30127 - Sociology of Literature (LM)

Course contents

 

Global mobility, usually allowing countless people to reach almost every corner of the world, is now challenged by an invisible yet ubiquitous virus capable of erecting barriers and forcing those same people to immobility and immaterial contacts.

Human societies, even the most sedentary and hierarchical ones, were and are built on a constant dialogue with movement, travel, migration, pilgrimage – powerful engines that generate interchanges, innovation and new energies.

This phenomenon is amply testified by literary texts belonging to different times and places, but also to different genres. Moving, walking, crossing borders, invading territories and cities constitute an act of rebellion against rigid social structures. From Pasolini to Tondelli and the Cannibali writers, the movement of young people is a disrupting force for change inherently connected to a desire for adventure, for overcoming boundaries, for meeting new people and seeing new things. Migrant literature shows that very similar desires lay behind the dreadful “migratory adventures” of millions of people throughout the world, determined to know new lands and cultures, exchange traditions and customs and bring about positive changes in their own lives as well as in their countries of destination.

Readings/Bibliography

 

 

Please see the reading list in Italian.

 

Students from foreign Universities can contact Professor Pezzarossa to define an ad hoc programme.

Teaching methods

Lectures in Italian.

The 30-hour course will take place in the 1st Semester starting from 8 November 2021.

 

Mondays 3-5 p.m.          Aula C    Via Centotrecento

Tuesdays 3-5 p.m.         Aula C    Via Centotrecento

Fridays 11-13 a.m.         Aula C    Via Centotrecento

 

 

Assessment methods

The evaluation of the students' competencies and abilities acquired during the course 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 tests 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.

Students who demonstrate gaps in their knowledge of the subject matter, inappropriate language use, lack of familiarity with the literature in the programme bibliography will not be given a pass mark.

Teaching tools

Video projector, overhead projector, videos, web resources.

Meetings with migrant writers and intellectuals.

Office hours

See the website of Fulvio Pezzarossa