Camere separate, Milan, Bompiani, 2025 (or any other edition).

Giorgio Vasta, Il tempo materiale, Rome, minimum fax, 2011 (or any other edition).

During the course, further critical and theoretical readings will be assigned. Materials that are not easily available will be made accessible on the Virtuale platform.

In addition to the texts listed above, non-attending students will be required to study the following volume:

Marco Antonio Bazzocchi, Il codice del corpo. Genere e sessualità nella letteratura italiana del Novecento, Bologna, Pendragon, 2016.

Teaching methods

The course consists of lectures focusing on key theoretical issues and the analysis of the assigned texts. Lectures will be complemented by collective discussions, and students will be encouraged to participate actively through questions, comments, and shared reflections.

Assessment methods

Assessment consists of a viva voce examination aiming to assess the knowledge and critical skills acquired by the candidate during the course.

1. First-class marks will be awarded to candidates who demonstrate an ability to analyse texts in depth and to produce an organic overview of the topics covered in the course. Overall mark between 27 and 30 cum laude (high linguistic ability is required).

2. A mostly mnemonic knowledge of the subject, analytical skills lacking depth, and correct but not always apposite expression will result in a modest mark. Overall mark between 23 and 26.

3. Elementary knowledge, superficial understanding, poor analytical skills, and inapposite expression will lead to a pass or only slightly higher mark. Overall mark between 18 and 22.

4. Gaps in the candidate’s knowledge, inapposite language, and inadequate engagement with the secondary literature offered in the course will result in a fail mark.

Registration for the assessment is on AlmaEsami (https://almaesami.unibo.it).

About the use of AI: AI can be a useful tool to support independent study by providing in-depth analysis, summaries and self-assessment exercises. In terms of learning assessment, the use of AI is forbidden during in-person examinations. Any use constitutes a violation of academic integrity.

Teaching tools

PowerPoint presentations will be used during class and subsequently uploaded to the Virtuale platform. Critical essays, scholarly materials, and any additional bibliographic references to support individual study will also be made available on Virtuale.

Students with learning disorders and\or temporary or permanent disabilities: please, contact the office responsible (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students) as soon as possible so that they can propose acceptable adjustments. The request for adaptation must be submitted in advance (15 days before the exam date) to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of the adjustments, taking into account the teaching objectives.

Office hours

See the website of Elisa Attanasio