00562 - Italian Literature (M-Z)

Learning outcomes

The course aims at fostering the understanding of Italian literature as part of the Cultural Heritage to be preserved and enhanced, also in its relationships with other forms of art. On complention of the course students will be able to comment and assess ancient and modern texts of the Italian literary tradition in their historical background, and will enanche his/her written and oral skills.

Course contents

The course is divided up into two parts

A. GENERAL: Foundations of Italian Literature

Students will be asked to read Dante's Inferno and to demonstrate their understanding of the main authors and texts of Italian literary canon trough the study of two anthological volumes, as well as by reading two works from the Italian literary canon.

B.  FOCUSED: Dante's astray. Story of a merciful and noble lady

The course focuses on the story of a specific Dantean character: the so-called merciful lady/noble lady, by reading and commenting a Dantean work (the Vita nova) and an anthology of other Dantean passages from his rimes, the Convivio and the Commedia. The course aims at discussing the importance of this character within Dante's authobiographical works in the vernacular by discussing the main exegetical questions related to the diverse accounts of this character's story in Dante's Vernacular works.

Readings/Bibliography

A. GENERAL: Foundations of Italian Literature

1. Dante Alighieri, Inferno

Recommended edition: a cura di Emilio Pasquini e Antonio Enzo Quaglio, Milano, Garzanti, 1982 (or reprints).

N.B. Other editions that can be used: Anna Maria Chiavacci Leonardi (Bologna, Zanichelli); Umberto Bosco - Giovanni Reggio (Firenze, Le Monnier); Natalino Sapegno (Firenze, La Nuova Italia); Riccardo Merlante - Stefano Prandi (Brescia, La Scuola); Giorgio Inglese (Roma, Carocci); Saverio Bellomo (Torino, Einaudi, solo l’Inferno e il Purgatorio, quest'ultimo con Stefano Carrai); Roberto Mercuri (Torino, Einaudi). Should you wish to use a different edition, please do get in touch with the Tutor.

2. History of Italian Literature

- Giancarlo Alfano, Paola Italia, Emilio Russo, Franco Tomasi, Letteratura italiana, vol. I (Dalle origini a metà Cinquecento), Milano, Mondadori, 2018 (o successive ristampe)

- Giancarlo Alfano, Paola Italia, Emilio Russo, Franco Tomasi, Letteratura italiana, vol. II (Da Tasso a fine Ottocento), Milano, Mondadori, 2018 (o successive ristampe)

3. Students must read two works, chosing from the following lists one text from the "Medieval-Renaissance" list and one from the "Modern-Contemporary" list; these works can be read in any available edition:

Medieval-Renaissance

Guido Guinizzelli, Rime; Guido Cavalcanti, Rime; Dante Alighieri, Commedia; Francesco Petrarca, Canzoniere; Giovanni Boccaccio, Decameron; Matteo Maria Boiardo, L’innamoramento de Orlando o Amorum libri tres; Angelo Poliziano, Stanze per la giostra; Jacopo Sannazzaro, Arcadia; Baldassarre Castiglione, Il libro del Cortegiano; Niccolò Machiavelli, Il principe o Madragola; Francesco Guicciardini, Ricordi; Pietro Bembo, Asolani; Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando furioso o Satire; Giovanni della Casa, Rime; Torquato Tasso, Gerusalemme liberata o Aminta; Giovan Battista Marino, Adone; Galileo Galilei, Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo

Modern-Contemporary

Giovanbattista Vico, La scienza nuova; Carlo Goldoni, La locandiera, oppure La bottega del caffè; Giuseppe Parini, Il giorno, oppure Le odi; Vittorio Alfieri, Vita, oppure Saul e Mirra; Ugo Foscolo, Ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis; Giacomo Leopardi, Canti, oppure Operette morali; Alessandro Manzoni, I promessi sposi, oppure Adelchi; Ippolito Nievo, Le confessioni di un italiano; Giovanni Pascoli, Myricae, oppure Canti di Castelvecchio; Gabriele d’Annunzio, Il piacere, oppure Alcyone; Giovanni Verga, I malavoglia, oppure Mastro Don-Gesualdo; Luigi Pirandello, Il fu Mattia Pascal, oppure Sei personaggi in cerca d’autore; Italo Svevo, La coscienza di Zeno; Giuseppe Ungaretti, L’allegria ; Eugenio Montale, Ossi di seppia; Carlo Emilio Gadda, Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana, oppure La cognizione del dolore; Italo Calvino, Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno o I nostri antenati

N.B. Alongside Dante's Inferno and the two anthological volumes, students who will not attend classes will be asked to study also the volume Giulio Ferroni, Prima lezione di letteratura italiana, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2009.

B. FOCUSED: Dante's astray. Story of a merciful and noble lady

1. Texts:

- Dante Alighieri, Vita nova

Recommended edition: a cura di Stefano Carrai, Milano, Rizzoli-BUR, 2009 (or reprints);alternatively, students can use also one of the following editions: a cura di Luca Carlo Rossi, Milano, Mondadori, 1999 (or reprints); a cura di Guglielmo Gorni, in Dante Alighieri, Opere, edizione diretta da Marco Santagata, vol. I, Milano, Mondadori, 2011 (or reprints).

N.B. please do get in touch with the Tutor should you wish to use an edition of the Vita nova different from those outlined above.

- Students are also required to study an anthology of other Dantean texts (Rime; Convivio; Commedia), that will be made available by the Tutor on Virtuale.

