Learning objectives
The course aims to provide students with the skills and abilities
necessary to read the history of contemporary literature from a
perspective that does not only look at the author, but considers the
literary work as the result of an operation of mediation between the
literary system and editorial one. The theoretical reflections, the literary
and cultural insights, together with the witnesses of employees of the
publishing industry and with the analysis of the contemporary publishing
system, will contribute to facilitate a mature and aware insertion of the
students in the publishing world, and to implement the cultural
competence of those who aspire to pursue a career in journalism.
Prerequisites
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Course unit content
The course for students in Journalism and Cultural Publishing wants to illustrate how literature is not only a creative process carried out by the subjectivity of the author, and influenced by cultural trends. Literature is also a product that needs to find its collocation in an editorial space, to be part of a publishing house, a series, or a review, or in other forms such as the web.
In the first part of the course, we will analyse the passage from the written text of the author to the volume or published text: this is a fundamental step not to be taken for granted as the consolidation of the text and the meaning of the literary work. Infact, the publisher also takes part (at times) with suggestions and advice regarding how the work should be written.
The second part of the course, will investigate the relationship between literary creativity and publishing space available, analyzing how the authors’ creativity is influenced by the final publishing of where and by who it will be published. This concept will be faced by analyzing two examples: 1. After having summurised the most important aspects of the historical reviews of the first part of the twentieth century, reflections on how the birth of literary reviews influenced the development of the Short Stories. 2. Analyzing the contemporary context, an investigation on how the internet age has influenced a return to the Short-story, which has also had a repercussion on traditional publishing.
Full programme
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Bibliography
• The history of Contemporary Italian Literature (student’s choice)
• Alberto Cadioli, Giuliano Vigini, Storia dell’editoria italiana dall’Unità a oggi. Un profilo introduttivo, Milano, Editrice Bibliografica, 2012.
• Text books advised: will be introduced at the beginning of the course.
Teaching methods
Lectures, which will take place through class teaching, will develop
theoretical reasoning, accompanied by specific examples from
literary history. To make several examples clearer, we will make use of the
projection of cover images, and other paratextual elements. The final
part of the course involves the intervention of people who work in the
publishing world, who will provide a concrete image of the skills,
abilities and cultural resources required in a publishing house nowadays.
Assessment methods and criteria
The lectures are interspersed with open-ended questions for students, on
topics that we will be dealing with. The answers are not evaluated for the
final result, but have the purpose of verifying the understanding of the
topics. The final evaluation will be expressed in thirties and will take into
account the knowledge of contemporary Italian literature, and the oral
examination, which will focus on materials developed during the course
and in the bibliography.
Other information
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