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LETTERATURA ITALIANA A - L

Academic Year 2025/2026 - Teacher: CARMELO TRAMONTANA

Expected Learning Outcomes

According to the Dublin descriptors, the learning objectives can be structured according to specific knowledge, skills, and abilities, gradually acquired during the course and confidently mastered by the student upon completion. The primary objective is a broad and solid understanding of the most important authors, works, and cultural processes of Italian literature between the 13th century and the late 16th century. This disciplinary knowledge, presented both historically and diachronically and formally and stylistically, in the latter case with particular reference to the essential characteristics of the literary genres/forms studied within the chronological span covered by the course (e.g., religious poetry, love poetry, laud, treatise, short story, poem, novel), is complemented by an understanding of the mechanisms underlying the transmission of literary forms, customs, stylistic features, and themes over time. In this case, knowledge of the historical tradition of Italian literature is also pursued with the aim of learning the fundamental elements of the discipline's research method (see Module A). By the end of the course, students will have acquired the ability to combine solid historical and cultural knowledge of Italian literature between the 13th and 16th centuries with increased independent judgment, historically and philologically grounded, regarding the literary works identified in the program as specific subjects of study. At the end of the course, students will be able to express the knowledge and skills acquired through communication skills, appropriately encouraged and developed in class, characterized by logical clarity, effective expression, and appropriate use of technical language.

Course Structure

Lectures

Attendance of Lessons

Attendance is not compulsory

Detailed Course Content

  1. A) Epistemological principles of Italian literature (2 ECTS) 

  1. B) Literary History from the Origins to Dante (3 ECTS) 

  1. C) Literary History from the Fourteenth Century (Petrarch and Boccaccio) to Humanism (4 ECTS) 

  1. D) Literary History from the Renaissance to the Controriforma (3 ECTS)

Textbook Information

Module A) (2 ECTS): Epistemological Foundations of the Discipline (Historiography, Textual Analysis, Elements of Metrics and Rhetoric) 

Texts 

  • E. Auerbach, Filologia della Weltliteratur, in Id., Letteratura mondiale e metodo, Milano, Nottetempo, 2022, pp. 4-64; 

  • A. Manganaro, Sull'insegnamento della letteratura oggi: cinque punti di riflessione, in Le risorse della letteratura per la scuola democratica, edited by S. Giusti and N. Tonelli, Torino, Loescher, 2024,  pp. 181-189; 

  • C. Segre, Avviamento all’analisi del testo letterario, Torino, Einaudi, 1999 (only chapters Generi, pp. 230-256 and Poetica, pp. 274-297); 

  • P. Beltrami, Gli strumenti della poesia, Bologna, il Mulino, 1996, pp. 61-141; 

  • B. Mortara Garavelli, Il parlar figurato. Manualetto di figure retoriche, Roma-Bari, Laterza, pp. 7-54; 

 

Modulo B) (3 ECTS): Literary History from the Origins to Dante 

Texts 

  • Dante, Vita Nova (complete reading) – recommended ed. by  S. Carrai, Milano, Rizzoli, 2009; 

  • Dante, Commedia (reading and study of the following cantos: Inferno, I, V, X, XVI; Purgatorio, I, II, III, XXX; Paradiso, I, III, XI, XXXIII) - recommended ed. by di A.M. Chiavacci Leonardi, Mondadori, 1994 

  • C. Tramontana, Un esperimento didattico. Tre parole per Dante: esilio, desiderio, destino, in Italianistica Debreceniensis, XXVIII, 2022, pp. 8-16; 

  • C. Tramontana, Autore in cerca di personaggi: polittico dantesco, in Id., Vite immaginate. Capitoli per una storia del personaggio-uomo, Lentini, Duetredue, 2021 new ed., pp. 43-68; 

  • Anthologies of readings by Francesco, Giacomo da Lentini, Cavalcanti, and Guinizzelli (the list will be provided in class and the texts will be made available on studium) 

 

Modulo C) (4 CFU): Literary History from the Fourteenth Century (Petrarch and Boccaccio) to Humanism 

Texts 

  • Petrarca, Canzoniere (reading and study of the following poems: 1, 3, 5, 16, 35, 61, 77, 90, 126, 129, 189, 259, 265, 272, 366 – recommended editions: L. Chines, Francesco Petrarca, Bologna, Patron, 2016 (with anthology of texts); F. Petrarca, Canzoniere, edited by S. Stroppa, Turin, Einaudi, 2011; 

  • G. Boccaccio, Decameron (reading and study of the following parts/short stories: Proemio, Introduzione alla Prima Giornata, I 1, I 3, I 10, II 5, III 1, III 2, IV 1, IV 2, IV 5, IV 7, V 8,  V 9, VI 1, VI 4, VI 9, VI 10, X 9, X 10, Conclusione dell’autore) recommended edd. by M. Veglia, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2020 or by G. Alfano-M. Fiorilla-A. Quondam, Milano, Rizzoli, 2013; 

  • N. Tonelli, Leggere il Canzoniere, Bologna, il Mulino, 2017, pp. 7-74;   

  • C. Tramontana, Le disavventure della virtù I: Ciappelletto o della menzogna (Dec. I 1), in Id., Il contagio e la parola onesta. Interpretare Boccaccio, Napoli, Loffredo, 2021, pp. 93-112; 

  • C. Tramontana, «Non pieghevoli per novelle». Potere della letteratura e rischio mimetico nel Decameron, in Letteratura e Potere/Poteri (edited by Andrea Manganaro, Giuseppe Traina, Carmelo Tramontana), Roma, Adi editore, 2023, pp. 1-9; 

  • Anthological readings by Alberti, Pulci, Poliziano, Boiardo, Sannazaro (the list will be provided in class and the texts will be made available on studium) 

 

Modulo D) (3 CFU): Literary History from the Renaissance to the Controriforma 

Texts 

  • N. Machiavelli, The Prince (complete reading) – recommended ed. by G. Inglese, Torino, Einaudi, 2014; 

  • L. Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (reading and study of the following cantos: I, XII, XXIII, XXIV) – recommended ed. by E. Bigi – C. Zampese, Milano, Rizzoli, 2012; 

  • T. Tasso, Gerusalemme liberata (reading and study of the following cantos: I, XII, XVI) – recommended ed. by F. Tomasi, Milano, Rizzoli, 2009; 

  • C. Tramontana, «Se del male è lecito dire bene». Le vite parallele di Cesare Borgia e Oliverotto da Fermo (N. Machiavelli, Il Principe, capp. VII-VIII), in Per Leggere, XIX, 2019, pp. 189-205; 

  • Anthologies of readings by P. Bembo, B. Castiglione, F. Guicciardini, G. Vasari (the list will be provided in class and the texts will be made available on studium) 

 

General warning: for the study of the major authors, literary currents, and cultural movements listed in the syllabus and/or covered in class, we recommend M. Santagata - A. Casadei, Manuale di letteratura italiana medievale e moderna, Rome-Bari, Laterza, 2007. 

 

 

Please remember that in compliance with art 171 L22.04.1941, n. 633 and its amendments, it is illegal to copy entire books or journals, only 15% of their content can be copied. 

For further information on sanctions and regulations concerning photocopying please refer to the regulations on copyright (Linee Guida sulla Gestione dei Diritti d’Autore) provided by AIDRO - Associazione Italiana per i Diritti di Riproduzione delle opere dell’ingegno (the Italian Association on Copyright). 

All the books listed in the programs can be consulted in the Library.

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