THEORY OF LITERATURE

The teacher considers the Theory of Literature as a discipline immediately aimed at answering the question "What is literature?". The question is more important than the answer, although there have been over time several schools that have intended to nail the phenomenon of literature to a single definition. However, it is appropriate to have the tools and skills related to the knowledge of literary history from a worldly and comparative point of view. The course is part of the basic disciplines of the degree course . The main objective of the course is to provide the tools to relate literatures and cultures of different languages and countries, applying different interpretative methodologies. Furthermore, literature is related to the recent history of the respective countries.

1. Knowledge and understanding:
- Knowledge of the cultural and literary aspects of the various geographical areas with particular reference to the Spanish and English-speaking linguistic communities;
- Knowledge of the contemporary history of the countries of the studied languages, through their literature;
- Knowledge of the main intercultural phenomena of different linguistic communities with particular reference to those of Spanish and English speakers.
2. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding:
- Knowing how to establish relations between the culture of the countries and the communities of the two languages of study and their own culture;
- Knowing how to read a literary text to obtain useful information for the knowledge of the history and culture of a country;
- Knowing how to build links between different cultures and different forms of culture.
3. Ability to judge:
- Ability to interpret a literary text in relation to the historical-cultural reality in which the text and the reader have fallen.
4. Communication skills:
- Know how to use a suitable basic vocabulary of literary and historical scope.
5. Learning skills:
- Know how to critically use literary and theoretical texts and relate them;
- Knowing how to insert specific knowledge on a text in a wider knowledge.

There is no prerequisite: it's enough a good knowledge of Italian.

History and theory of the fantastic literary provide tools to the laboratories of narrative writing. During the lessons will be enumerated the
procedures that give rise to a fantastic story as a cognitive experience. The teacher will rebuild the reception of Gothic romance, and the fantastic tales of E.T.A. Hoffmann, W. Scott, M. Shelley, E.A.Poe, P. Mérimée, N. Gogol ', G. de Maupassant et al. in Italy, Spain and Portugal; the main narrative procedures peculiar to the rewriting of the fantastic of the main Italian and Iberian narrators of the period will be identified. The knowledge and the ability to read texts will be aimed at the expression by the student of an independent literary judgment.

Required text: Alessandro Scarsella, Del mondo, fuori. La ricerca del fantastico, Amos Edizioni, 2016; Alessandro Scarsella, Il fantastico nel mondo latino. Ricezioni di un modo letterario tra Italia, Spagna e Portogallo, Biblion Edizioni, 2018. The teacher will indicate the pages of the text related to the preparation of the exam. Specific critical literature (and adapted to the individual linguistic addresses of the students) will also be suggested by the teacher during the lessons.

The exam will be based on an oral interview

Frontal lesson. Some points considered particularly important and stimulating for the student will be discussed in seminar lessons.

Italian

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