Arabic literature

Knowledge and Understanding: Students, having already acquired the necessary critical-methodological tools during their undergraduate studies, will be able to critically analyze the texts presented to them.

Applying Knowledge and Understanding: Students will develop the ability to analyze literary texts from different textual genres, in both Arabic and translation, after having acquired the necessary critical-methodological tools.

Judgment Autonomy: Students will demonstrate mastery in navigating the various forms and diverse themes of Arabic literature, including from a comparative perspective. Additionally, by applying specific linguistic and glottological skills, they will be able to recognize the expressive and formal codes of the texts, identifying their values and content and formulating precise and relevant judgments.

Communication Skills: Through seminar-style and laboratory-based lessons, students will be required to present and engage in discussions with their peers and the instructor on predefined topics, thus refining their presentation and communication skills.

Modules A and B (6 CFU) will primarily focus on exploring the concept of representation, both verbal and non-verbal, in Arabic literature, moving along two main chronological axes: on one hand, a specific focus on rhetorical figures in premodern poetry from the Islamic West, and on the other, an analysis of multimodal communication strategies in a selection of contemporary pop culture products from the Levantine and North African regions.

Module C (3 CFU) aims to introduce students to the artistic, visual and literary manifestations of the modern and contemporary Arab world (19th-21st century) with an interdisciplinary approach, which contributes both to consolidating the knowledge acquired from a methodological point of view and to approaching different contents with a critical capacity structured on the basis of the most recent studies relating to the specific field of theatre, cinema and Arabic literature. 

The literary texts, belonging to various genres, will be analysed in the original language and/or in translation, also in comparison with texts from other genres that address similar themes and motifs.

Module A: Verbal Representation in Pre-modern Arabic Poetry

1. A brief selection of Arabic texts
2. H. Toelle, K. Zakharia, Alla scoperta della letteratura araba. Dal VI secolo ai nostri giorni, Argo, 2010 (Cap. 1, 4, 5, pp. 21-43; 57-109).
3. M. Cassarino, A. Ghersetti, L. Osti, S. Pagani, Antologia della letteratura araba. Dalle origini al XVIII secolo, Carocci 2024 (testi selezionati dal docente).
4. R. Ceserani, Il testo poetico, Il Mulino, 2005 (cap. 4, pp. 83-97).
5. A. Kilito, L’autore e i suoi doppi, Einaudi, 1988 (cap. 3, pp. 33-45).

A critical and in-depth analysis of one of the following topics:

Madīḥ

S. Pinckney Stetkevych, The Poetics of Islamic Legitimacy: Myth, Gender and Ceremony in the Classical Arabic Ode, Indiana University Press, 2002 (Cap. 5, pp. 144-179). + I. Licitra, “Poetic Portrayals in the Dīwān of Ibn Qalāqis: William II de Hauteville and Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn”, «Quaderni di Studi Arabi», Nuova Serie, 12 (2017), pp. 29-43.

•Waṣf

A. Hamori, “Waṣf: Two Views of Time”. In: On the Art of Medieval Arabic Literature. Andras Hamori, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1974, pp. 78-100. + I. Licitra, “The Natural world in the Siculo-Arabic waṣf poetry”, «Quaderni di Studi Arabi», Nuova Serie, thematic issue Natural world in Arabic textual culture (VII-XV centuries), F. Bellino (ed.), 18 (2023), pp. 62-81.

•Nasīb and Ghazal

R. Jacobi, “Time and Reality in Nasīb and Ghazal”. Journal of Arabic Literature, XVI/1 (1985), p. 1-17. Ead. “The khayāl Motif in Early Arabic Poetry”. Oriens, 32 (1990), p. 55-64. Ead. s.v. «Nasīb», EI2, vol. VII, pp. 978-983. + I. Licitra, “Senses and Sensuality: Synesthetic Imagery in the Siculo-Arabic Ghazal Poems”, Kervan, 27 (2023), pp. 225-242.

Module B: Languages and Multimodal Strategies in Contemporary Arab Pop Culture

6. A brief selection of Arabic texts

7.       D. Barbieri, Semiotica del fumetto, Carocci 2017 (parti indicate dal docente).

8.       A. Gabai, “Si scrive fumetto, si dice rivoluzione”, in Arabpop. Arte e letteratura in rivolta dai Paesi arabi, a cura di C. Comito, S. Moresi, Mimesis 2020, pp. 85-108.

9.       D. Gentner, B.F. Bowdle, “Convention, Form, and Figurative Language Processing”, Metaphor and Symbol, 16, 3/4 (2001), pp. 223-247.

A critical and in-depth analysis of one of the following topics:

10.   I. Licitra, “Eros e poesia nel fumetto libanese contemporaneo”, «Critica del testo», XXV/3, 2022. Eros e modernità, G. Lalomia, M. S. Sapegno (a cura di), pp. 103-134.

11.   I. Licitra, “«Le parole non mordono»: erotismo e revival poetico in Une histoire d’amour et de désir”, in Il vento di Eros, Atti del XIII Colloquio Internazionale Medioevo romanzo e orientale (Dipartimento di Scienze Umanistiche, Catania, 21-22 settembre 2023), a cura di A. Fabiani e G. Lalomia, Rubbettino Editore, Soveria Mannelli, 2024, pp. 265-287.

A critical and in-depth analysis of one of the following topics:

12.   E. El-Refaie, Autobiographical Comics. Life Writing in Pictures, University Press of Mississippi 2012, (Cap. 2, pp. 49-92).

13.   R. Chatta, “Refractions of a Grim Future Figuring Dissonant Beirut in Barrack Rima’s Speculative Graphic Narratives”, Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication 17 (2024), pp. 67–89.

Additional Recommended Readings:

D. Amaldi, Storia della letteratura araba classica, Zanichelli, 2004.

F.M. Corrao, M. Ruocco, Letteratura araba, voll. 1 e 2, Mondadori, 2024.

I. Licitra, Il Canzoniere di al-Ballanūbī: studio, edizioni, traduzioni, Collana La Sicilia islamica: testi, ricerche letterarie e linguistiche, diretta da Mirella Cassarino, Istituto per l’Oriente C. A. Nallino, Roma, 2021.

Module C

1.       Ruocco M., Storia del teatro arabo. Dalla nahdah a oggi, Carocci, Roma 2010 (da p. 13 a p. 213);

2.       “al-Farafir. Commedia in due atti di Yusuf Idris”, traduzione e cura di Suriano A.R., Edizioni Ca’ Foscari, Venezia 2018, consultabile e scaricabile liberamente al link:

https://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/it/edizioni4/libri/978-88-6969-254-3/

(only the Introduction and the Arabic pages that will be read in class)

Additional materials and readings will be provided during the lessons.

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