92939 - Italian Culture (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the seminar students will have acquired awareness of specific dimensions of Italian culture. Students will be able to understand the relevance of research problems in a wide series of topic concerning Italian culture such as Italian Renaissance and the modern world, the birth of Italian Nation and landscapes studies. Students will evidence a sound theoretical framework within which specific research interests could be developed in an interdisciplinary perspective.

Course contents

Women in Italy between the Renaissance and the Post-Unification:

The course is designed to introduce students to the Italian literary culture of the 16^th and 19^th century. It aims at providing a wide historical background on the issue, together with the basic tools for reading, analysing and contextualizing Italian works of the Renaissance, the 19th and 20th century.

Lectures will be organized in two modules, and will focus on a diverse range of literary topics:

Module 1 Women, Female Characters and Gender between Renaissance and Post-Unification Italy

1) Women in the Renaissance 2) Angelica in Orlando furioso by Ludovico Ariosto. 3) Women and gender in post-Unification Italy: the case of Cristina Trivulzio di Belgiojoso . Each module will be complemented by critical insights on writers and focusing on excerpts from their main works, the course will address some issues concerning the history of the Italian culture.

Module 2 Women, History of Emotions, and Paratexts in Renaissance Italy

This module explores how early modern paratexts—such as dedicatory epistles, addresses to the reader, title pages, and errata—serve as a rich yet often overlooked source for understanding women's contributions to culture in Renaissance Italy. Focusing on Italian dedicatory epistles and addresses to the reader associated with female authorship from the late 16th to the 17th century, the course sheds light on the strategic ways in which women utilized these marginal textual spaces to express ideas that could not be articulated in the main body of the text or through other formal means.

The sessions, chaired by Lara Michelacci, will also be held by visiting professors.

 

Readings/Bibliography

Module 1

Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando furioso (The Frenzy of Orlando): a new verse translation; translated by David R. Slavitt, Cambridge, Mass.; London: Belknap, 2009 (canti I, XIX, XXIII-XXIV). The text is available online at the following link: https://epdf.pub/orlando-furioso-a-new-verse-translation.html

Romance and History. Imagining Time from Medieval to the Early Modern Period, edited by J. Whitman, Cambridge, University Press, 2015 (the following chapter by Riccardo Bruscagli, pp. 151-167; by Marco Praloran, pp. 168-183; by Daniel Javitch, pp. 187-199).

Women and gender in post-unification Italy : between private and public spheres, Katharine Mitchell and Helena Sanson (eds), Oxford [etc.], Peter Lang, 2013, pp. 39-65; pp. 111-133; pp. 135-152.

Module 2

1. The History of Emotions in the Italian Renaissance
2. Emotions and Privacy in Paratextual and Epistolary Sources
3. Querelle des Femmes from the Margins of the Book
4. Querelle des Femmes and Camilla Herculiana (based on the PARITY exhibition)
5. Querelle des Femmes and Moderata Fonte (based on the PARITY exhibition)

Bibliography on this part of the programme will be given at the beginning of the course and it will be uploaded on Virtuale.

Teaching methods

Lectures and seminars involving text analysis and class discussion. A/V tools will be used during the lectures

Assessment methods

Written exam that will be assessed on a pass/fail basis. Non attending students are required to do the same readings and to study the same course materials (on Virtuale) of attending students.

Students with SLD or temporary or permanent disabilities. It is necessary to contact the relevant University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en) with ample time in advance: the office will propose some adjustments, which must in any case be submitted 15 days in advance to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of these in relation to the teaching objectives.

Teaching tools

Each module provides an introduction to the history and culture of the related period and on its main authors. Part of the lectures will be committed to reading and commenting on excerpts of Italian literary works (in English translation). Students will be invited to analyse, compare and discuss readings that will be assigned during lectures.

Office hours

See the website of Lara Michelacci