ITALIAN LITERATURE FROM 12TH TO 16TH CENTURY

This class, among the 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 in its first centuries (12th-16th), 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 in its first centuries, 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 its first 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 (metrical, rhetorical, stylistic); 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, including with respect to meter and rhetoric; 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 their thoughts 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. The knowledge of Italian literary history, and of its metrical, rhetorical, and stylistic forms acquired, respectively, in the modules Italian Literature 1 and Metrical Forms and Style should be a helpful preface to the material studied in this class.

On the 500th anniversary of the publication of the Prose della volgar lingua (1525), the course is dedicated to Pietro Bembo, the most famous Venetian scholar of the 16th century and the one to whom we owe the theorisation of the literary language that remained stable for the following three centuries.
The stages of Bembo's education will be covered, starting from the Venetian environment at the end of the 15th century, to reconstruct the intellectual (and human) path that led him to the courts of Ferrara and Urbino, where he matured into his definitive choice of writer and poet.
At the centre of the journey will therefore be his figure as a young aristocrat, educated in the cult of the classics but open to courtly fashion, and his early works.
Among these, some of the Rime, sections of the Asolani and the Stanze will be analysed, following the theme of love.
In this perspective, the love correspondence with two exceptional beloveds will also be considered: the noblewoman Maria Savorgnan and Lucrezia Borgia. The letters (actually written for the two women, but extensively revised in a literary key) will offer an insight not only into the poet, but also into the man

PIETRO BEMBO, MARIA SAVORGNAN, Carteggio d’amore, a cura di Carlo Dionisotti, Firenze, Le Monnier, 1950.
PIETRO BEMBO, Gli Asolani, edizione critica a cura di Giorgio Dilemmi, Firenze, Accademia della Crusca, 1991.
PIETRO BEMBO, Le Rime, 2 voll., a cura di Andrea Donnini, Roma, Salerno Editrice, 2008.
PIETRO BEMBO, Stanze, a cura di A. Juri, Roma, Salerno Editrice, 2020.

Further specific critical guidance will be provided in the course of the lectures.

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. 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.
Assessment criteria:
In order to obtain a mark between 27 and 30 cum laude, students must be able to analyse literary texts in depth following the methodological indications acquired; possess and be able to communicate an organic vision of the themes dealt with in class and/or studied in the manuals and critical texts in the bibliography; demonstrate excellent oral and written expression and argumentation skills; competently use the technical language of literary criticism.
An overall mark of between 23 and 26 will be awarded to those who demonstrate (orally and in writing): a good knowledge of the syllabus; the ability to carry out an analysis of the texts that is on the whole correct, even if marked by some imperfections of method and content; a good property of language with some uncertainty in exposition and/or imprecision in the use of technical language.
An acceptable but sketchy knowledge of the syllabus, a superficial understanding of the texts, a limited ability to analyse and an expression that is not always appropriate will lead to barely sufficient marks (between 18 and 22).
Poor knowledge of critical and literary texts, inadequate ability to analyse; incorrect or inappropriate written and oral expression will result in a negative assessment.

Lessons combine lectures with active student participation. Didactic materials available on the school e-learning platform moodle.unive.it.
These textual, critical, and iconographic 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 "International cooperation" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development