Learning objectives
Knowledge and understanding
The course will allow students to acquire knowledge on Renaissance literature, with particular attention to the history of culture and the interdisciplinary approach to the interpretation of literary texts.
Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
At the end of the course, students will be able to comment on the works presented in class in a timely and reasoned manner as well as to set up the analysis of literary texts starting from some key questions, both historical and theoretical, related to the Italian Renaissance.
Making judgments
At the end of the course, students will learn to discuss and evaluate adequately, with attention to the specific vocabulary and with independent judgment, the contents of the teaching and the works considered in class as well as to refine theoretical tools useful for the interpretation of literary texts. .
Communication skills
At the end of the course, students will achieve the ability to communicate in a clear and articulated way, correctly using the specific vocabulary of Renaissance poetics and textual analysis.
Learning skills
The theoretical commitment will give students a certain methodological mastery, an expansion of the repertoire of knowledge and a learning ability useful for acquiring the necessary tools for a professional career in teaching or for further specialized study of literature.
Prerequisites
Basic knowledge of general literature and Italian literature.
Course unit content
The Poem of a Life, the Life of a Poem: Torquato Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered
From the first try of “Il Gierusalemme” to the “Giudicio sovra la ‘Gerusalemme’ riformata” written shortly before his death, Tasso worked all his life not only on the poem, but also on the idea of the poem that readers would know under the title of “Gerusalemme Liberata” (Jerusalem Delivered), one of the classics of Italian and European literature. The course is aimed to offer an introduction to Tasso from the point of view of the theoretical reflections he dedicated to the narrative poem, a laboratory of concepts and of decisive style for understanding the poetics of the sixteenth century. This theoretical phase will be followed by the complete reading of the “Gerusalemme Liberata”, studied both as a text concluded in itself – the poem that readers would read and admire, which is the same version that inspired several poets, artists, and musicians across Europe – but also as a structure still in motion, capable of being open both to the modifications of an author who never ceased revising his text as well as to the ambiguities (and the fascination of ambiguity) that perhaps no variation could really eliminate.
Full programme
The detailed program in preparation of the exam will be posted by the end of classes on Elly 2023/2024 portal.
Bibliography
Both the syllabus and the bibliography will be presented during the first class and from that moment on made available in the Elly 2023/2024 portal, where students will also have access to further readings (both mandatory and optional) in PDF format.
Teaching methods
The course consists of lectures. Students are strongly encouraged to participate with questions and comments related to the topics covered in class.
Assessment methods and criteria
At the end of classes there will be an oral exam on all the contents of the program. The exam will start from a short essay of 6,000 characters (including spaces) which will make up 25% of the final evaluation and which must be submitted one week before the oral exam. The subject of the review will be one of the cantos of the "Gerusalemme Liberata" discussed during the course. It will be up to each student to choose the canto for their essay.
The exam is considered insufficient in the event that the minimum knowledge of the teaching contents, the ability to autonomously re-elaborate, the ability to understand and analyze the literary texts and essays proposed as well as an adequate expressive and argumentative capacity are lacking. A sufficient evaluation (18-23/30) is determined by the acquisition of the minimum contents of the lessons and by a basic level of autonomous re-elaboration (including the ability to establish simple links between the works analyzed in class), by the acquisition of a minimum ability of textual analysis and a not solid command of the Italian language. Similarly, the intermediate scores (24-27/30) are assigned to those who demonstrate a more than sufficient (24-25 / 30) or good (26-27/30) level of the evaluation indicators listed above, while the Higher scores (from 28/30 to 30/30 with honors) are assigned based on the demonstration of an excellent level. In particular, honors are assigned to students that reach the maximum score in the parameters indicated and that allow to detect, together with a solid autonomy of judgment, an excellent expressive and argumentative ability.
Other information
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