02609 - Contemporary Italian Literature

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course the student has acquired a working knowledge of wide areas of twentieth-century literary history, with special emphasis on the relation between literature and historical, social, anthropological, and more broadly cultural phenomena. Study is assisted by secondary literature and face-to-face tuition and covers close reading of the text as well as problems of form, structure, composition, and reception.

Course contents

What realism? Perspectives, forms and genres of an era (1939-1963)

 In an investigation published in 1951, Carlo Bo asked what was meant by the term "neo-realism", and to this end he urged some protagonists of that Italian cultural season. The impression that can still be deduced today, reading those words, is that the different protagonists agreed with the very impossibility of a univocal definition of the term, because in fact there has never been a neo-realist school, nor a doctrine with rules and codes of neo-realist invention. Then, added Vittorini, one of the protagonists of this story: "In essence, you have as many neorealisms as there are the main narrators". This is an interesting working hypothesis, from which it will be necessary to move to probe the effectiveness today of a label, which already at the time did not receive enthusiasm.

 

Readings/Bibliography

Bibliography: 

E. Vittorini, Conversazione in Sicilia (1941), Milano, Bompiani 2021.

C. Levi, Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (1945), Torino, Einaudi.

I. Calvino, Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno (1947), Milano, Mondadori.

P. Levi, Se questo è un uomo (1947), Torino, Einaudi.

C. Pavese, La casa in collina (1948), Torino, Einaudi.

R. Viganò, L’Agnese va a morire (1949), Torino, Einaudi.

M. Rigoni Stern, Il sergente nella neve (1953), Torino, Einaudi.

B. Fenoglio, Una questione privata (1963), Torino, Einaudi.

 

Essays:

E. Auerbach, Mimesis. Il realismo nella letteratura occidentale (1956), Torino, Einaudi, cap. 1 (vol.1), cap. X (vol. 2). [su virtuale]

F. Bertoni, Realismo e letteratura, Torino, Einaudi 2007, pp. 17-67. [su virtuale]

G. Lukács, Narrare o descrivere (1936), in Il marxismo e la critica letteraria, Torino, Einaudi 1964, pp. 269-323. [su virtuale]

G. Mazzoni, Una teoria della narrativa, in Teoria del romanzo, Bologna, il Mulino 2011, pp. 13-72. [su virtuale]

Per il materiale didattico vd. virtuale

For not-attendant students:

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

Teaching methods

The course is based on the reading, the analysis and the discussion of the literary texts in biblioghaphy.

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.

Teaching tools

Students are requested to register on the course page on the virtuale.unibo.it platform (active from 7 September), which will be the tool used by the teacher for communications, notices and to provide additional teaching material.

Office hours

See the website of Riccardo Gasperina Geroni