90841 - Contemporary Italian Literature

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student is expected to acquire knowledge and skills in the field of contemporary Italian literature from the origin of modernity up to the present, with particular reference to the themes of fashion, dress, body, beauty and lifestyles; knows significant texts for the interweaving of literature and fashion not only in the Italian scene, but also in Europe and America; is able to critically interpret the most representative works of contemporary imagery between literature and fashion also in an interdisciplinary perspective.

Course contents

Tales of Clothing: Fashion, Body, and Identity in Contemporary Literature

 This course aims to explore the relationship between fashion and literary modernity by offering a non-traditional re-reading of central contemporary writers alongside lesser-known female authors. The thematic focus will include beauty, clothing, adornment, seduction, triumph of the artificial, gender, sexuality, evolution of femininity,  crisis of the self, youth revolution, and the dressed, revealed, or disguised body. Special attention will be devoted to the figures of the dandy and the femme fatale, set against the backdrop of the modern metropolis, which in the Nineteenth century became the stage for fashion and its rituals. These characters will be reinterpreted as mirrors of a new era marked by radical transformations in sensibility, self-perception, and conceptions of gender. The course will examine texts and phenomena central to the imaginary of modernity, with the objective of uncovering the symbolic significance of clothing in the novel. The analysis will adopt an interdisciplinary approach, intersecting literature with fashion studies, aesthetics, art, psychology, sociology, anthropology, cinema, science, and technology. The syllabus will span from the culture of Aestheticism and the Belle Époque, through the Futurist avant-garde, the novel of crisis, and the question of women, to the youth revolution of the 1960s. In doing so, the course seeks to reveal the far-from-frivolous dimensions of fashion writing, situated between lightness and gravity, appearance and essence.

Readings/Bibliography

- C. Baudelaire, Il pittore della vita moderna, chapters I, III, IV, IX, X, XI, XII

- G. d'Annunzio, Il piacere

- A. Vivanti, Circe

- A. Moravia, Gli indifferenti

- P.P Pasolini, Teorema (novel)

- D. Baroncini, La moda nella letteratura contemporanea, Milano, Bruno Mondadori, 2010

- D. Baroncini, Moda, metropoli e modernità letteraria, in Moda, metropoli e modernità, a cura di D. Baroncini, Milano, Mimesis, 2018

 

 

 

 

 

Teaching methods

Frontal lectures

The course will be delivered through traditional in-person lectures

It will emphasize interdisciplinary connections and intersections between the analysis of the selected literary texts and the broader cultural context to which they belong

Please note: Attendance is not mandatory but is strongly recommended, as it significantly supports the learning process—particularly in refining study methods and enhancing the ability to contextualize and critically analyze literary texts in relation to fashion and in dialogue with diverse fields of knowledge

 

 

Assessment methods

Written test. The test will be available after enrolling on AlmaEsami and will take place at the Campus Labs. It consists of a multiple choice test on the texts as listed in the exam program. The test lasts 15 minutes and consists of 21 closed-ended questions, each question has 3/4 alternative answers of which only one is correct. Each correct answer is worth 1 point. The total is 31 points (“30 e lode” - full grade with honours). The exam is deemed to be passed successfully if the final grade is equal to or higher than 18/30.

The aim of the test is to verify the knowledge of the topics and themes of the works as listed in the “Texts / Bibliography” section, that is how literature and fashion interact to inform each other in Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries. The candidate is required to demonstrate the ability to interpret and contextualize such texts and themes set in the background of literary modernity.

Those students who are about to graduate are strongly advised not to take the test in the last available exam date before the graduation session, but in a previous one. In no case will extraordinary sessions be added. In no case will oral exams be carried out.

On the day of the exam, you must show up 10 minutes before your allotted shift with your badge and your valid institutional credentials. For insurance reasons, the computer lab system does not recognize the credentials of those who are not up to date with the payment of their tuition fees. Please make sure that you have paid your tuition fees in order to access the test.

Students with learning disorders and\or temporary or permanent disabilities: please, contact the office responsible (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students) as soon as possible so that they can propose acceptable adjustments. The request for adaptation must be submitted in advance (15 days before the exam date) to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of the adjustments, taking into account the teaching objectives.

Teaching tools

Use of power point presentations

Projection of images, paintings and videos

 

Office hours

See the website of Daniela Baroncini