ITALIAN LITERATURE 1 MOD II

This class, among the "field modules" in the bachelor’s degree in Humanities, curriculum in Science of the Literary Text and Communication, is meant to furnish students not only with basic knowledge of the main trends of Italian literature, but moreover with the theoretical and methodological tools to face the specific problematics of the discipline.
The class thus has three main objectives: to trace the development of Italian literature, by way of specific examples; to foster the capacity of autonomous reflection on a literary text; to furnish the basic methodological tools of textual analysis. Particular attention is devoted to the centrality of the text, be it poetic or prose, as an indispensable starting point in any theoretical or critical discourse.

Knowledge and comprehension: Students should be able to trace the history of Italian literature in the 16th-19th centuries; to know the major authors of the period and their works; to know and comprehend the forms of texts in prose and in verse; to know and comprehend Old Italian.
Ability to use said knowledge: Students should be able to employ their historico-critical knowledge in the study of Italian literary history; to use correctly the specific terminology of the discipline; to analyse a literary text in its various aspects.
Judgment: Students should be able to autonomously formulate and argue hypotheses, as well as critically evaluate alternative hypotheses.
Communication skills: Students should be able to express the specifics of critical discourse on literature with adequate terminology.
Learning skills: Students should be able to critically consult the assigned texts as well as the bibliography therein.

A good knowledge of the Italian language; standard reading abilities with texts in Italian; basic knowledge of the elements that characterize a literary text in prose and in verse.

Short forms in Italian literature.
This module in meant to analyse the short prose forms that have marked the Italian literary tradition since the late 16th century, with a special focus on tale, short story, fable, jest (or jocose tale), and letter.
Both a a general theory of short prose forms (including a typological inventory) and an analysis of a series of brief texts of the 16th-19th centuries will be developed in class. The teacher's challenge is to combine a textual approach (supported by literary theory) with a historical perspective observing chronological references. So the purpose of this class is to furnish students with a panoramic view of Italian literary tradition and of the relevant themes and problematics. The main outlines of Italian literature, from the late 16th century through the Italian unification, will be explained during an optional seminar (in parallel with the regular class) in order to support the students' commitment to their own learning process.

For the main outlines of Italian literature, the following handbooks are recommended: G. Tellini, Letteratura italiana. Un metodo di studio. Seconda edizione, Firenze, Le Monnier, 2014 (recently reprinted in 2018): Tasso and part 2, pp. 176-382; G. Alfano, P. Italia, E. Russo, F. Tomasi, Letteratura italiana. Da Tasso a fine Ottocento. Manuale per studi universitari, Milano, Mondadori, 2018, up to and including "Epoca 9" (a more detailed and demanding text, though very clear and well organized).
Preparing for this exam entails also the study of a selection of texts by the most important authors. A list of texts has to be delivered in written form on the day of the exam (guidelines will be prepared at the beginning of the class and made available on the "Moodle" platform).

About short prose forms the reference text should be the following: Le forme brevi della narrativa, ed. by E. Menetti, Roma, Carocci, 2019, ch. 5 (§ 1-3, pp. 107-120) and ch. 6-7 (pp. 129-168).

Students who do not attend class must add G. Leopardi, "Operette morali", to their reading program.

Texts read and commented in class will also be available on the "Moodle" platform.

Oral exam. The colloquy, roughly a half hour in duration, aims to test the student’s knowledge of the texts, of the problems involved in their interpretation, and of the problematics of their historico-literary context. Students who have attended class will be asked to reflect on aspects analysed during the lessons, and they will be invited to integrate what they have learned in class with what they have learned from the assigned readings. Those who have not attended class will be expected to talk about the texts, manual, and studies they have read. Students will be judged by their historico-literary competence and ability to formulate, with an adequate use of language, critically valid connections between the various problematics at hand.

For the summer session - due to the epidemiological situation - the exam will take place online and in oral form.

Lessons combine lectures with active student participation. Didactic materials available on the e-learning platform moodle.unive.it.
These textual and critical materials offer cues for further study, with respect to the reference texts listed above.

Italian

oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development