LETTERATURA TEDESCA IN UNA PROSPETTIVA COGNITIVA-COMPARATA / GERMAN LITERATURE IN A COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE

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

 

1) Knowledge and Understanding

The course aims at providing students with a brief overview of the critical and transdisciplinary approaches of literary criticism with reference to the field of German literature and culture, in order to sharpen students' analytical skills.

 

2) Ability to apply knowledge and understanding

In-depth modules on literary- transdisciplinary critical approaches such as visual culture, cognitive poetics and neuroaesthetics and neurohermeneutics will be used to examine some selected German literary texts. Group work aimed at developing independent judgement and cooperative learning will be organized.

 

2) Communication skills

The student’s group work will be presented during the course. This presentation will be considered as an in-itinere test and will be part of the final assessment. Communication skills will also be assessed during both the in-itinere test and final examination.

 

3) Learning skills

The course aims to provide the tools and illustrate the fundamental methodologies of the latest literary and transdisciplinary research, thus fostering a common reflection on learning skills and possible study and research strategies.

The course bases on the active participation of the students and will be organized like a seminar. Each student or group will be invited to work on a project to presented at the end of the course.

Students of LM14 or of other CdS who wish to take the course must have a basic knowledge of the main European poetic currents and textual analysis practices. For them, the lecturer will indicate texts in Italian.
Those who would like to include this course in their syllabus even if they do not have a basic knowledge of German are welcome but are asked to contact the lecturer during the first lessons of the course in order to agree on the readings suited to their personal needs and language skills.
Those borrowing from this course with less than 9 CFUs may choose two of the three modules in the syllabus by agreeing the course with the lecturer in class, during office hours or by e-mail.

The students will choos two of the following modules:

A Visual Culture (3ECTS)

This course will examine a field of academic studies that deals with the visible and the practices of the gaze in culturally organized forms by applying its critical tools to the analysis of some fundamental texts of German literature, also in comparison with further transmedia performances or from other cultural origins.

 

B Neurohermeneutis (3ECTS)

Studies in cognitive linguistics and poetics have opened up new frontiers in the interpretation of the act of reading and artistic creation. Beginning with Semir Zeki's neuroaesthetics and in conjunction with studies on embodied simulation (Vittorio Gallese), conceptual metaphors (Lakoff & Johnson), the literary text will be interpreted as a device created with the intention of stimulating certain mental and physical processes in the reader. It will be the intention of this module to explore elements of cognitive rhetoric, the concept of embodied simulation, the Schema Theory. The course will attempt to uncover such structures within selected texts and analyze the link established between the reader as a body-mind complex, the 'world of discourse' and the 'world of the text'.

 

C Animal Studies (3ECTS)

In the mid-1980s, a new critical approach took off in Europe and the United States, termed Animal Studies, which set itself the goal of researching human-animal interaction, in all its components and, in particular, in the value assumed from an anthropological perspective in literary representations. These studies deal with the definition of concepts such as animality, the human representation of the animal world, the anthropomorphisation of the animal world, the relationship between human cultures and the animal world, and cross-species communities.

Narratology and Cognitive Poetics

A)  Introduction

- Stefano Calabrese, Neuronarratologia. Il futuro dell’analisi del racconto, CLUEB, Bologna, 2012, pp. 256.

B)  Cognitive Narratology (choose one of the following texts)

- Adalbert David Herman, Storytelling and the Sciences of mind, MIT press. Boston, 2013, 448 pp.

- Stefano Calabrese – Federica Fioroni, Leggere la mente. La lettura come stile di vita, ArchetipoLibri, Bologna, 2012,  136 pp.

- Stefano Calabrese, Neuronarrazioni, Editrice Bibliografica, Milano, 2020, 136 pp.

C)  Topics

Individual researches will be developed on specific topics like in following examples. The chosen topic will be applied to one or two of the following literary texts (the texts listed here may be replaced with others in agreement with the teacher). The editions listed are for guidance only, and may be replaced with other editions of the same work.

• Cognitive Metaphors:

- Wieland Ch. M., Adis und Dahy, in: Dschinnistan oder auserlesene Feen- und Geistermärchen, teils neu erfunden, teils übersetzt und umgearbeitet ist eine Geschichtensammlung, Steiner, Winterthur,1786-1789; trad it.: Jinnistan. Fiabe, Milano, Mimesis, 2020, pp. 69-92.

- Chamisso, Adelbert von, Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte, (trad. it. Storia straordinaria di Peter Schlemhil, Garzanti, Milano 2007, 146 pp).

 

• Embodyment/ Empathy:

- E.T.A. Hoffmann, Der Sandmann, (trad. it. L’uomo della sabbia e altri racconti, BUR, Milano 1998, 174 pp.).

- Schnitzler, Fräulein Else, (trad.it. Signorina Else, Adelphi, Milano 1988, 122 pp.)

 

• The reading act:

- Goethe J.W., Die Leiden des jungen Werthers, 1774, trad. it: I dolori del Giovane Werther, Garzanti, Milano 2003, pp. 160.

- Floire et Blancheflor (1160); versione it.: Florio e Biancifiore, in: Boccaccio G., Il Filocolo (1336),

•  Vital relations:

- Kafka, Franz, Erzählungen, (trad. it. Tutti i Racconti, Mondadori, Milano, 2017, 541 pp.).

- Schwitters, Kurt, Erzählungen, (trad. it, Piccole storie Dada, Villaggio Maori, Catania, 2018, 220pp.).

 

• Consciousness

- Moritz K. Ph., Anton Reiser. Ein Psychologischer Roman, Berlin, Maurer, 1785; trad it. Anton Reiser. Romanzo Psicologico, Jacques e I suoi quaderni, 27(1996), 296pp.

- Goethe J. W. Von, Aus meinem Leben. Dichtung und Wahrheit (1811-33); trad. it. Dalla mia Vita. Poesia e Verità, Torino, Einaudi, 2019, 868pp.

 

D)  Helpful materials:

- David Herman (ed.), The Living Handbook of narratology, http://wikis.sub.uni-hamburg.de/lhn/index.php/Cognitive_Narratology

- Enthymema. International Journal of Literary Criticism, Literary Theory and Philosophy of Literature,  https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/enthymema

The students will have to elaborate a research on one of the texts or topics proposed during the course, looking for specific and up to date critical works on the web. For those who will not take part to the lessons, please write an e-mail to renatagambino@gmail.com to set the topic and the materials of the work.

NB. Students of the Master course LM14 who do not have a B1 level in German will work on the texts translated into Italian or in English.

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 or on-line.

An in itinere test will consist of an oral presentation accompanied by a PPT or Handout of one of the programme topics. This test is optional, may be developed in the form of group or individual work and will be presented during the course of the lectures. The participation of all those attending will be essential and will form an integral part of the course topics. The in itinere examination will be assessed by a judgement (not a grade) which will then be taken into account at the final examination.

The final examination will consist of an oral and/or written exposition of a personal critical path agreed with the lecturer on a German literature text read through one of the proposed methodologies.
Evaluation criteria will be:
- Possible in itinere test taken during the lessons,
- mastery of content and skills acquired,
- linguistic accuracy and lexical property,
- argumentative ability demonstrated by the candidate
- originality of the argument
- the form and critical apparatus of the final report.

IMPORTANT: Course students may present their final paper in Italian/German/English.