29001 - Twentieth-Century Prose and Narrative Genres (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students come to a critical awareness of the genres and styles that characterize twentieth-century fiction. They get also acquainted with the major movements, schools and essential aesthetics of storytelling.

Course contents

Main subject: Maude, Peggy, Nadja, and the Others. Women Who Write the 20th Century.

This course lasts 60 hours, and amounts to 12 credits. For Erasmus+ and Overseas exchange students, as well as for other students interested in taking this class for 6 credits, the final examination will consist, alternatively:

a. on the presentation and oral discussion of a short paper (25-30000 bytes) composed upon a specific subject-matter related to those treated throughout the course; this subject-matter, together with the related bibliographical references, should be decided with a teacher's help;

b. on the oral discussion upon three units chosen among the six units that compose the whole course.

The aim of the course is to investigate the narrative production of some groundbreaking 20th Century women writers, who have to be considered particularly relevant, not only for the Italian literary context. Narrating the female condition constitutes, for these authors and for their legacy, a process of liberation and unveiling, not quite fully understood by academic criticism, but on its way to reframe the modern and contemporary Italian literary canon from its grounds.

This course assumes a good knowledge of 20th-Century Italian literature, acquired throughout the BA curriculum.

Lectures start on Monday, 1st Feb., 2021, and go further with the following schedule till 3rd Mar., 2021:

Monday, 3-5 pm, Room II, Via Zamboni 38;

Tuesday, 3-5 pm, Room C, Via Centotrecento 18;

Wednesday, 5-7 pm, Room IV, Via Zamboni 38.

From 23rd March, 2021 to 7th May, 2021, classes will be scheduled as follows:

Tuesday, 5-7 pm, Tibiletti Room, Via Zamboni 38;

Thursday, 5-7 pm, Room C, Via Centotrecento 18;

Friday, 5-7 pm, Room C, Via Centotrecento 18.

In accordance with the University directives for the prevention of Coronavirus infection, the first three lessons will take place only remotely on the Teams platform. From 8th February onwards, lectures will take place in mixed mode, with the possibility for students to book their presence in the classroom through the "Presente" app.

All lectures will be recorded, and will be available to students enrolled in the course on the "Virtuale" platform. On this platform will also be available the study materials related to the program, as well as the excerpts from texts that will be read throughout the course.

Readings/Bibliography

During the lectures, a set of texts will be selected and discussed, including these sources:

1. Paola Masino, Nascita e morte della massaia [1945], Milan: Feltrinelli, 2018;

2. Alba de Céspedes, Quaderno proibito [1952], in Romanzi, ed. and with a foreword by Marina Zancan, Milan: Mondadori, 2011;

3. Alice Ceresa, La figlia prodiga [1967], in La figlia prodiga e altre storie, Milan: La Tartaruga, 2004, and Piccolo dizionario dell'inuguaglianza femminile [posth.], ed. by Tatiana Crivelli, afterword by Jacqueline Risset, Rome: Nottetempo, 2007;

4. Fausta Cialente, Le quattro ragazze Wieselberger [1976], foreword by Melania G. Mazzucco, Milan: La Tartaruga, 2018;

5. Fabrizia Ramondino, Althénopis [1981], foreword by Silvio Perrella, Turin: Einaudi, 2016;

6. Anna Maria Ortese, Il cardillo addolorato [1993], Milan: Adelphi, 1997.

The critical reading of the texts will be accompanied by an interpretative path, through the study of some volumes and articles (being updated), available on the "Virtual" platform:

- Giacomo Debenedetti, Il romanzo del Novecento, Milan: Garzanti, 1998 [even in different issues or reprints; the part La nascita del romanzo, and the chapters I-IX, from La nostra data di partenza to Alcuni aspetti del romanzo].

Students who are not going to attend the class will be requested to read the following book:

Thomas G. Pavel, Le vite del romanzo. Una storia, Milan: Mimesis, 2015 [primarily pp. 11 to 42 and 363 to 406 (this reading available even in English: The Lives of the Novel, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013].

The course will be accompanied, starting from March 29, 2021, by a remote seminar, held on the Teams platform, held by Dr. Luca Mozzachiodi, and dedicated to the study of the transformation of the Italian cultural and social context from the Second World War to the contemporary age. The seminar will host professors and scholars from Italian and foreign universities, with a calendar of appointments being defined, from 29th March to 3rd May, 2021.

The attendance of the seminar, and the preparation of a final paper of about 10,000 characters on a topic agreed with the curator and the teacher of the course, give the right to the acquisition of 2 credits, and therefore exempt from reading one of the sections provided in the course.

The seminar calendar, as any other information, will be provided to students enrolled in the course on the "Virtuale" website.

Teaching methods

Traditional lectures with a strong interaction between students and teacher.

Assessment methods

For the 6 credits option see above, "Course contents".

For 12 credits, the final exam consists of an oral appointment, which aims to verify some methodological, personally developed skills. It focuses on the main theoretical matters approached throughout the class, and verifies the knowledge of the texts and essays that have been the subject of a common consideration throughout the class. Students could be invited to read and comment some samples using an original approach from a critically well-based point of view.

A positive or excellent score (27 to 30/30, even with distinction) corresponds to a full mastering of technical, theoretical, historical and typological sources, to the ability to make connections among single parts of the course contents, and to show awareness of textual features with an appropriate language; an average score (23 to 26/30) goes to students who reveal some lacks in one or more topics or analytical proofs, or are able to use barely mechanically their abilities; a pass or low score (18 to 22/30) to students with severe lacks in one or more topics or exercises, or with inaccuracies while using notions or approaching samples. A negative score is assigned to students who are not able to demonstrate any knowledge of the basic notions required.

Examination sessions take place monthly. No sessions in August. Please sign up at the AlmaEsami web site. The registration time ends two days before the oral examination.

Teaching tools

Excerpts from texts and criticism in digital scans.

Office hours

See the website of Stefano Colangelo