92939 - Italian Culture (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the seminar students will have acquired awareness of specific dimensions of Italian culture. Students will be able to understand the relevance of research problems in a wide series of topic concerning Italian culture such as Italian Renaissance and the modern world, the birth of Italian Nation and landscapes studies. Students will evidence a sound theoretical framework within which specific research interests could be developed in an interdisciplinary perspective.

Course contents

The course is designed to introduce students to the Italian literary culture of the 15^th and 19^th century. It aims at providing a wide historical background on the issue, together with the basic tools for reading, analysing and contextualizing Italian works of the Renaissance and the 19th century.

Lectures will be organized in two modules, and will focus on a diverse range of literary topics:

Module 1 (Lara Michelacci November 17th -December 2nd 2020)

1) female characters in Renaissance (Angelica in Orlando furioso by Ludovico Ariosto). 2) Women and gender in post-Unification Italy . Each module will be complemented by critical insights on writers and focusing on excerpts from their main works, the course will address some issues concerning the history of the Italian culture.

Module 2 (Andrea Lazzarini December 9th-December 23rd 2020)

Petrarch and the 16th century birth of the ‘Italian’ language (Pietro Bembo);Petrarchism: Commentaries on Petrarch’s text Women poetry in the Cinquecento (Veronica Gambara, Gaspara Stampa); Machiavelli: Il Principe;Baldassar Castiglione: Il libro del Cortegiano; Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata; Giovan Battista Marino, his Adonis, and the rise of the Baroque Era.

Readings/Bibliography

Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando furioso (The Frenzy of Orlando): a new verse translation; translated by David R. Slavitt, Cambridge, Mass.; London: Belknap, 2009 (canti I, XIX, XXIII-XXIV).The text is available online at the following link: https://epdf.pub/orlando-furioso-a-new-verse-translation.html

Romance and History. Imagining Time from Medieval to the Early Modern Period, edited by J. Whitman, Cambridge, University Press, 2015 (the following chapter by Riccardo Bruscagli, pp. 151-167; by Marco Praloran, pp. 168-183; by Daniel Javitch, pp. 187-199).

Women and gender in post-unification Italy : between private and public spheres, Katharine Mitchell and Helena Sanson (eds), Oxford [etc.], Peter Lang, 2013, pp. 39-65; pp. 111-133; pp. 135-152.

Please take note: one class will be held at the Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna or to The Biblioteca Comunale dell'Archiginnasio; another class at the Biblioteca Italiana delle Donne Bologna

The bibliography regarding the 2 module (Andrea Lazzarini) will be given during the class

Teaching methods

Lectures and seminars involving text analysis and class discussion. A/V tools will be used during the lectures.

Assessment methods

Written exam or oral exam, that will be assessed on a pass/fail basis.

Teaching tools

Each module provides an introduction to the history and culture of the related period and on its main authors. Part of the lectures will be committed to reading and commenting on excerpts of Italian literary works (in English translation). Students will be invited to analyse, compare and discuss readings that will be assigned during lectures.

Office hours

See the website of Lara Michelacci