CZECH LITERATURE 1

The course is part of the curriculum and aims at understanding the history of Czech literature and culture, the theory of literary history and the analysis of literary text.


The aim of the course is to deepen the knowledge of cultural and literary production in the Czech language as well as of a literary and cultural investigation. The analysis of the text is inserted in the historical - cultural discourse both in a diachronic sense, that is as a history of literature, and synchronically, as a specific phenomenon within a pulsating cultural system. The achievement of these objectives allows the student to enrich his literary and cultural education both in analytical and synthetic terms.

1. Knowledge and understanding
● Know the basic linguistic terminology and understand the texts that make it
use.
● To know literary production and its interaction with the different spheres of culture.
● To know the theory of analysis of the literary text in its linguistic, literary and cultural components.

2. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
● (Know the basic linguistic terminology and understand the texts that make it
use.) Knowing how to properly use linguistic terminology in all processes
application and communication of acquired knowledge.
● (Knowing the literary production and its interaction with the different spheres of culture.) Knowing how to relate the analysis of the specific text with contemporary and coherent critical production in addition to the mechanisms for using the text
● (To know the tools of analysis of the literary text in its linguistic, literary, cultural components.) To be able to apply the analysis tools and the literary production as a whole to the single specific text.

4. Communication skills
● Know how to communicate the specificities of literary reflection, using one
appropriate terminology.
● Knowing how to interact with peers and with the tutor, in a critical and respectful manner, in the presence and
on the virtual classroom forum.
5. Learning skills
.
● Knowing how to critically consult the reference texts and the bibliography in them
contained.

Knowledge of the Czech language is not required

The other side of Kafka: Jaroslav Hašek. The course aims to provide knowledge of the Czech literary panorama of the early 1910s and 1920s through the work of Jaroslav Hasek, a contemporary of Franz Kafka. With the author of The Process, Hašek shares the year of birth and the city of Prague - a Prague-German for Kafka, and a Prague-Czech for Hašek. The two authors have often been referred to as two sides of the same coin: to the horror grotesque of Kakfa's society responds the surreal grotesque of Hašek's still world.
The "Svejk" is the capital work of its author, one of the cornerstones of Czech literature and a classic of European literature comparable to "Gargantua and Pantagruel" and "Don Quixote".
The novel offers a very peculiar look at the First World War: that of the simple soldier Svejk of the Habsburg army, which relegates us to a unique interpretation of the cages of power, at every level. The perspective "from below" characterizes the whole work: here History is never told directly but is always represented through the comments, by Švejk and his whole world, on the news reporting the events (primarily the newspapers ). Svejk's observations on war, peace, and power often take the form of seemingly naive deductions.

The analyses of The Adventures of the Good Soldier Svejk in the Great War will include its compositional parts, but also the languages used by the writer, and their rendering in the various Italian translations.

Literature.
The knowledge of all the materials indicated here will be subject to verification during the exam.

Jaroslav Hašek, Le avventure del bravo soldato Svejk nella grande guerra, trad. di Annalisa Cosentino, Oscar Mondadori, 2020.
Erica Weitzman, "Imperium Stupidum: Švejk, Satire, Sabotage", Law and Literature, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Summer 2006), pp. 117-148.

Karel Kosik, "Hašek and Kafka", Cross currents, vol. 2(1983), pp. 127-136.
Abigail Weil, "The Bugulma Tales- Authorship and Authority in Jaroslav Hašek’s Stories from Russia", Slavic & East European Journal, 2021, Vol. 65 Issue 1, p145-162.
Riccardo Morello, "Jaroslav Hašek. Poesia e satira nella dissoluzione dell’impero asburgico", Enthymema 19 (2017), pp 293-300.
Annalisa Cosentino, "Lo stile della testimonianza nelle Avventure del bravo soldato Švejk di Jaroslav Hašek." in Gli scrittori e la Grande Guerra. Accademia Galileiana di Scienze, Lettere e Arti in Padova, 2015, pp. 247-259.
Alfredo Martín Torrada, "Jaroslav Hašek, Las aventuras del buen soldado Švejk, y la consolidación de una identidad nacional", INTER LITTERAS (nueva serie) 4 (2022), pp. 94-113.
Christie Davies, "The Savage Style of Jaroslav Hašek.“The Good Soldier Švejk” as a Politically Incorrect Comic Masterpiece", Stylistyka 9 (2000), pp. 301-313

The final exam consists of an oral interview ( 30 minuts) based on the contents of the module and the material in moodle.
Working students unable to attend are required to contact the teacher as soon as possible for the assignment of the specific topic to be presented during the exam.
In general, in case of problems related to attendance, it is highly recommended to contact the teacher as soon as possible to evaluate any possible solutions.

Lectures. The reading of some parts of the main literary text will be required. A discussion will follow in the classroom.

Italian

oral