COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

The teaching is part of the main subjects of the Master's Degree in Philology and Italian Literature, modern-contemporary curriculum, alternative to other teachings included in the same SSD: Literary Theory and Methodology of Literary Criticism. The student is required to support 12 credits on the 18 of these three courses. The aim is to provide the student with the ability to move critically in a wide panorama, between the literatures of different languages, to examine a relevant theoretical problem.

Objectives of the course are: to develop the ability to understand a theoretical problem of literature and apply it to texts belonging to literatures of different linguistic origins; to know how to make comparisons, in relation to the different literary traditions; understand and articulate the complexity of a theoretical problem, linking the particular case with the general question; know how to apply different critical methodologies to the texts in question.

1. Knowledge and understanding:
- In-depth knowledge of the main methodologies of critical approach to the text, also in relation to works from different cultural contexts and traditions;
- Knowledge of the main methods by which comparative literature can operate connections between texts of different origins;
- Developed awareness of the plurality of critical approaches to the text, especially in the presence of a general theoretical problem applied to specific cases;
- Knowledge of the theoretical problem of postmodernism and return of the real.
2. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding:
- Ability to read and understand a text, in its historical-critical context, applying the most appropriate hermeneutical methodologies;
- Ability to build connections between texts of different origins and traditions;
- Ability to bring back a single narrative text with its specificities to a general theoretical problem;
- Ability to frame the theoretical problem in the context of 20th e 21st century;
3. Judgment skills:
- Ability to interpret the present and the memory, analyzing and interpreting literary texts.
4. Communication skills:
- Knowing how to communicate, in academic and informative contexts, the conclusions of an analysis on one or more texts in the contemporary historical context;
5. Learning ability:
- To understand the informations but also the methodologies proposed and apply them to the studied texts;
- Knowing how to learn by testing yourself and discussing their positions in a seminar form.

There is no prerequisite, but it is desirable that the student is a passionate reader and is interested in the problems of the present world. These prerequisites, not mandatory but only desirable, can be achieved either through domestic application or through the exams of Contemporary Italian Literature or Contemporary History.

This course aims at rebuilding some matters concerning the Postmodernism and the so called period of the returning to the real, starting from some problems already belonging to Modernism.In particular we will deal with literature which has developed after the death of God and the research of persuasion (to have our own life) that this death has created in different aspects of the representation of life.
In the Postmodernism the absence of persuasion became a meta-literary and ironic euphoria (just think about Pynchon or DeLillo). At the beginning of the 21st century instead there was again a strong nostalgia for persuasion, which lead to an even passive adherence to reality, as we can see in the novel Underworld by DeLillo or Royaume by Carrère, or movies such as Eyes Wide Shut by Kubrick.

As far as the theory is concerned:

Remo Cesarani, Raccontare il postmoderno, Bollati Boringhieri, 1997.
Valentina Re - Alessandro Cinquegrani, L'innesto, Mimesis, 2014, pp. 1-73 e 137-238.
Alessandro Cinquegrani, Ironia o persuasione? La scelta di Emmanuel Carrère nel Regno, Between, v. 6, n. 12, 2016, pp. 1-23. Il testo è prelevabile gratuitamente a questo link: http://ojs.unica.it/index.php/between/article/view/2151
Alessandro Cinquegrani, Introduzione. Significato e totalità, in B. Mirisola, L'impresa totale, FrancoAngeli, 2019, in press.

Moreover the students have to read a novel chosen from the following groups.
First group

Don DeLillo, Rumore bianco
Don DeLillo, Underworld
Don DeLillo, Cosmopolis
Thomas Pynchon, L'arcobaleno della gravità
Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club
Chuck Palahniuk, Beautiful You

Second group:
Emmanuel Carrère, L’avversario
Emmanuel Carrère, Limonov
Emmanuel Carrère, Il Regno
Javier Cercas, Soldati di Salamina
Javier Cercas, L'impostore
Mauro Covacich, Prima di sparire
Mauro Covacich, A nome tuo
Abraham Yehoshua, Il responsabile delle risorse umane

In-depth essays (optional):

C. Michelstaedter, La persuasione e la retorica
M. Cangiano, La nascita del modernismo italiano. Filosofie della crisi, storia e letteratura, 1903-1922
F. Jameson, Postmodernismo, ovvero la logica culturale del tardo capitalismo
M. Foucault, Le parole e le cose
R. Donnarumma, Ipermodernità: ipotesi per un congedo dal postmoderno, Allegoria, n. 64, 2011, pp. 15-50. Oppure in versione molto ampliata e con un'ampia casistica in Ipermodernità. Dove va la narrativa contemporanea, Il Mulino, 2014.

The exam is structured in two parts:
1. Paper: the student must prepare a paper of about 20,000 characters, in which he will offer a critical comparative theoretical contribution, on the two works chosen in the list provided, in which he will show the skills achieved, especially in linking the individual works with the problem general. Therefore, a specific critical bibliography is not required on the individual works chosen, but the one provided for the course is sufficient.
2. Oral interview: two parts are foreseen. In the first the student will expose the critical positions sustained in the essay, to demonstrate the exhibition skills. In the second one will demonstrate the knowledge of the texts adopted. This second part will consist of 3 questions, one on each of the texts.

Marks attribution: one mark will be assigned to the paper. The first part of the oral interview may move the mark by +/- 1 point. The second part of the interview may move the vote by +/- 3 points. The student is however required to schieve sufficiency in all three parts, in the case of insufficiency in one of the three, the student will be rejected.

NON ATTENDING STUDENTS:
Non-attending students will add the text Pop Shoah, already included in the bibliography of optional texts. The exam will have the same modality as the students attending.

15 hours frontal lessons and 15 hours seminar lessons.

During the seminar hours the students will make a classroom report on one of the selected books, on which they will discuss together on the basis of the themes opened in the previous lectures.

Italian

oral