85121 - Contemporary Literary Cultures (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

This 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

Italian Narratives

The course aims to provide students with the most up-to-date methods of analysis of the literary text. In particular, it will focus on the reception of authors and works that have gained success through international circulation, and on the cultural impact of the images and models of “Italianness” that they promote.

Italian literary and audio-visual products circulate in various markets, spreading – at national and international levels – images and models (stereotypes and/or counter-stereotypes) of “Italianness”. Such images of Italy are tightly connected to the processes through which cultural products reiterate certain privileged aspects of Italian life: politics, crime, religious institutions, landscapes, cultural heritage, food, lifestyle, fashion, the entertainment industry, etc.

Readings/Bibliography

Roberto Saviano, Gomorra. Viaggio nell'impero economico e nel sogno di dominio della camorra, Mondadori, 2016 (2006)

Gomorra, regia di Matteo Garrone, 2008

Gomorra - La serie, stagione 1, 2014

Elena Ferrante, L'amica geniale, E/O, 2011

L'amica geniale, serie TV, 2018

Andrea Camilleri, L'altro capo del filo, Sellerio, 2016

L'altro capo del filo, regia di Alberto Sironi, 2019

 

Elgin K. Ekert, Andrea Camilleri: The Auctor as Public Intellectual, ITALICA, vol. 91, 4/2014, pp. 702-7013

T. De Rogatis, Elena Ferrante. Parole chiave, Roma, edizioni e/o, 2018, Introduzione e capitoli 2, 4, 6..

Giuliana Benvenuti, Il brand Gomorra, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2017.

Teaching methods

The lessons are, most of all, lectures held by the teacher. During the lessons, students will be encouraged to participate. Finally, students will be invited for some specific issues and for the presentation of some texts and authors.

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 tests 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.

Students who demonstrate gaps in their knowledge of the subject matter, inappropriate language use, lack of familiarity with the literature in the programme bibliography will not be given a pass mark.

Teaching tools

In addition to lectures, held by the teacher, audiovisual tools will bthe coursee used to support the teaching. Scholars will also be invited to bring a significant contribution to increase the issues upon which the course focuses.

Office hours

See the website of Giuliana Benvenuti