2. Background readings:

Students will be asked to study two essays to be chosen from the following list:

- Teodolinda Barolini, Archeologia della donna gentile, in «Studj romanzi», n.s. XIV, 2018, pp. 2018, pp. 93-124.

- Vittorio Bartoli, Dante e la “pietosa” («VN» 24-27): le tre fasi della concupiscenza secondo Pietro Lombardo, in «Studi danteschi», LXXV, 2010, pp. 205-213.

- Corrado Bologna, Il ritorno di Beatrice. Simmetrie dantesche fra «Vita Nuova», rime “petrose” e «Commedia», Roma, Salerno Editrice, 1998 (uno o più capitoli a scelta)

- A. Casadei, Dalla «Vita nova» al «Convivio», in Id., Dante. Altri accertamenti e punti critici, Milano, Franco Angeli, 2019, pp. 143-160.

- C. Delcorno, Lettura di «Purgatorio» XXXI, in «Studi danteschi», LXXVI, 2006, pp. 87-120

- P. Dronke, Dante’s second love. The originality and the contexts of «Convivio», Leeds, Society for Italian Studies, 1997 (uno o più capitoli a scelta)

- Enrico Fenzi, “Costanzia de la ragione” e “malvagio desiderio” (Vn., 28, 2): Dante e donna pietosa, in Id., Le canzoni di Dante. Interpretazioni e letture, Firenze, Le Lettere, 2017, pp. 83-110.

- T. Kay, Dante’s Cavalcantian Relapse: The “Pargoletta” Sequence and the «Commedia», in «Dante Studies», CXXXI, 2013, pp. 73-95

- La lirica italiana. Un lessico fondamentale (secoli XIII-XIV), a cura di L. Geri, M. Grimaldi e N. Maldina, Roma, Carocci, 2021 (una o più voci a scelta tra le seguenti: Amore; Filosofia; Io; Modelli biblici; Modelli latini; Modelli romanzi; Morale; Realtà)

- Nicolò Maldina, I Salmi e l’autobiografismo penitenziale di Dante, in «Rivista di letteratura religiosa italiana», III, 2020, pp. 11-36.

- Niccolò Mineo, Dante dalla «mirabile visione» all’«altro viaggio». Tra «Vita Nova» e «Commedia», Ravenna, Longo Editore, 2016 (uno o più capitoli a scelta)

- Bruno Nardi, Le figurazioni allegoriche e l’allegoria della «donna gentile», in Id., Nel mondo di Dante, Roma, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1944, pp. 21-40.

- Giorgio Petrocchi, La donna gentile, in Id., L’ultima dea, Roma, Bonacci, 1977, pp. 97-104.

- Gennaro Sasso, La donna gentile nella «Vita nuova» e nel «Convivio», in Id., Le autobiografie di Dante, Napoli, Bibliopolis, 2008, pp. 75-83

- Maria Simonelli, Donna pietosa e Donna gentile fra «Vita Nuova» e «Convivio», in Atti del Convegno di Studi su aspetti e problemi della critica dantesca, Roma, De Luca Editori d’Arte, 1967, pp. 146-159.

- M. Veglia, Beatrice e il traviamento di Dante, in Id., Dante leggero. Dal priorato alla «Commedia», Roma, Carocci, 2017, pp. 77-110.

Teaching methods

- Lectures with readings and comments on prescribed texts

- Hisotorical contextualization of literary texts, also in their relationships with other arts

- Discussion of critical hypothesis

Assessment methods

The exam will consist of one written and one oral exam; specific dietes will be annunced on Almaesami.

For the written exam students will be asked to write an essay on a question to be chosen among a list of three essay questions (one will be related to the focused part, two to the general part). The written exam is compulsory and does not have an expiration date, but must be sat before the oral exam. Students can enroll onto the diet for the written exam through the dedicated page on Almaesami within the website www.unibo.it; should the written exam result in a fail, students can re-sit the exam, but the mark for the written exam - even if non-sufficient - does not prevent from sitting the oral exam. Erasmus and Overseas students will not be required to sit the written exam.

The oral exam (that can be sat only after having sit the written exam) entails the knowledge of texts prescribed in both the general and the focused part of the syllabus, and aims at evaluating 1) the understanding of topics covered in the general part of the syllabus; 2) the capacity to understand the problems discussed in class and on the prescribed texts; 3) the knowledge of Italian Literature in its diachronic development; 4) the capacity to contextualize texts and problems within their cultural background as well as to critically discuss them; 5) the quality of both written and oral skills as well as the capacity of develop a convincingly argued line of reasoning. Students can enrol onto the diet for the oral exam through the dedicated page on Almaesami, and must study the entire syllabus. Students who have studied only one of the two parts of the syllabus will not be allowed to sit the exam.

Witten and oral exam are weighted equally toward the final mark, but the final mark will not consist of the exact average of the two as it will take into account also other criteria such as the positive attendance to lecturer as well as the critical insight and the capacity to develop a clear and convincingly argued line of reasoning.

The final mark will be awarded according to the following marking scheme: 1) non-sufficient: lack of understanding of the basic notions and lack of capacity to correctly discuss texts and problems; 2) sufficient: positive understanding of the basic notions; adequate discussion of texts and problems, but lacking of precision and over-relying on lecture notes; 3) good: positive understanding of intermediate notions; correct discussion of text and problems, but at times not completely precise and over-relying on lecture notes; 4) excellent: full understanding of topics covered; discussion of texts and problems not only correct but also developed autonomously and precisely. Excellent oral skills.

Teaching tools

- Invited Lectures

- Slides, CD and DVD

- Online documents (virtuale.unibo.it)

Office hours

See the website of Nicolò Maldina