28991 - Contemporary Italian Literature (LM)

Learning outcomes

The course intends to provide a critical and cultural awareness in contemporary Italian literature and civilization. For this purpose, literary texts are always analyzed as open shapes, focusing on the relationships among their tradition and cultural legacies. We will also read together and discuss a corpus of prose works through many examples of comparative analysis and practice on different methods.

Course contents

The course is worth twelve credits, amounting to 60 hours (30 lectures). The first week will be introductory and dedicated to the presentation of the authors whose novels will be discussed during the course. In subsequent weeks we will approach their works with  closer and deeper reading and analysis.

The aim of the course is to investigate the heritage, within contemporary Italian literature, of James Joyce and Samuel Beckett's major works, especially Ulysses and the Trilogy (Molloy, Malone Meurt, L'Innommable), both true landmarks in the history of European novel. Italian writers and essaysts Gianni Celati and Gabriele Frasca dedicated most of their lives and efforts to translate masterpieces of the two great Irish artists, and created in their own works a deep and subsequent dialogue with them. In the end, while in Italy exists a well-known critical notion, the so-called Gadda-function, we will try to define a Joyce-function and a Beckett-function in contemporary Italian language and literature. 

Readings/Bibliography

I modulo:

Students will fully read

James Joyce, Ulisse, nella traduzione di Gianni Celati, Torino, Einaudi, 2013.

and one of the following:

G Celati, Comiche (1971), Quodlibet, Macerata, 2012

G. Celati, Le avventure di Guizzardi (1973)

G. Celati, La banda dei sospiri (1976), Quodlibet, Macerata, 2015

II modulo:

Students will fully read

Gabriele Frasca, Dai cancelli d'acciaio, Luca Sossella editore, 2011.

and both the following:

Gianni Celati, Finzioni occidentali, Torino, Einaudi, 2003.

Gabriele Frasca, Joyicity. Joyce con McLuhan e Lacan, Edizioni d'if, Napoli, 2013.

 

Students who cannot attend the lectures will also read:

Gabriele Frasca, Lo spopolatoio. Dante con Beckett e Cantor, Edizioni d'If, Napoli, 2015.

Most of the books in this bibliography are available at Libreria Ubik – via Irnerio 27, or can also be found in the FICLIT Library, the BDU Library, the BUB Library: please check the National OPAC website (www.sbn.it) or the Polo Bolognese OPAC website (https://sol.unibo.it).

Teaching methods

The professor will hold 30 lectures of 2 hours each. Discussion will be encouraged immediately after.

Tuesday, 3.00-5.00 p.m., Aula B, via Zamboni 34

Wednesday, 9.00-11.00 a.m.

Aula II, Via Zamboni 38 (First half: from October, 2nd to November, 9th)

Aula B, Via Zamboni 34 (Second half: from November, 12th to December 21st)

Friday, 9.00-11.00 a.m.,

Aula Tibiletti Via Zamboni, 38 (First half: from October, 2nd to November, 9th)

Aula B Via Zamboni, 34 (Second half: from November, 12th to December 21st)

Beginning:

Tuesday October, 2nd, 2018 (I semester)

Assessment methods

The oral test 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 texts 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.

Teaching tools

Video projector, PC, overhead projector, possibly slides and notes from the lessons.

Office hours

See the website of Luigi Weber