Learning objectives
The course aims to bring students into contact with topics that are concrete and current subjects of study for the lecturers, putting them directly in touch with methods and problems of research and critical work. Attending students are asked to prepare an oral presentation and to produce a short essay on an original argument, which is related to the theme of the course and to the specific interests of the pupil.
Prerequisites
The following are mandatory prerequisites:
1. Good knowledge of the main lines of development of literature in Italy from the Middle Ages to the early twentieth century;
2. Knowledge of the main metric forms and the most common rhetoric figures;
3. Sufficient ability to produce written discursive texts.
Course unit content
In spite of the image spread by the romantic criticism, Italian culture in XVIII century was open to a new relationship with the classical tradition and, in the same time, very receptive towards the artistic experiences matured in modern Europe. The course aims to analyze some works considered of main interest under this aspect, because of the perspective assumed by their authors, who approach to some ‘new classics' crossing translation, falsification and rewriting.
Full programme
See: 'Testi di riferimento'.
Bibliography
For an overall outline of the subject, see:
1) M. MARI, Momenti della traduzione fra Settecento e Ottocento, Milano, 1994.
2) TradUzioni letterarie e rinnovamento del gusto: dal Neoclassicismo al primo Romanticismo, a c. di G. Coluccia e B. Stasi, Galatina, 2006.
3) Traduzioni e traduttori del Neoclassicismo, a c. di G. Cantarutti e S. Ferrari, Milano, 2010.
The works presented and discussed during the course belong to the literary production of Antonio Conti, Melchiorre Cesarotti, Vincenzo Monti, Ugo Foscolo, Giacomo Leopardi.
Based on this reference bibliography, the subjects to be further explored will be identified during the course, and each student will then have a specific bibliography proposed to them.
Students who cannot attend regularly to the course can get ready to the examination through a deepened reading of the following texts and critical contributions:
TEXTS:
1) A. CONTI, Il riccio rapito, in Idem, Versioni poetiche, a c. di G. Gronda, Bari, Laterza, 1966, pp. 29-76;
2) M. CESAROTTI, Le poesie di Ossian, a c. di E. Mattioda, Roma, Salerno, 2000;
3) V. MONTI, Iliade di Omero, ed. Bruni (Salerno) or Romano (Mursia);
4) L. STERNE-U. FOSCOLO, Viaggio sentimentale di Yorick lungo la Francia e l’Italia, in a good pocket ed.
CRITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS:
1) M. PALUMBO, Jacopo Ortis, Didimo Chierico e gli avvertimenti di Foscolo “al lettore”, in Effetto Sterne. La narrazione umoristica in Italia da Foscolo a Pirandello, Pisa, 1990, pp. 60-89;
2) T. MATARRESE, La traduzione come poesia: sull’Iliade” di Vincenzo Monti, in Vincenzo Monti nella cultura italiana, vol. I, parte II, Milano, 2005, pp. 609-628;
3) C.E. ROGGIA, Pensare per analogie: similitudine e metafora nell'"Ossian" di Macpherson-Cesarotti, in «Stilistica e metrica italiana», 2007, pp. 233-282;
4) F. FEDI, La traduzione e la circolazione del “Rape of the Lock”, in Antonio Conti: uno scienziato nella République des Lettres, a c. di G. Baldassarri - S. Contarini - F. Fedi, Padova, 2009, pp. 167-188.
Teaching methods
The course will be structured in two phases, through
(1) Introductory lectures
(2) Presentation and discussion of the students' seminar work
Assessment methods and criteria
For attending students: preparation of an oral presentation and, subsequently, of a written work. Non-attending students: oral examination.
The assessment of written works produces by the students will take into account various parameters:
(1) The correct and efficient use of the bibliography provided
(2) The originality of the individual contribution to the bibliographic and thematic research
(3) Coherence of the argument
(4) Accuracy and efficacy in the presentation or in the written text.
