02609 - Contemporary Italian Literature (O-Z)

Learning outcomes

The 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 literary works through many examples of comparative analysis and practice on different methods.

Course contents

Main topic:

From Literature to History. Mask and literary consciousness in Italian literature between the 19th and 20th centuries

 

Through the examination of Italian literary works of the last two centuries, the course will assume the notion of literary character as an utterance of a specific point of view on the world. Attributes and functions of the character of a particular literary work (as well as the perceptual, linguistic, behavioral and cultural codes of which it is the expression) will be related to the cultural codes, the evaluation criteria and the ideological systems embodied by other characters of the the same or another work, in order to represent the literary "system" as a place of conflicts, crossed by colliding tensions and unresolved contradictions.

We will then compare the practice of "disguise" performed by the authors of the early twentieth century - as the «camaleontico» Andrea Sperelli (d'Annunzio), the «coso con due gambe / detto guidogozzano», the «inetto» Zeno Cosini (Svevo), the «girovago» (Ungaretti) - with the practice of the "unveiling" caused by the eruption of History in literary consciousness, from the «primavera hitleriana» (Montale) to the Shoah (Levi, Rosselli), from the explosion of the atomic bomb and the destruction of the ecosystem (Zanzotto), to the economic boom and the advent of mass media (Porta, Sanguineti).

Readings/Bibliography

 Literary texts

1) Students will fully read the following novels:

• Gabriele d’Annunzio, Il Piacere, a cura di F. Roncoroni, Milano, Mondadori, 2008 (or other annotated edition).
• Italo Svevo, La coscienza di Zeno, a cura di C. Benussi, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2014 (or other annotated edition).
• Primo Levi, Se questo è un uomo, Torino, Einaudi, 2005.

 

2) The texts of the poems to be prepared for the exam (pdf) will be available on the "Teaching Material" platform. Below are listed only the books from which the texts will be chosen.

• Gabriele d’Annunzio, Alcyone, Milano, Oscar Mondadori, 1995.
• Guido Gozzano, La signorina Felicita ovvero La Felicità, in ID., Poesie e prose, introduzione di P.P. Pasolini, a cura di L. Lenzini, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2011.
• Giuseppe Ungaretti, Il Porto Sepolto, in N. Lorenzini-S. Colangelo, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Firenze, Le Monnier, 2012.
• Eugenio Montale, Ossi di seppia, a cura di P. Cataldi e F. d’Amely, Milano, Mondadori, 2016; ID., Le occasioni, a cura di T. De Rogatis, Milano, Mondadori, 2011; ID., La bufera e altro, a cura di I. Campeggiani e N. Scaffai, Milano, Mondadori, 2019.
• Andrea Zanzotto, Tutte le poesie, a cura di S. Dal Bianco, Milano, Mondadori, 2011.
• Edoardo Sanguineti, Laborintus, in E. Risso (a cura di), Laborintus di Edoardo Sanguineti, Lecce, Manni, 2006.
• Antonio Porta, Tutte le poesie (1956-1989), a cura di N. Lorenzini, Garzanti, Milano, 2009.
• Amelia Rosselli,Variazioni Belliche, in A. Rosselli, L’opera poetica, a cura di S. Giovannuzzi, con la collaborazione di F. Carbognin, C. Carpita, S. De March, G. Palli Baroni, E. Tandello, Milano, Mondadori, “I Meridiani”, 2012, pp. 3-189.

Recommended reading

The texts marked with an asterisk will be avaliable on the "Teaching Material" platform at the beginning of the course. 

• G. Guglielmi, Interpretazione di Ungaretti, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1989 (selezione) (*).
• F. Carbognin, Svevo e Saba tra Trieste e la Mitteleuropa, in N. Bonazzi, A. Campana, F. Giunta, N. Maldina [a cura di], Itinerari nella letteratura italiana. Da Dante al web, Roma, Carocci, 2013, Cap. XXIX, pp. 357-366 (l'ultimo paragrafo, su Saba, è opzionale) (*).
• G. Guglielmi, La vita originale di Zeno, in ID., La prosa italiana del Novecento. Umorismo Metafisica Grottesco, Torino, Einaudi, 1986, pp. 30-55 (*).
• E. Testa, Montale, Torino, Einaudi Tascabili, 2000, pp. 1-77 (*).
• M. Barenghi, Perché crediamo a Primo Levi?, Torino, Einaudi, 2013 (edizione bilingue), pp. 3-79.
• F. Carbognin, Linguaggio (1956 – 1969), in N. Lorenzini – S. Colangelo [a cura di], Poesia e Storia, Milano, Bruno Mondadori, 2013, pp. 195-239 (*).
• N. Lorenzini, Postfazione, in A. Porta, Poesie 1956-1988, Milano, Mondadori, 1989, pp. 179-195 (*).
• Le voci Andrea Zanzotto, Amelia Rosselli e Edoardo Sanguineti, in E. Testa (a cura di), Dopo la lirica. Poeti italiani 1960-2000, Torino, Einaudi, 2005.

 

 

Additional Resources, with an alternative program for International Students, will be available on on the "Teaching Material" platform at the beginning of the course.

 

Students who are not going to attend our classes are requested to acquire a basic knowledge of 20th Century Italian Literature. Suggest reading: A. Casadei, Storia della letteratura italiana. Vol. 6: Il Novecento, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2014.

Teaching methods

Classes with a strong interaction between students and teacher. 

 

Classes begin on Monday, 1 February 2021, and go further with the following schedule:

Monday, 11.00 - 13.00
Aula C, via Centotrecento 18.

Tuesday, 11.00 - 13.00
Aula C, via Centotrecento 18.

Wednesday, 11.00  - 13.00
Aula C, via Centotrecento 18.

Assessment methods

The final exam consists of 1) a written test (5-10 pages paper about one of the topics of the course, previuosly approved by the teacher) and 2) an oral appointment, which aims to verify some methodological, personally developed skills. It lasts approx. 15 minutes. Students must sign up at the AlmaEsami web site (https://almaesami.unibo.it).

A positive or excellent score (27 to 30/30, with possible distinction) corresponds to a full mastering of technical, theoretical, historical and terminological resources of Twentieth Century and Contemporary Italian literature, and to a proved ability to make connections among single aspects of the course contents, and to show awareness of textual features with 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 just mechanically their ability in interpretation; a pass or low score (18 to 22/30) to students with severe lacks in one or more topics or exercises, or not enough accurate while they use or quote notions and samples. A negative score is to be assigned to students who are not able to recall general notions in a sample of text and/or in general.

Teaching tools

Audio-visual resources.

Office hours

See the website of Francesco Carbognin