30125 - Comparative Literatures (LM)

Learning outcomes

Students must attain a high awareness of the specific nature of literary language both as a way through which the imaginary finds expression and as an instrument to interpret reality. Students must master interpretive tools and methodologies for text analysis. They are capable to explore and investigate literary forms and themes in a comparative perspective, with a special focus on the relationships between different national tradition and different cultural/historical contexts, as well as the relationships between literary texts and other semiotic systems of expression (music, cinema, performance, theatre and so on). Students attain the capacity for autonomous reflection and they are invited to formulate autonomous judgments on theoretical and methodological issues.

Course contents

TOPIC

The Sense of Things.

Commodities, consumerism, collecting, material and visual culture in the Nineteenth century novel

Readings/Bibliography

1. Literary texts

► Honoré de Balzac, Illusions perdues

► Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary

► Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady

2. Critical texts

A. Books

Francesco Orlando, Gli oggetti desueti nelle immagini della letteratura, Torino, Einaudi, nuova edizione riveduta e ampliata (only chaptersi I-II-II-IV, pp. 1-242)

► Students must choose one of the following books:

- Bill Brown, A Sense of Things. The Object Matter of American Literature, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press.

- Remo Bodei, La vita delle cose, Laterza

- Massimo Fusillo, Feticci, Bologna, il Mulino

B. Essays

Walter Benjamin, “L’opera d’arte nell’epoca della sua riproducibilità tecnica”, in Id., L’opera d’arte nell’epoca della sua riproducibilità tecnica, Torino, Einaudi

► Franco Moretti, “La prosa del mondo”, in Id., Il romanzo di formazione, Torino, Einaudi, pp. 142-200.

► Jacques Rancière, “La condanna a morte di Emma Bovary. Letteratura, democrazia e medicina, in Id., Politica della letteratura, Palermo, Sellerio, pp. 55-76

►Erich Auerbach, “All’Hôtel de La Mole”, in Id., Mimesis. Il realismo nella letteratura occidentale, Torino, Einaudi, pp. 220-268.

Assessment methods

The assessment methods will be an oral exam. Students who prefer a written examination (writing a paper), are invited to contact prof. Meneghelli at the beginning of the course.

Office hours

See the website of Donata Meneghelli