09435 - Literary Theory

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

The literary text: Instructions for use

The course is intented as an introduction to text analysis and to a variety of critical operations: reading, interpreting, commenting, translating etc. The main topic will be the evolution of the novel and narrative forms in the context of european modernism.

Period: Second semester (february-may 2019)

Timetable of lessons, classrooms etc: See School of Foreign Languages, Literature and Translation website

Readings/Bibliography

I. NOVELS

• Robert Musil, I turbamenti del giovane Törless (1906), Einaudi o Mondadori
• Marcel Proust, Combray, prima sezione di Dalla parte di Swann (1913), in Alla ricerca del tempo perduto, Mondadori, vol. I, pp. 1-227 (si raccomanda la lettura del testo in questa edizione, traduzione di Giovanni Raboni)
• James Joyce, Dedalus. Ritratto dell’artista da giovane (1916), Mondadori o Adelphi

• Italo Svevo, La coscienza di Zeno (1923), edizione consigliata in Italo Svevo, Romanzi e “continuazioni”, a cura di Nunzia Palmieri e Fabio Vittorini, “Meridiani” Mondadori
• Virginia Woolf, La signora Dalloway (1925), Feltrinelli
• Franz Kafka, Il castello (1926), Garzanti

II. CRITICAL TEXTS

1. Reference Work about Theory of Literature

• Federico Bertoni, Letteratura. Teorie, metodi, strumenti, Carocci

2. Texts about Modernism

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

Group A

• Erich Auerbach, Il calzerotto marrone, in Mimesis: Il realismo nella letteratura occidentale, Einaudi, volume II, pp. 305-338
• Giacomo Debenedetti, Joyce e Proust, in Il romanzo del Novecento, Garzanti, pp. 285-305
• Mario Lavagetto, Svevo e la crisi del romanzo europeo, in Letteratura italiana del Novecento. Bilancio di un secolo, a cura di A. Asor Rosa, Einaudi, pp. 245-67 (or Svevo nella terra degli orfani, in Lavorare con piccoli indizi, Bollati Boringhieri, pp. 277-298)

Group B

• Federico Bertoni, Il romanzo, in Il modernismo italiano, ed. Massimiliano Tortora, Carocci, pp. 8-26.
• Riccardo Castellana, Realismo modernista. Un’idea del romanzo italiano (1915-1925), “Italianistica”, vol. XXXIX, n. 1, 2010, pp. 23-45
• Remo Ceserani, Italy and Modernity: Peculiarities and Contradictions, in Luca Somigli e Mario Moroni (eds.), Italian Modernism. Italian Culture between Decadentism and Avant-Garde, University of Toronto Press, pp. 35-62
• Raffaele Donnarumma, Tracciato del modernismo italiano, in Romano Luperini e Massimiliano Tortora (eds.), Sul modernismo italiano, Liguori, p. 13-38
  
• David James, Modernist Narratives: Revisions and Rereading, in The Oxford Handbook of Modernisms, eds. Peter Brooker, Andrzej Gąsiorek, Deborah Longworth e Andrew Thacker, Oxford University Press
• Romano Luperini, Il modernismo italiano esiste, in Romano Luperini e Massimiliano Tortora (eds.), Sul modernismo italiano, Liguori, pp. 3-12
• Douglas Mao e Rebecca L. Walkowitz, The New Modernist Studies, “PMLA”, vol. CXXIII, n. 3, 2008, pp. 737-48 http://english.rutgers.edu/images/documents/faculty/walkowitz-ja-2008a.pdf )
• Donata Meneghelli, Quanto è modernista il “modernismo italiano”? Letteratura mondiale, storia letteraria, periodizzazione, in La letteratura italiana al tempo della globalizzazione, eds. Silvia Contarini, Margherita Marras, Giuliana Pias e Lucia Quaquarelli, “Narrativa”, nn. 35-36, 2013-14, pp. 77-91
• Luca Somigli, Dagli “uomini del 1914” alla “planetarietà”. Quadri per una storia del concetto di modernismo, «Allegoria», n. 63, 2011, pp. 7-29 (http://www.allegoriaonline.it/PDF/422.pdf )
• Susan Stanford Friedman, Definitional Excursions: The Meanings of Modern/Modernity/Modernism, in Disciplining Modernism, ed. Pamela Caughie, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 11-33
• David Trotter, The Modernist Novel, in The Cambridge Companion to Modernism, ed. di Michael Levenson, Cambridge University Press, pp. 69-98

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" on the right side of this page).

Links to further information

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

Office hours

See the website of Federico Bertoni