31356 - Hispano-American Literature 3

Learning outcomes

En acabando el curso el estudiante conoce de manera satisfactoria las problemáticas generales y aspectos particulares de la historia de la literatura. Es capaz de comprender y traducir textos en lengua original; ha adquirido los conocimientos teóricos de base, necesarios para emprender la interpretación crítica de sus contenidos y puede comentar y exponer textos según metodologías específicas, finalizadas al análisis del texto literario.

At the end of the course the student knows the general lines of the history of the literature, is able to read, to understand and to translate spanish-american texts and, at the same time, is able to use the methods and the analytical tools, to interpret the works of the principal authors, in relationship to the context of the culture and the historical period of reference.

Course contents

America: what a Nice Discovery! The Late-Eighteenth-Century Dispute about the America and Americans.

The Enlightenment philosophers, in their laudable eagerness to rationally and secularly define human society did not fail to occupy theyself of the New World. Moving away from the great lesson of Montaigne, they gave, for the most part, a bleak image of the America and of the Americans, called in some way to uphold the modern neo-colonialist thought. Especially Cornelius de Pauw, the author of the entry "Amérique" in the text which is the culmination of the Enlightenment thought, the Encyclopedie of Diderot and D'Alembert, he diffuse a catastrophic and defamatory vision of the new continent. Against this degrading depiction, he rose up Francisco Javier Clavijero, who answered the works of De Pauw and other Enlightenment thinkers of his time, with her "History of Ancient Mexico", which marks the birth of modern Latin American historiography.

What is proposed is a semiotic-cultural reading of work of Clavijero, which, it is hoped, it can be for the student a model of analysis usable in other contexts of study.

Readings/Bibliography

Sources

Clavijero, Francisco Javier

1780-1781 Storia antica del Messico, 4 voll., Cesena, Gregorio Biasini;

1987⁸ Historia antigua de Mexico; prólogo de Mariano Cuevas, México, Porrúa;

De Pauw, Cornelius

1768-1769 Recherches philosophique sur les Américains, 2 voll., Berlin, G. J. Decker;

Pernety, Antoine-Joseph

1769 Dissertation sur l'Amérique et les Américains, Berlin, G. J. Decker;

Studies

Batllori, Miguel

1966 La cultura hispano-italiana de los jesuitas expulsos: españoles-hispanoamericanos-filipinos, 1767-1814, Madrid, Gredos;

Gerbi, Antonello

2000 La disputa del Nuovo Mondo: storia di una polemica, 1750-1900, con un saggio di Antonio Melis, nuova ed. a cura di Sandro Gerbi, Milano, Adelphi [1° ed. Napoli, Ricciardi, 1945];

Landucci, Sergio

2014 I filosofi e i selvaggi, Torino, Einaudi, PBE [1a ed. Bari, Laterza, 1972];

Marchetti, Giovanni Gentile G.

1986 Cultura indígena e integración nacional: la "Historia antigua de México" de F. J. Clavijero, Veracruz [México], Universidad Veracruzana;

Moravia, Sergio

2000 Filosofia e scienze umane nell'età dei Lumi, Firenze, Sansoni, 2 ed. [1° ed. Firenze, Sansoni, 1982];

2000 La scienza dell'uomo nel Settecento, Bari, Laterza [1° ed. Bari, Laterza, 1970];

Lotman, Jurij M.

1975 "Il metalinguaggio delle descrizioni tipologiche della cultura", in Jurij M. Lotman - Boris A. Uspenskij, Tipologia della cultura, a cura di Remo Faccani e Marzio Marzaduri, Milano, Bompiani, , pp.145-182, [2a ed. riv. e corr., Tascabili] 2001];

1975 "Tesi sull'arte come sistema secondario di modellizzazione", in Jurij M. Lotman - Boris A. Uspenskij, Semiotica e cultura, saggio introduttivo e traduzione di Donatella Ferrari-Bravo, Milano-Napoli, R. Ricciardi, pp. 1-27;

Lotman, Jurij M. - Boris A. Uspenskij,

1975 "Sul meccanismo semiotico della cultura", in Jurij M. Lotman - Boris A. Uspenskij, Semiotica e cultura, saggio introduttivo e traduzione di Donatella Ferrari-Bravo, Milano-Napoli, R. Ricciardi, pp. 61-95 [si trova anche in Jurij M. Lotman - Boris A. Uspenskij, Tipologia della cultura, a cura di Remo Faccani e Marzio Marzaduri, Milano, Bompiani, 1975, pp.39-68 - 2a ed. riv. e corr., Tascabili, 2001];

Ronan, Charles E.

1977 Francisco Javier Clavijero, S. J. (1731-1787), Figure of the Mexican Enlightenment: his Life and Works, Roma - Chicago, Institutum Historicum S. I. – Loyola University Press;

Rossi, Pietro [a cura di]

1970 Il concetto di cultura: i fondamenti teorici della scienza antropologica, Torino, Einaudi Paperback;

Tesi sullo studio semiotico della cultura

1980 Tesi sullo studio semiotico della cultura, a cura di Maurizio Grande [Trad. di Antonella Summa], Parma, Pratiche;

The bibliography furnished above is to consider provisional. Ampler bibliographical indications - and also more selective - will be furnished during the course and after its conclusion.

 

Teaching methods

The course includes , in addition to classroom teaching, the study in depht, with seminar mode, of some issues related to the studied sources, as well as of the instruments, theoretical and methodological, most relevant for their study.

Assessment methods

Students must prepare an essay (thesis) of 20 sheets, on average, on the topics of the course. The methods of composition of this essay will be presented by the teacher when the lessons will be about to end.

The oral examination will consist of an interview that will focus on the deepening and extension of the content of the work presented.

From the way in which the student will illustrate the arguments made in his essay will evaluate the methodological and critical skills acquired; he will have to prove at the same time, to have reached an adequate knowledge of the texts and topics discussed during the course.

An essay coherently developed, well-written, not without a certain interpretative perspicacity, accompanied by an oral discussion that shows, in addition to the above skills, a sure grasp of the language and of the scientific metalanguage used will lead to an assessment of excellence; the lack of one or more of the mentioned qualities, will lead to assessments that will translate into marks very good, good, discrete or sufficient; the test shall be deemed below the pass mark when, in addition to the inadequacy, thematic and expressive, of the essay, also the interview will be equally disappointing, both from the point of view of the knowledge acquired, and from that of presentation skills.

An essay inconsistent, ill-developed, poorly or not at all relevant to the themes covered in the course, or manifestly the result of copying and pasting, will not allow to be admitted to the oral test.

Teaching tools

We will apply, mainly, to the projection of texts, images and videos, prepared to the computer, with the possible software employement for the textual analysis.

 

Office hours

See the website of Giovanni Gentile Marchetti