Comparative Literature

According to the Dublin descriptors, students, at the end of the course, will demonstrate:

1. Knowledge and understanding

The Course aims to transfer the most advanced Concepts of  recent Literary Debate, and to verify the critical and communicative skills of the students. Students will achieve autonomy of aesthetic judgment and interpretation.

 2. Applying knowledge and understanding

These goals will be verified through a written essay and a final oral exam, in the final perspective of Scientific Research, and Teaching of Languages and Literatures. Interdisciplinary knowledge and skills will be transferred and texted

3. Making judgements

Student is supposed to achieve autonomous hermeneutic and interpretive judgments, adequate to literary Theory current Debate.

 4. Communication skills

During the Class Comunication Skills will be stressed in order to achieve a clear and effective ability, in Teaching such as in the field of Scientific Research and researching

5. Learning skills

Learning skills will be stressed in order to achieve a clear and effective ability, in Teaching such as in the field of Scientific Research and researching.

The whole Course is a reading and writing Lab; it is divided in two modules (18 hours each). Students will work either individually and in group.

The First Part introduces to Theories of Literature as a Form of Human and Cultural Communication, and Interpretation. The Second Part focuses on the relation between Generations (the Old and the Young) in Ancient and Modern Literature.  

Part A: Literature, Evolution, Interpretation

Texts: E. Raimondi, Ermeneutica e commento, Sansoni, Firenze, pp. 1-68. G. Steiner, Che cosa è la letteratura comparata?» in Nessuna passione spenta. Saggi 1978- 1996, Garzanti, Milano 1996, pp. 86-103; A. Scuderi, «Occidenti letterari», in Le forme e la storia, XV, 2002, n. 1-2, pp.15-40. Un testo a scelta tra M. Austin, Useful Fictions. Evolution, Anxiety, and the Origins of Literature,Nebraska University Press, Lincoln and London, 2010, pp. 1-170; A. Casadei, Biologia della letteratura. Corpo, stile, storia, il Saggiatore, Milano, 2018, pp. 1-220.

Part B: The Old and the Young

Texts Sofocle, Antigone, Feltrinelli (translator G. Greco); Shakespeare, Amleto, Feltrinelli, Milano, 2018; L. Pirandello, I vecchi e i giovani, (Edition chosen from Garzanti, Rizzoli, and Mondadori).