ITALIAN LITERATURE

Providing students with a knowledge of the main authors and works in Italian Literature and a learning method to interpret poetry, prose and drama so to enable students to have a direct approach to the study of literary phenomena.

Lectures and seminars

Linguistic competence (morphosyntactic and spelling correctness; lexical mastery); basic notions of metrics and rhetoric; presentation skills in written and oral Italian, synthesis and argumentative skills. Basic historical skills inherent to the past centuries.

The most important authors and significant works will be analysed as a diachronic journey focused on texts, properly placed in their historical, literary and geographical context. The chronological journeys proposed are: From the Origin to Dante; From Petrarca to Humanism; From the Renaissance to the Age of Enlightenment; the Nineteenth century.

Modulo A (1 ECTS)

Metric and prosody

Modulo B (2 ECTS)

It’s required to study the historical-critical profile of Italian literature from Dante to Boccaccio, focusing particularly on the following writers:

Guido Guinizelli: Al cor gentil rempaira sempre amore.

Guido Cavalcanti: Perch’i non spero di tornar giammai.

Dante Alighieri: Vita nuova (cap. XIX: Donne ch’avete intelletto d’amore; cap. XXVI: Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare; cap. XLI: Oltre la spera che più larga gira);

Divina Commedia, five cantos of your choice.

Francesco Petrarca, Canzoniere, five songs of your choice.

Giovanni Boccaccio, Decameron, five short stories of your choice.

Modulo C (2 ECTS)

It’s required to study the historical-critical profile of Italian literature of Humanism and Renaissance, focusing particularly on the following writers:

Niccolò Machiavelli, Il Principe, five chapters of your choice

Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando furioso, canti: I, (1-4); XII, (8-20); XXXIV, (70-87).

Torquato Tasso, Gerusalemme liberata, canti: I, (1-5); XII, (64-71).

Modulo D (2 ECTS)

It’s required to study the historical-critical profile of Italian literature of the Age of Enlightenment, focusing particularly on the following writers:

Ugo Foscolo, Alla Sera, A Zacinto, In morte del fratello Giovanni;

Dei Sepolcri (full reading).

Modulo E (2 CFU)

It’s required to study the historical-critical profile of Italian literature Eighteenth Century, focusing particularly on the following writers:

Alessandro Manzoni, Il 5 maggio; La Pentecoste

I Promessi sposi, three chapters of your choice

Giacomo Leopardi, Canti, five songs of your choice.

Giovanni Verga, Novelle, three short stories of your choice

Complete reading of one of the following novels: I Malavoglia; Mastro-don Gesualdo

For prosody and rethoric is suggested: P. Beltrami, La metrica italiana, Il Mulino, pp. 241-366.

Literary history:

A. Casadei, M. Santagata, Manuale di Letteratura italiana medievale e moderna, Laterza, pp. 52-92 (Modulo B); 99-218 (Modulo C); 281-348 (Modulo D); 355-485 (Modulo E).

For the texts, a handbook to choose from the list below:

- Divina Commedia, col commento di A.M. Chiavacci Leonardi, Zanichelli.

- Vita Nuova, Garzanti, Milano.

- G. Baldi, S. Giusso, M. Razetti, G. Zaccaria, Dal testo alla storia dalla storia al testo, Paravia.

- C. Segre, C. Martignoni, Testi nella storia, Bruno Mondadori.

- R. Luperini, P. Cataldi e L. Marchiani, Il nuovo La scrittura e l’interpretazione, Palumbo.

Students will find on Studium other information materials during the course.

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.

The ongoing test will be carried out in writing, at the end of module E; will focus on the summary of I Malavoglia and will average with the oral exam. Those who carry out the ongoing test will not have to take the novel to the oral test.

Evaluation indicators will be considered: information completeness; the ability to synthesize and personal elaboration; morpho-syntactic correctness.Final oral exam. The assessment of the exam will take into account the mastery of the contents and skills acquired, linguistic accuracy and lexical properties, as well as the argumentative ability demonstrated by the candidate.