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THEORY OF LITERATURE

Academic Year 2022/2023 - Teacher: MARIA RIZZARELLI

Expected Learning Outcomes

The Course aims to transfer to new students – as clearly as possible - the main Concepts of Literary Debate, through different and culturally basic samples of Literary Criticism and Literary Texts.

According to the Dublin descriptors, students, at the end of the course, will demonstrate:
1) Knowledge and understanding
Know the main topics of the course and understand the theoretical concepts 
2) Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
Ability to recognize the grammar and syntax of a literary text, the literary field and its borders 
3) Autonomy of judgment
Ability to connect between expressive phenomena and contexts of reference
4) Communication skills
Development of the specialized lexicon referring to the proposed field of study
5) Learning skill 
Autonomy in the recognition of bibliographic sources and in the integration of contents

 

Course Structure

The whole Course is a reading and writing Lab; it is divided in 3 modules (about 18, 6, 30 hours) in order to help the freshmen. It is constructed as a gradual curve of reading, comparative analysis, text breakdown (attendance is strongly recommended). From the first module, in which theoretical, critical and analytical tools are offered, to the second in which an example of their application is shown, we come to the third in which it will be the students themselves to choose three texts and to present an analysis of them. Face to face time and laboratory dimension will alternate, and a constant active participation of the students in the lessons will be encouraged

Detailed Course Content

The Course is divided into three modules. The first focuses on the great issues of contemporary literary debate. The second and the third modules are dedicated to the application of the categories of reception, rewriting, adaptation, transmediality, character and gender. The second module offers an example of rewriting of the myth of Orpheus and Euridice in movie of Celine Sciamma Portrait de la jeune fille en feu (France, 2019). The third is dedicated to the analysis of the construction of the protagonists of some classical novels and to their possible reading in the key offered by gender studies.

Textbook Information

Modulo A: Fields, problems and tools of Literary Theory (3 CFU).

Texts:

L. Neri, G. Carrara (a cura di), Teoria della letteratura. Campi, problemi, strumenti, Roma, Carocci, 2022.

U. Eco, Su alcune funzioni della letteratura, in Id., Sulla letteratura, Milano, Bompiani, 2003, pp. 7-22.

I. Calvino, Perché leggere i classici, in Id., Saggi, Milano, Mondadori, 1995, vol. II, pp. 1816-24.

M. Bachtin, Epos e romanzo, in Id., Estetica e romanzo, Torino, Einaudi, 1997, pp. 445-482.

 

Modulo B: Transmedial Adventure of a Mith: Orpheus and Euridice between Literature and Cinema (1 CFU)

Text:

- Ovidio, Metamorfosi, libro X, in Id., Opere II, edizione con testo a fronte, trad. it. di G. Paduano, Torino, Einaudi, 2000, pp. 429-473.

Film:

- C. Sciamma, Ritratto della giovane in fiamme, (Portrait de la jeune fille en feu, Francia, 2019)

Critical essays:

- Boitani, Ovidio, storie di metamorfosi, Bologna, il Mulino, 2020, (introduzione e cap. XIII).

- R. Galvagno, La metamorfosi come figura del limite tra la vita e la morte, «Between», maggio 2011, pp. 1-17 <https://ojs.unica.it/index.php/between/article/view/124>

- M. Rizzarelli, Sulle tracce di Orfeo e Pigmalione nel Portrait de la jeune fille en feu di Céline Sciamma, in Primo N., Rosso N., Stazzone D. (a cura di), Metamorfosi in dialogo. Studi in onore di Rosalba Galvagno, Lentini (SR), Duetredue edizioni, 2022.

 

Modulo C: The Female Character (5 CFU)

Critical essays:

- A. Stara, L’avventura del personaggio, Firenze, Le Monnier, 2004 or as an alternative L. Neri, Identità e finzione. Per una teoria del personaggio, Ledizioni, 2012.

- B. Sarasini, R. Mazzanti, S. Neonato, L’invenzione delle personagge, Guidonia Montecelio (Roma), Jacobelli, 2016, pp. 7-65.

Texts (3 novels of your choise):

- L-M. Alcott, Piccole donne, trad.it. S. Stacchini, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2018.

- S. De Beauvoir, Memorie di una ragazza per bene, Torino, Einaudi, 2014.

- G. Flaubert, Madame Bovary, trad. it M.L. Spaziani, Milano, Mondadori, 2015.

- E. Morante, Aracoeli, Torino, Einaudi, 2015.

- V. Nabokov, Lolita, trad. it. di G. Arborio Mella, Milano, Adelphi, 2012.

- G. Sapienza, L’arte della gioia, Torino, Einaudi, 2008.

- L. Tolstoj, Anna Karenina, trad. it. di L. Ginzburg, Milano, Rizzoli, 2012.

- V. Woolf, La signora Dalloway, trad. it. di N. Fusini, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2013.

 

Texts that are difficult to find will be made available on the studium platform or in the library.

Where page numbers or chapters are not indicated, the text must be studied in full.

 

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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