TRAVEL LITERATURE AND LITERARY GEOGRAPHIES

Academic Year 2025/2026 - Teacher: ANDREA SCHEMBARI

Expected Learning Outcomes

The main aim of the course is to acquire knowledge of moments, genres and texts that are particularly significant for the representation of the themes of travel and geographical space in the temporal context of contemporary Italian literature. At the end of the course, the student will have developed the ability to use the literary knowledge acquired, to critically elaborate the themes and topics covered and to cross them in an interdisciplinary way, managing to interpret different anthropological and historical-cultural fields, in a diachronic and synchronic perspective. He will also have acquired the ability to express the results of the study, to effectively and critically communicate literary content also in order to interact with heterogeneous interlocutors and in different work contexts, and in particular in the field of planning and management of cultural tourism.

Course Structure

Lectures

Attendance of Lessons

Attendance is not compulsory

Detailed Course Content

Module A (3 CFU): Passing through (and returning in) Sicily

Modulo B (3 CFU): The island, the stillness, and the motion

Textbook Information

Modulo A (3 cfu): Passing through (and returning in) Sicily

Literary texts:

- Vitaliano Brancati, Il bell’Antonio, Mondadori (full reading).

- Leonardo Sciascia, L’antimonio, in Id., Gli zii di Sicilia, Adelphi (full reading of the proposed story).

- Leonardo Sciascia, Il lungo viaggio; Il mare colore del vino; L’esame, in Id., Il mare colore del vino, Adelphi (full reading of the proposed stories).

- Vincenzo Consolo, Retablo, Mondadori (full reading).

- Vincenzo Consolo, L’olivo e l’olivastro, Mondadori (full reading).

 

Literary criticism texts:

- Marina Paino, Geocritica di un mito insulare, in «que ben devetz conoisser la plus fina». Per Margherita Spampinato, a cura di M. Pagano, Edzioni Sinestesie 2019, pp. 657-673 (avalaible on the online platform Studium).

- Anna Carta, Lo spazio perturbante de Il bell’Antonio, in Ead., Una casa visitata dai ladri. Lo spazio urbano nell’opera di Brancati, Bonanno, Acireale-Roma, 2009, pp. 171-190 (avalaible on the online platform Studium).

- Giuseppe Traina, «Da paesi di mala sorte e mala storia». Esilio, erranza e potere nel Mediterraneo di Vincenzo Consolo (e di Sciascia), Mimesis, Milano 2024 (pp. 15-29; 103-116).

- Andrea Schembari, «In piedi, guardando dal finestrino». Memoria, parola, corpo nell’immaginario ferroviario di Leonardo Sciascia, in «Italianistica Debreceniensis», 28, 2022 (avalaible on the online platform Studium).

 

To gain a better understanding of the authors covered in Module A, we recommend studying the relevant entries in Dizionario biografico degli italiani (online edition) by Nino Borsellino, Paolo Squillacioti and Paola Villani, respectively, available at the following links:

 

https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/vitaliano-brancati_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/

 

https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/leonardo-sciascia_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/

 

https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/vincenzo-consolo_(Dizionario-Biografico)/

 

Modulo B (3 cfu): The island, the stillness, and the motion

Literary texts:

Elio Vittorini, Conversazione in Sicilia, edizione a scelta (full reading).

- Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Il Gattopardo, edizione a scelta (full reading).

- Gesualdo Bufalino, Diceria dell'untore, edizione a scelta (full reading).

 

Literary criticism texts:

M. Paino, La riscrittura di Conversazione come foto-romanzo, in Ead., Il moto immobile. Nostoi, sonni e sogni nella letteratura siciliana del ‘900, Pisa, ETS, pp. 27-37.

- M. Paino, Viaggio verso l'immobilità, in Ead., Il moto immobile. Nostoi, sonni e sogni nella letteratura siciliana del ‘900, Pisa, ETS, pp. 75-87.

- M. Paino, Il bluff dell’untore, in Ead., La stanza degli specchi. ‘Esercizi di lettura’ sui romanzi di Bufalino, Acireale, Bonanno, pp. 15-33.

 

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.
VERSIONE IN ITALIANO