30127 - Sociology of Literature (LM)

Course contents

 

BORDERS, FRONTIERS, BOUNDARIES

Over the past two years, global mobility, usually allowing countless people to reach almost every corner of the world, has been challenged by an invisible yet ubiquitous virus capable of erecting barriers and forcing those same people to immobility and immaterial contacts. At the same time, Europe is now torn by a brutal war, waged in order to claim territories and set boundaries, occupying “national” spaces by threatening the lives of other people that are perceived as “inferior”.

Human societies, even the most sedentary and hierarchical ones, were and are built on a constant dialogue with movement, travel and migration, as well as on contacts with other people and places, all powerful engines that generate interchanges, innovation and new energies. In addition to material exchanges, the circulation of intellectual and artistic “assets” such as literature has always brought about communication and mutual acceptance.

Italian literature itself, for example, has greatly benefited from external influences from its very onset, while also playing a fundamental role in inspiring other cultures throughout the world. Today, the continuing literary production of Italian authors living outside the country is accompanied by the growing and always more successful works by migrant writers in Italy. This shows how traditional, national atlases have become archaic and are in urgent need of being updated and re-designed according to a new, intercultural reality.

Readings/Bibliography

 

 

Please see the reading list in Italian.

 

Students from foreign Universities can contact Professor Pezzarossa to define an ad hoc programme.

Teaching methods

Lectures in Italian.

The 30-hour course will take place in the 1st Semester starting from 11 November 2022.

 

Mondays  11-13 a.m.          Aula IV Lettere, Via Zamboni 38

Tuesdays 11-13 a.m.         Aula IV Lettere, Via Zamboni 38

Fridays     11-13 a.m.             Aula C    Via Centotrecento

 

 

Assessment methods

The evaluation of the students' competencies and abilities acquired during the course 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.

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

Video projector, overhead projector, videos, web resources.

Meetings with migrant writers and intellectuals.

Office hours

See the website of Fulvio Pezzarossa