02609 - Contemporary Italian Literature

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course the student has acquired a working knowledge of wide areas of twentieth-century literary history, with special emphasis on the relation between literature and historical, social, anthropological, and more broadly cultural phenomena. Study is assisted by secondary literature and face-to-face tuition and covers close reading of the text as well as problems of form, structure, composition, and reception.

Course contents

The course concentrated on the study of two moments of Italian literary history. The first one concerns the years of the Resistance and the survival of the archaic. The second one studies the period across the Sixties and the Seventies, with a focus on the economic boom and the end of a certain idea of culture and of the world

Readings/Bibliography

I  – The Fascism and the Resistance of the archaic

C. Levi, Paura della libertà [1946], intr. di G. Agamben, Vicenza, Neri Pozza 2018.

Id., Cristo si è fermato a Eboli [1945], Torino, Einaudi 2014.

C. Pavese, Feria d’agosto [1946], Torino, Einaudi 2020.

Id., La luna e i falò [1950], Torino, Einaudi 2020.

Essays:

1. W. Benjamim, Il narratore. Considerazioni sull’opera di Nikolaj Leskov, in Id., Angelus novus, Torino, Einaudi 2014, pp. 000-000.
2. R. Gasperina Geroni, Cesare Pavese controcorrente, Macerata, Quodlibet 2020.

For not-attendant students, one of the following essays:

G. De Donato, Saggio su Carlo Levi, De Donato, Bari 1974, capp. 1 e 2.

or

R. Gasperina Geroni, Il custode della soglia. Il sacro e le forme nell’opera di Carlo Levi, Milano/Udine, Mimesis 2018, pp. 21-138.

or

D. Ward, Carlo Levi: gli italiani e la paura della libertà, Firenze, La Nuova Italia 2002, capp. 1-3.

II  – Two models compared and the (possible) end of ideologies

P

.P. Pasolini, Poesia in forma di rosa [1964], Milano, Garzanti 2015.

Id., Teorema [1968].[film]

Id., Scritti corsari, Milano, Garzanti 2015:

• 7 gennaio 1973. Il «Discorso» dei capelli.
• 17 maggio 1973. Analisi linguistica di uno slogan.
• 9 dicembre 1973. Acculturazione e acculturazione.
• 10 giugno 1974. Studio sulla rivoluzione antropologica in Italia.
• 24 giugno 1974. Il vero fascismo e quindi il vero antifascismo.
• 8 luglio 1974. Limitatezza della storia e immensità del mondo contadino.

I. Calvino, Una pietra sopra. Discorsi di letteratura e società [1980], Milano, Mondadori 2017:

• Il midollo del leone, pp. 5-23.
• Il mare dell’oggettività, pp. 48-56.
• I beatniks e il «sistema», pp. 93-100.
• Cibernetica e fantasmi. (Appunti sulla narrativa come processo combinatorio), pp. 201-221.

Id., Se una notte d’inverno un viaggiatore [1979], Milano, Mondadori 2016.

Essays:

1. R. Ceserani, Raccontare il postmoderno, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri 1997.

For not-attendant students:

C. Benedetti, Pasolini contro Calvino, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri 1998.

Teaching methods

The course is based on the reading, the analysis and the discussion of the literary texts in biblioghaphy.

Assessment methods

Assessment consists of a viva voce examination aiming to assess the knowledge and critical skills acquired by the candidate during the course.

1. First-class marks will be awarded to candidates who demonstrate an ability to analyse texts in depth and to produce an organic overview of the topics covered in the course. Overall mark between 27 and 30 cum laude (high linguistic ability is required).

2. A mostly mnemonic knowledge of the subject, analytical skills lacking depth, and correct but not always apposite expression will result in a modest mark. Overall mark between 23 and 26.

3. Elementary knowledge, superficial understanding, poor analytical skills, and inapposite expression will lead to a pass or only slightly higher mark. Overall mark between 18 and 22.

4. Gaps in the candidate’s knowledge, inapposite language, and inadequate engagement with the secondary literature offered in the course will result in a fail mark.

Teaching tools

IOL

Office hours

See the website of Riccardo Gasperina Geroni