Learning objectives
The aim of the course is to provide students with a toolbox of knowledge about authors and texts of the Italian literary canon.
Knowledge and ability to understand: to know (through a precise reading) the texts studied, to activate the progressive understanding of their discursive and rhetorical structure; to acquire the ability to situate these texts in the historical-cultural context that produced them, giving account of their macrotextual functioning and of the stylistic and problematic stratification underlying the strategies pursued by the author.
The course will, in general, allow students a thorough critical understanding of the problems of Italian Literature.
Ability to apply knowledge and understanding:
the study of Italian Literature will produce the understanding of historical phenomena and the evolution of the techniques of reading literary texts. This knowledge will give the ability to process documents in order to be able to navigate between the documentary collections and to draw up a bibliography.
Autonomy of judgment: At the end of the course, students, based on the analytical knowledge of both theoretical and historical plant, should have gained the ability to understand the problems of literary texts, and to learn the fundamental techniques of interpretation of literary texts.
Communication skills: at the end of the course, students should have the ability to communicate clearly and to use correctly the appropriate technical vocabulary related to the topics of the course.
Ability to learn: the theoretical and disciplinary commitment should give students some methodological mastery and knowledge tools useful for accessing professions related to literary culture with particular reference to editorial and teaching.
Prerequisites
None
Course unit content
The course is divided into two parts:
A) Institutional part.
It focuses on authors and issues related to the history of Italian literature in the period between the origins and the Nineteenth century.
B) It will investigate aspects of the dialectic rationality-pessimism in three fundamental authors (Francesco Guicciardini, Giacomo Leopardi, Beppe Fenoglio) within the Italian literary canon.
Full programme
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Bibliography
For the institutional part, the reference text is as follows:
1. "Antologia della letteratura italiana. Dalla scuola poetica siciliana a Alessandro Manzoni", (eds. Gabriele Baldassari and Guglielmo Barucci), Milan, Raffaello Cortina, 2022;
For the monographic part:
2. Francesco Guicciardini, "Ricordi", (ed. Carlo Varotti), Rome, Carocci, 2013 [alternatively: Francesco Guicciardini, Ricordi, (ed. Emilio Pasquini), Milan, Garzanti, 2003]
3. Giacomo Leopardi, "Pensieri",(ed. Ugo Dotti), Milan, Garzanti, 2005;
4. Beppe Fenoglio, "Il partigiano Johnny", (ed. Gabriele Pedullà), Turin, Einaudi, 2022
Teaching methods
Traditional lesson conducted in a heuristic-Socratic way. During the lessons, selected passages of the texts in the program will be examined, drawing observations from them in order to establish the cultural context, themes and problems, the rhetorical structure such as the stylistic peculiarities. Through the analysis and continuous exchange with the audience, students' critical and expressive skills and autonomy of judgment will be stressed.
In-depth seminars, focused on particular aspects of the course, will be held alongside the lessons, even with the counterpoint of scholars invited from other universities.
Assessment methods and criteria
Written and oral examination.
The institutional part of the course will be evaluated through a written test: passing the written test is precondition for access to the oral exam. it will be graded sufficient, discreet, good, excellent and will be considered in the final overall grade.
The written test (90 minutes) counts of three short open questions that - in a predefined space - require candidates to focus on historical-critical issues related to the scheduled authors. A fourth question will focus on the analysis of a specific text (with indication of author, title, compositional chronology, metric genre, scheme of rhymes, paraphrase and a brief historical-critical summary).
The monographic part consists of a critical discussion, focused on candidate's knowledge of the main issues involved in the three texts and authors scheduled this year (Guicciardini, Leopardi, Fenoglio).
Passing the written test is a necessary, but not intrinsically sufficient, precondition for passing the exam. In order to the oral exam, an insufficiency rating is determined by the lack of knowledge of the minimum course contents, as well as by the inability to express themselves adequately to the topic, the lack of independent preparation, the inability to solve problems related to the text comprehension, and also the inability to formulate judgments and to communicate contents in a reasoned, competent and convincing manner to both specialists and non-specialists. A sufficient evaluation (18-23 / 30) is determined by an acceptable level of performance, on the part of the student, of the evaluation indicators listed above; the average scores (24-27 / 30) are assigned to the student who proves to have a fair (24-25 / 30) or good (26-27 / 30) level of the evaluation indicators listed above; the highest scores (from 28/30 to 30/30 and honors) are awarded on the basis of the demonstration of an excellent level of the evaluation indicators listed above.
Other information
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