HISPANIC AMERICAN LITERATURE 2-2

The teaching is part of the course of study in "European, American and Postcolonial Languages ​​and Literatures (LLEAP)".
The course aims to deepen the knowledge of cultural themes and dynamics characterizing the Hispanic American territories using as a privileged hermeneutical tool of investigation the fantastic rhetoric explored in its initial configuration (19th century), in its flowering period (20th century) and in ultra-contemporary proposals (21st century).
The objectives of the teaching are: to deepen specific knowledge of cultural themes and dynamics of the Spanish-American subcontinent; provide methodological tools aimed at the analysis of the most significant non-mimetic Hispanic American literary productions of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, understood, on the one hand, as cultural documents that enhance, question and problematize reality and, on the other, as aesthetic creations ; develop the ability to reflect on the proposed literary texts, recognizing in them the becoming of the themes and stylistic features linked to the fantastic way of writing, as well as the dynamics of symbolic and cultural deconstruction and (re)semantization connected to them.

The course aims to deepen the study of the most important Hispanic American cultural phenomena of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries using as a privileged tool of analysis fairy tales rewritten and recreated within literary texts:
1. In this sense, the first objective of the course is to offer students the theoretical basis of analysis of the main themes and structure of fantastique texts through an overview of the most important studies related to it.
2. The second objective is to develop the technological, terminological and documentation tools to be able to interpret literary texts from a cultural and narratological point of view, so as to make the student capable of reasoning about neighboring categories such as those of the fantastic, the supernatural and the marvelous.
3. The third objective concerns the ability to apply the acquired knowledge. The theoretical tools learned will be applied to texts selected from the most important expressions of Hispanic America of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The texts will be analyzed and commented from a cultural and critical-literary point of view in their original elaboration in Spanish, in order to help students to develop the ability to identify cultural issues and problems.
4. Finally, the course aims to develop the ability to learn issues and tools offered during the course, as well as communication skills.

Students must have an adequate level of written and oral Spanish (level B2), which allows him to read and understand the texts proposed in the original language, as well as adequate language skills in Italian language.

Fantastique Hispanic America

The course will be divided into two main parts:
1. Initially, students will be provided with general theoretical elements linked to the identification and analysis of the fantastique text, through a broad reflection on the main theoretical lines related to the modes of fantastique writing and the presentation of an archeology of the main studies on the fantastique narration.
2. In the second part we will analyze a selection of Hispanic American texts from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries adhering to fantastique rhetorics with the aim of identifying affinities and differences that allow us to develop a double reflection: the first one is specifically aesthetic and it is related to the becoming of the fantastique writing in Hispanic America, and the second one, of a socio-cultural nature, is related to the change in the perception of the extra-textual reality that fantastique texts denounce. In this phase, students will also be invited to choose one or more of the proposed themes and texts and develop a presentation in class in order to encourage debate.

MAIN BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Secolo XIX
José María Roa Bárcena, “Lanchitas” (1880)
Rubén Darío, “El caso de la señorita Amelia” (1894)
Leopoldo Lugones “¿Una mariposa?” (1897)
________________ “El espejo negro” (1898)
Siglo XX
Silvina Ocampo, “El cielo de claraboya” (1937)
______________“Cornelia frente al espejo” (1988)
Julio Cortázar, “Casa tomada” (1951)
____________ “Ómnibus” (1951)
____________ “El ídolo de las Cícladas” (1959)
____________ “Cuello de gatito negro” (1974)
Amparo Dávila, “El huésped” (1959)
José Emilio Pacheco, “La fiesta brava” (1972)
Jorge Luis Borges, “El libro de arena” (1975)

Siglo XXI
Samantha Schweblin “Conservas” (2009)
_________________ “Pájaros en la boca” (2009)
Giovanna Rivero “El hombre de la pierna” (2016)
Guadalupe Nettel, “Hongos” (2019)
______________ “La vida en otro lugar” (2023)
Solange Rodríguez Pappe, “Historia incómoda que nos contó Olivia el día de su cumpleaños” (2020)
_____________________ “El atanudos” (2020)

CRITICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Biancotto, Natalia (2016), “El nonsense de Silvina Ocampo en «Cornelia frente al espejo»”, Cuadernos del Sur – Letras, n. 46, pp. 63-80.
Bessière, Irène (2001), “El relato fantástico: forma mixta de caso y adivinanza”, David Roas (comp.), Teorías de lo fantástico, Madrid, Arco Libros, pp. 83-106.
Boccuti, Anna (2020), “En la intersección de fantástico y enfermedad: una lectura de «El Hombre de la Pierna» de Giovanna Rivero y «La respiración cavernaria» de Samanta Schweblin”, in Altre Modernità. Dossier Escrituras de la enfermedad y discurso decolonial en la literatura hispanoamericana reciente, n. 24-11/2020, pp. 306-333.
Campra, Rosalba (2001), “Lo fantástico: una isotopía de la transgresión”, in David Roas (comp.), Teorías de lo fantástico, Madrid, Arco Libros, pp. 153-192.
Cannavacciuolo, Margherita (2020), El cuerpo cómplice. Los cuentos de Julio Cortázar, Madrid, Visor, pp. 115-169.
_______________________ (2020), “Cuerpos en vilo, identidades en tránsito: la narrativa de Guadalupe Nettel”, en Coloquia, Université Paris-Sorbonne, pp. 75-88.
_______________________ “De límites inciertos: ¿lo fantástico? en dos cuentos de Solange Rodríguez Pappe”, in Gabriele Bizzarri (ed.), Astronaves en la cordillera, Madrid, Iberoamericana-Vervuert (in corso di pubblicazione).
Ceserani, Remo (1996), Il fantastico, Bologna, Il Mulino.
Livellara Abrile, Julia (2019) “La poética de lo fantástico y su modulación en Pájaros en la boca de Samanta Schweblin”, en Tropelías. Revista de Teoría de la Literatura y Literatura Comparada, n. 31, pp. 341-358.
Podlubne, Judith (2013), “La visión de la infancia en los cuentos de Silvina Ocampo”, en Confluenze, Vol. 5, n. 2, 2013, pp. 97-106.
Vazquez Elizaldi, Valeria (2022). “Hongos”: un erotismo del cuerpo enfermo. Humanitas. Revista De Teoría, Crítica Y Estudios Literarios, 1(2), 147–165.


RECOMMENDED BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Campra, Rosalba (2008), Territorios de la ficción. Lo fantástico, Sevilla, Renacimiento.
Orlando, Francesco (2017), Il soprannaturale letterario. Storia, logica e forme, Torino, Einaudi, pp. 3-26.
Phillipps-López, Dolores, “Introducción”, Cuentos fantásticos modernistas de Hispanoamérica, Madrid, Catedra, pp, 11-47.

The assessment of the learning will take place through the presentation in class of one or more themes and/or texts chosen by the student and a final oral exam. The presentation aims to verify oral skills and the ability to carry out a critical reasoning; while the oral exam aims to verify the knowledge concerning the statutes of the fantastic and the various literary themes of Hispanic America in the period considered, as well as the ability to understand narratological and cultural issues. The exam will last approximately 20-30 minutes and will consist of approximately three questions.

The lessons will be carried out according to the conventional method (frontal lessons) and will be held in Spanish. Students will also be invited to choose one of the proposed themes and develop a presentation in the classroom using the theoretical tools presented and the proposed bibliography.
The exam will consist of an oral interview in Spanish on the authors, the texts and the issues considered in the classroom.

More critical information will be offer during the classes.
Moreover, every student is recommended to follow additional lessons and round-table conferences and that may be held between September and December 2024.

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