09435 - Theory of Literature

Academic Year 2020/2021

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the students have a basic knowledge of some general concepts of literature, of literary institutions, of relationships between text and contest and of the dynamic of literary communication. They know and can apply some basic methodologies to analyse literary texts.

Course contents

Introduction to text analysis: The Bourgeois and the Novel

The course of Theory of literature for undergraduates aims to: 1) Outline a new approach to literary experience, conceiving theory not as a self-referential system but as a point of view, an optical device to sharpen textual comprehension; 2) Provide methods for text analysis and interpretation, against trivial critical trends where the text is only a pre-text to study something else (the author, the themes, the ideology, the historical context, etc.). On the one hand, the theoretical approach is a way to research, explore and pose questions. On the other hand, the text is a workshop where we can develop and test the tools to really understand what we call literature. The progress of the novel and its link with European middle class will be the historical background to carry out this critical exercise between theory and practice of literature.

Period: Second semester (february-may 2021)

Timetable of lessons, classrooms etc: See teacher website.

Readings/Bibliography

I. Novels

  • Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719), Garzanti
  • Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary (1857), Garzanti
  • George Eliot, Il mulino sulla Floss (1860), Mondadori
  • Thomas Mann, I Buddenbrook (1901), Garzanti
  • Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway (1925), Feltrinelli
  • Alberto Moravia, La noia (1960), Bompiani
  • Don DeLillo, Rumore bianco (1985), Einaudi

II. Critical Texts

Students will study all texts in Group A and choose one text in Group B:

Group A

  • Federico Bertoni, Letteratura. Teorie, metodi, strumenti, Carocci
  • Franco Moretti, Il borghese. Tra storia e letteratura, Einaudi

Group B

  • Nancy Armstrong, La morale borghese e il paradosso dell’individualismo, in Franco Moretti (a cura di), Il romanzo, vol. I: La cultura del romanzo, Einaudi, pp. 271-306
  • Michail Bachtin, Epos e romanzo, in Michail Bachtin, Estetica e romanzo, Einaudi, pp. 445-482
  • Federico Bertoni, Nascita e metamorfosi del romanzo, in Piero Boitani e Massimo Fusillo (a cura di), Letteratura europea, vol. II: Generi letterari, Utet, pp. 121-37
  • Riccardo Capoferro, Le fondamenta culturali del novel, in Riccardo Capoferro, Novel. La genesi del romanzo moderno nell’Inghilterra del Settecento, Carocci, pp. 15-66
  • Lucien Goldmann, Introduzione ai problemi di una sociologia del romanzo, in Lucien Goldmann, Per una sociologia del romanzo, Bompiani, pp. 11-32
  • György Lukács, Balzac: «Les Illusions perdues», in György Lukács, Saggi sul realismo, Einaudi, pp. 67-89
  • Marco Viscardi, Prologo. Homais, o dell’inizio, e Francesco de Cristofaro, Epilogo. Homer, o della fine, in Francesco de Cristofaro, Marco Viscardi (a cura di), Il borghese fa il mondo. Quindici accoppiamenti giudiziosi, Donzelli, pp. 3-16 e 393-407
  • Ian Watt, Il realismo e la forma del romanzo, in Ian Watt, Le origini del romanzo borghese, Bompiani, pp. 7-31

Teaching methods

Traditional lectures

Assessment methods

The exam consists of an oral or written test (according to students' choice) that will assess the knowledge of the texts and the student's critical and interpretative skills. It will also assess the student's methodological awareness, the ability to master the bibliography in the course programme and the the field-specific language of the discipline. The ability to establish links between the theoretical framework and the texts will be expecially appreciated. A wide and systematic knowledge of the texts, interpretative insight, critical understanding and rhetorical effectiveness will be evaluated with a mark of excellence, while 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 evaluated with a “fair” mark. A superficial knowledge and understanding of the material, a scarce analytical and expressive ability will be evaluated with a pass mark or a negative mark.



Teaching tools

Projection of Power point slides. For further teaching material see the website (link "Teaching material").

Links to further information

http://www.unibo.it/SitoWebDocente/default.htm?UPN=federico.bertoni@unibo.it

Office hours

See the website of Federico Bertoni