30127 - Sociology of Literature (LM)

Course contents

Migrants between crimes and novels

 

This module explores how the issue of immigration has affected Italy's collective imagination. As evidenced by the mainstream media, the figure of the migrant has become associated with a stereotype which depicts immigrants as delinquents by associating the concepts of foreignness and criminality.

In contemporary Italian crime fiction, migrants have increasingly been depicted as victims of crimes and unfair accusation; however, as is often the case in the broader international literary scene, this depiction falls short of granting migrants a central role as detectives capable of restoring the social order. This prevents the possibility of a full recognition and integration of the migrant.

 

The module focuses on the structural analysis of the crime fiction genre, and analyses novels written either by Italian authors, or by foreign authors who, writing in Italian, have given birth to the so-called “literature of migration”.

 

Readings/Bibliography

The reading list will be available online in January 2015.

The programme and the bibliography are the same both for students who attend and for students who do not attend the lessons.

Teaching methods

FRONTAL LESSONS

Classes start in the second semester (february-march 2015).

Assessment methods

ORAL EXAMINATION

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.

 

Office hours

See the website of Fulvio Pezzarossa