02609 - Italian Contemporary Literature

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

The "italian noir"

The course analyses narratives, with specific reference to noir, from the '60 to nowadays. This analysis will show the relationship between the authors and literary tradition together with visual culture. Within this perspective, lessons will investigate diverse forms of interconnections between literature and the transnational imaginary represented by other media. 

Readings/Bibliography

The students will read the following books:

Carlo Emilio Gadda, Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana, Garzanti, 2013

Scerbanenco, Venere privata, Garzanti, 2001

Leonardo Sciascia, Todo modo, Adelphi, 2009

Carlo Lucarelli, Almost blue, Einaudi, 2007

Giancarlo De Cataldo, Romanzo criminale, Einaudi, 2002

Tommaso Pincio, Cinacittà, Einaudi, 2008

And the following critical essays:

E. Mondello, Crimini e misfatti. La narrativa noir italiana degli anni Duemila, Roma, G. Perrone, 2010

Daniele Giglioli, Senza trauma. Scrittura dell'estremo e narrativa del nuovo millennio, Quodlibet, 2011

Monica Jansen e Yasmina Khamal, Quale memoria per il noir italiano? e Raffaella Petrilli, La memoria in noir. Ricordo e anamnesi, in Monica Jansen (a cura di), Memoria in Noir. Un’indagine pluridisciplinare, Peter Lang, 2010

Teaching methods

Lessons, class discussion, active participation in class, videos, power points, movies.

Assessment methods

Assessment method is different for DAMS students and students who attend Lingue, Mercati e Culture dell'Asia and Lingue e Letterature Straniere

DAMS students

The written test consists - only for non-italian students - in a paper (8-10 pages) about one or more arguments of the course. The paper must be previuosly approved by the teacher and must be send with an e-mail atttachment at least 10 days before the oral test.

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.

Lingue, Mercati e Culture dell'Asia and Lingue e Letterature Straniere

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.

Teaching tools

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

Office hours

See the website of Giuliana Benvenuti