WOMEN AND CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN LITERATURE

The teaching falls within the educational activities of the Degree level of the Institute of Excellence and aims to provide students with basic analytical tools in the field of Italian literature of the XX and XXI centuries.
Purposes of the course are: to start a careful reading of the literary text; encourage the learning of critical methodologies that develop a reflection aimed at capturing gender differences. Particular attention is given to the repercussions of these differences in the contemporary period, also on cultural and social aspects.

1.To learn about the specifics of the messages, style and language of the texts examined in order to relate them to those in force in the contemporary literary horizon.
To know how to distinguish between literary canon and anti-canon, also in reference to socio-cultural actuality.

2. Understanding the thematic areas and the problematic perspectives involved to bring them back to some of the most salient issues of the condition of women in the contemporary world (sexual differences, gender violence, stalking).

3. Knowing how to formulate and argue what is consistently understood, while demonstrating to have acquired an autonomous attitude with respect to the textual contents conveyed.

4. Develop a critical approach, in order to communicate a personal evaluation, even an alternative one, even if dialectically motivated.

Knowledge of the general lines of the history of contemporary Italian literature and of some primary notions of criticism and literary theory.

The course aims to critically analyze the female characters in the three novels of Melania G. Mazzucco in the program. Particular attention will be given to some issues related to gender (voice, point of view, space-time, canon), to the imagination of the feminine, to specific themes (identity, roles, male-female dialectics, violence, body, relationship with the mother ), and the stylistic choices made.

- Melania G. Mazzucco, “Un giorno perfetto”, Milano, Rizzoli, 2005
- Melania G. Mazzucco, “Limbo”, Torino, Einaudi, 2012.
- Melania G. Mazzucco, “Io sono con te. Storia di Brigitte”, Torino, Einaudi, 2016.

- Ilaria Crotti, “Tra divergenza e destino. Nel Limbo afghano-italiano di Melania G. Mazzucco”, in “Leggere la lontananza. Immagini dell’altro nella letteratura di viaggio della contemporaneità”, a cura di S. Camilotti, I. Crotti e R. Ricorda, Venezia, Edizioni Ca’ Foscari, 2015, pp. 135-153.

- Ilaria Crotti, “Le voci dell’altra: Io sono con te. Storia di Brigitte di Melania G. Mazzucco”, in “Un’arte che non langue non trema e non s’offusca. Studi per Simona Costa”, a cura di M. Dondero, C. Geddes da Filicaia, L. Melosi, M. Venturini, Firenze, Franco Cesati Editore, 2018, pp. 677-686.

- Luigi Marfè, “Dall’antiturismo ai controviaggi dei migranti”, in “Oltre la fine dei viaggi. I resoconti dell’altrove nella letteratura contemporanea”, Firenze, Leo S. Olschki, 2009, pp. 167-202.


Programme for students who do not attend the lessons. Besides the mentioned volumes:
- Sandra Parmegiani, Michela Prevedello (a cura di), “Femminismo e femminismi nella letteratura italiana dall’Ottocento al XXI secolo”, Firenze, Società Editrice Fiorentina, 2019 (students have to choose three essays).

The verification of learning takes place through an oral exam. During the oral exam, which lasts about 20 minutes, the student must demonstrate knowledge of the topics developed during the course and know how to expose them in a formal way.
The expected methods of assessment of acquired knowledge and skills aim at verifying the following problems: the literary concept of gender, the peculiarity of the female character in the narrative, the literary themes invested, what is the canon declined to the feminine, the narratological notions of voice and point of view.

Teaching organized in lectures (frequency is recommended).

This course substitutes the course Letteratura italiana moderna e contemporanea – Modern and Contemporary Italian Literature (Code: FT0121)

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