Learning objectives
Knowledge and understanding.
The course aims at strengthening the basic knowledge of literary study, opening the way for a specialized field, and promoting the development of original statements about the thematic net described throughout the course itself.
Applying knowledge and understanding.
The study of literary methods, the learning of the genre theories, and finally the comparative approach elicit the development of the capacity to understand and connect literary facts, in a profoundly interdisciplinary perspective.
Making judgements.
By the end of the course students ought to have acquired the capacity to carefully value the complexity of literary text, critically interpreting their structural elements, the morphological similarities and differences between them. They should also have acquired particular intepretive and comparative abilities about the historical and socio-cultural contexts to which those artistic documents belong.
Communication skills.
By the end of the course students should have conceived the capacity to describe literary texts on the basis of the genre theories and supranational literary study, developing a personal, reliable and consistent way of reading.
Learning skills.
The commitment shown in acquiring competences and learning should provide the students with a definite methodological competence as well as with skills aimed at consolidating their set of readings, their capacity to understand and schematize the dynamics of literary facts – all necessary skills in order to organize contents into the written form.
Prerequisites
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Course unit content
Title of the course: Forms to decode our present times: resurrections of Academic novel
Primarily seen as an expression of English language novel, the narration of academic world is deeply rooted in British late Eighteeenth Century. During the following century, it becomes a highly representative form of contemporary class relations, telling, in its own mechanisms (genre conflicts, authority vs personal feelings, rivalry, alienation in the working place.), of an entire global society. The texts, introduced by some reflections on both historic and theoretical context, will include a possible, albeit isolated, example in Italian literature, to encompass outstanding British, Canadian, South African, American, and, finally tying the knot, English testimonies to the above described genre.
Full programme
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Bibliography
Criticism
1. Beatrice Seligardi, Finzioni accademiche. Modi e forme del romanzo universitario, Cesati, 2018
Fictional texts
1. Giuseppe Pontiggia, Il giocatore invisibile (Oscar Mondadori)
2. David Lodge, Small World
3. Carol Shields, Mary Swann
4. J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace
5. Philip Roth, The Human Stain
No supplementary or alternative readings are required from non-attending students.
More didactic materials will be available online, on the platform 'Elly'.
Teaching methods
Frontal lessons. Seminars led by qualified scholars
Assessment methods and criteria
Oral exams. A satisfactory exam will demonstrate the capacity to connect and interpret in an accurate way forms and thematic as described throughout the course.
Evaluation: A fail is determined by the lack of an understanding of the minimum content of the course, the inability to express oneself adequately, by a lack of autonomous preparation, the inability to solve problems related to information retrieval and the decoding of complex texts, as well as an inability to make independent judgments. A pass (18-23/30) is determined by the student’s possession of the minimum, fundamental contents of the course, an adequate level of autonomous preparation and ability to solve problems related to information retrieval and the decoding of complex texts, as well as an acceptable level of ability in making independent judgments. Middle-range scores (24-27/30) are assigned to the student who produces evidence of a more than sufficient level (24-25/30) or good level (26-27/30) in the evaluation indicators listed above. Higher scores (from 28/30 to 30/30 cum laude) are awarded on the basis of the student’s demonstration of a very good or excellent level in the evaluation indicators listed above.
Other information
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