72464 - Metrics and Contemporary Verse Theory (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

Students are introduced to the basic skills of the analysis of poems (meter, rhythm, rhetorical and syntactic figures) from a synchronic as well as historical perspective. Students are also expected to practice these skills upon several texts and authors belonging to a number of traditions and languages.

Course contents

Main topic:

Rhythmic intertextuality in poetry.
Giovanni Pascoli’s Myricae and Gabriele d’Annunzio’s Alcyone in 20th Century Italian Poetry.

 

The course (30 hours) aims to:

1) elaborate a notion of ‘rhythm’ in poetry;

2) describe the changing of the function assumed in the 20th Century by the main rhythmic figures belonging to the legacy of Pascoli and D’Annunzio’s poetry (from Corrado Govoni to Aldo Palazzeschi, from Dino Campana to Giuseppe Ungaretti and Eugenio Montale, from Amelia Rosselli to Antonio Porta and Andrea Zanzotto).

This course amounts to 6 credits.

This course assumes a minimum of knowledge upon metrics and stylistics, acquired throughout the BA curriculum.

Classes begin on Monday, 27th March, 2017, and go further with the following schedule:

Monday, 2 pm - 4 pm, Aula Guglielmi, Via Zamboni 32;

Tuesday, 2 pm - 4 pm, Aula Guglielmi, Via Zamboni 32.

Wednesday, 2 pm - 4 pm, Aula Guglielmi, Via Zamboni 32;

Readings/Bibliography

1) Throughout the class, will be read and discussed the following Franco Fortini’s essays:

- Franco Fortini, Metrica e libertà (1957); Verso libero e metrica nuova(1958) e Su alcuni paradossi della metrica moderna(1958), in ID., Saggi ed epigrammi, a cura di L. Lenzini, Milano, Mondadori, 2003, pp. 783-817 (see Teaching Material).

The notion of ‘rhythm’ in poetry will be elaborated through the analysis of Giacomo Leopardi’s L’infinito. Recommended reading:

- L. Blasucci, Paragrafi sull'Infinito, in Leopardi e i segnali dell'infinito, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1985, pp. 97-122 (see Teaching Material).

 

2) Recommended Textbooks:

- Francesco Carbognin, Retorica e sintassi nella poesia del Novecento, Lecce, Manni, 2016 (in-press ed.), chapters I-III.

- Paolo Giovannetti - Gianfranca Lavezzi, La metrica italiana contemporanea, Carocci, Roma 2010 (pp. 11-41).

- N. Lorenzini – S. Colangelo [a cura di], Poesia e Storia, Milano, Bruno Mondadori, 2013 (chapter IV.: Linguaggio (1956 – 1969), pp. 195-239).

Throughout the class, several poems will be read and analyzed. At the end of the class, a detailed list of these poems will be provided, in order to be prepared towards the final oral exam (see Teaching Material). Students are also expected to prepare the poems, analyzed in class, of one of the following poets: Antonio Porta, Andrea Zanzotto, Amelia Rosselli (see Teaching Material).

Further explanations on these and other resources will be provided throughout the class. Copies will be partially made available to students on time with a view to the exam; any other information will appear on a dedicated mailing list.

Teaching methods

Classes with a strong interaction between students and teacher.

Assessment methods

The final oral exam is aimed at verifying in each student some methodological, personally developed skills, related to the main theoretical matters discussed throughout the class. The knowledge of the books and the articles listed in Bibliography is required: students could be also invited to read and comment some single poems or samples, of which they are expected to recognize and to describe metrics and main rhetorical-syntactic features.

A positive or excellent score (27 to 30/30, even with distinction) corresponds to a full mastering of technical, theoretical, historical and terminological resources of contemporary metrics, and to a strong ability to make connections among any single part of the course contents, and to correctly approach textual features with an appropriate language; an average score (23 to 26/30) goes to students who show some lacks in one or more topics or analytical exercises, or are able to use just mechanically the notions and resources of metrics; a pass or low score (18 to 22/30) to students who have severe lacks in one or more topics or exercises, or seem to be not accurate enough, every time they try to use the notions or approach the samples. A negative score is assigned to students who are absolutely not able to use the general notions of metrics, and who cannot recognize the features of prosody, metrics, rhythm and intonation even inb a single text sample, or cannot generally manage the technical language of metrics.

Teaching tools

Photocopied transcripts and electronic resources.

Office hours

See the website of Francesco Carbognin