30931 - Italian Literature 1 (GR. C)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student is expected to have a deep knowledge on diachronical aspects of the Italian literary tradition, knows the critical discussion on the keys issues about texts and authors and is able to use the main tools of the methodological analysis of texts and contexts. Students must demonstrate competence in written form

Course contents

Superstition, supernatural, anomaly. Paths in Italian literature

The course is dedicated to the study of anomaly, superstition and the supernatural in Italian literature. Texts from Italian literature sampled from different centuries will be analized, paying particular attention to the nineteenth century. The first part of the course will discuss modern literature with specific focus on works listed in the bibliography. The second part of the course will be centered around the reading and analysis of selected texts by Dante, Boccaccio, Ariosto and Basile. The course includes the study of the central themes of the course in several literary genres.

Readings/Bibliography

Recommended readings:

Readings: A. Boito, L’Alfiere nero; Il Trapezio; Iberia, ed. by di A. Seppilli, Bologna, Cappelli, 1979; L. Capuana, Profumo, Milano, Mondadori, 1996; L. Capuana, Novelle del mondo occulto, ed. by A. Cedola, Bologna, Pendragon, 2007; A. Manzoni, Storia della colonna infame, adited by L. Weber, Pisa, ETS, 2009 or edited by S.S. Nigro, Torino, Einaudi, 2012; A. Fogazzaro, Malombra, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2011; L. Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, (canti XXIII-XXIV; XXXIV); G. Basile, Lo cunto de li cunti, a cura di M. Rak, Milano, Garzanti, 1998 (I, 5 I, 9; I, 10); S. Vassalli, La chimera, Torino, Einaudi, 1990; G. Boccaccio, Decameron, edited by V. Branca, Milano Mondadori, 1985 (I, 1; II, 1, 2; VI, 10; VII, 1; VIII, 3, 6; IX, 3, 5, 10); Dante, Inferno (canti V, X, XIII, XV, XIX, XXVI, XXVII)..

Critical bibliography:

S. Lazzarin, L’altro, l’esotico e il perturbante nell’ “Alfier nero” (1867) di Arrigo Boito, «Italianistica», XXXVI, 1 2, 2007, pp. 83-96.

L. Michelacci, Il microscopio e l’allucinazione. Luigi Capuana fra letteratura, scienza e anomalia, Bologna, Pendragon, 2015.

V. Giannetti, Capuana e lo spiritismo: l’anticamera della scrittura, «Lettere Italiane», XLVIII, 2, 1996, pp. 268-285.

E. Landoni, Il doppio fondo delle parole Il doppio fondo delle parole. Dall’occultismo al mistero in “Malombra” di Fogazzaro, «Rivista di letteratura italiana», XXII, 2, 2004, pp. 1-17.

A. Fabrizi, Intorno alla Colonna infame in Manzoni storico e altri saggi sette-ottocenteschi, Firenze, Società editrice fiorentina, 2004, pp. 37-52.

A. Cedola, Capuana e l’Altro in Il visionario, il fantastico, il meraviglioso tra Otto e Novecento, edited by L. Weber e A.M. Mangini, Allori, Ravenna, 2006, pp. 135-161.

F. Orlando, Il soprannaturale letterario: storia, logica e forme, Torino, Einaudi, 2017.

La chimera: storia e fortuna del romanzo di Sebastiano Vassalli, a cura di R. Cicala e G. Telesio, Novara, Interlinea, 2003, pp. 11-49.

P. Guaragnella, La malinconia e un sistema narrativo antifrastico. Osservazioni su “Lo cunto de li cunti” di Giambattista Basile, «Le forme e la storia», 2, 2013, pp. 137-148.

Giovanbattista Basile e l’invenzione della fiaba, a cura di M. Picone e A. Messerli, Ravenna, Longo, 2004 (only the essays by di M. Rak and M. Picone).

F. Bausi, Leggere il Decameron, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2017.

 

Teaching methods

The course will be divided in frontal lessons and laboratories on the texts.

Assessment methods

The evaluation of the students' competencies and abilities acquired during the course consists of two phases:
a written test leading up to and preparatory to the specific subjects contained in the course programme, and an oral test aimed at ascertaining a general knowledge of all the subjects covered during the course.
The written test responds to criteria relating to orthography, morphology, syntax and semantics, clarity of expression, the ability to summarize.
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. Access to the oral test depends on having passed the written test. The final mark is not a mathematical average of the two tests.

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

Audio and video aids may be used in support of lectures.

Office hours

See the website of Lara Michelacci