Genres and Literary System in Contemporary Italy
A.Y. 2023/2024
Learning objectives
The course aims to offer students an articulated portrait of the contemporary literary system and its founding elements: authors and texts, genres and literary institutions, criticism and publishing mediation. The workshop has a strong interdisciplinary nature, by integrating some fundamental sociological, critical-literary and philosophical reflections of the 19th and 20th centuries (which will be studied in the institutional part). The objectives will be reached thanks to by two monographic modules, in which some important works of Italian literature from the Unification of the Country to the present days will be read and interpreted in depth. The workshop also aims to provide the necessary tools for an in-depth formal and thematic investigation of literary works, their overall interpretation, capacity of identifying the texts' relationships with the literary genres to which they belong, with the cultural and socio-historical context, and with the worldviews below them.
Expected learning outcomes
At the end of the course, the student will assimilate some of the main critical reflections on modern and contemporary literary institutions and will learn specific tools for analysing narrative and poetic works.
The student should be able to read, with critical and methodological awareness, the texts proposed during the course, mastering the tools of literary interpretation and applying them appropriately and autonomously. Also, the student should be able to distinguish the roles and relationships that characterize the literary system, understanding their contribution in shaping the physiognomy of texts.
The student should be able to read, with critical and methodological awareness, the texts proposed during the course, mastering the tools of literary interpretation and applying them appropriately and autonomously. Also, the student should be able to distinguish the roles and relationships that characterize the literary system, understanding their contribution in shaping the physiognomy of texts.
Lesson period: Second semester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course cannot be attended as a single course. Please check our list of single courses to find the ones available for enrolment.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
Second semester
Teaching in presence is foreseen.
Course syllabus
In search of oneself: stories of young people, between narrative, theatre and poetry
In its monographic part (Teaching Unit 1 and 3), the course will study five important literary texts (two novels, two plays and a verse poem) published between the late 1950s and the early 2000s.
The Unit 1, Bildungsroman and family novel from Elsa Morante to Elena Ferrante, will first of all study a great classic of the second half of the Twentieth Century, "Arturo's Island" by Elsa Morante, comparing it with a recent great success, Elena Ferrante's "My brilliant friend". Elena Ferrante, who is openly inspired by Morante, transformed the model of the Bildungsroman in the intertwined stories of two friends, in the context of a family saga.
"Arturo's Island" (1957) tells the struggle of growing up with the voice of a motherless teenager, who has been living in the solitude and freedom of a world apart, out of history. Arturo will be discovering the complexity of family relationships and of his own feelings when his father Wilhelm remarries the very young Nunziata. The journey of awareness mixes incessantly with the self-deceptions of the ego, in a representation of extraordinary intensity of the effort to grow up and of the ambivalences of the heart. "My brilliant friend. Childhood, adolescence" (2011) by Elena Ferrante is the first of the four novels in the cycle that gave the mysterious writer worldwide success. The narrator, Elena, tells the story of herself and her friend Lila, with whom she develops a complex relationship of love and rivalry. The destinies of the two friends, opposite and complementary, unfold on the background of the Rione, a popular district of Naples, staging a tangle of family events, where the difficult conquest of freedom and identity clashes with misery, ignorance and violence of a world that is both archaic and very modern.
The Unit 3, «Good wives» in Post-war Milan, deals with three stories set in Milan, first pub-lished in 1960: a poem by Elio Pagliarani, "La ragazza Carla", and two plays by Giovanni Testori, "La Maria Brasca" and "L'Arialda". In all three cases, the protagonists are young women grappling with their entry into adulthood, amidst affairs of the heart, work troubles and tormented family relationships. All this is set against the backdrop of post-war Milan in great ferment, still grappling with reconstruction, but with the economic miracle already in sight.
The Unit 2, Literary system and historical-social context, devoted to the Theory of Literature, will show some fundamental issues of the relationships between Literature and historical context, from a multidisciplinary point of view, studying some crucial texts of Sociology, Literary Criticism and Philosophy between 19th and 20th Centuries.
In its monographic part (Teaching Unit 1 and 3), the course will study five important literary texts (two novels, two plays and a verse poem) published between the late 1950s and the early 2000s.
The Unit 1, Bildungsroman and family novel from Elsa Morante to Elena Ferrante, will first of all study a great classic of the second half of the Twentieth Century, "Arturo's Island" by Elsa Morante, comparing it with a recent great success, Elena Ferrante's "My brilliant friend". Elena Ferrante, who is openly inspired by Morante, transformed the model of the Bildungsroman in the intertwined stories of two friends, in the context of a family saga.
"Arturo's Island" (1957) tells the struggle of growing up with the voice of a motherless teenager, who has been living in the solitude and freedom of a world apart, out of history. Arturo will be discovering the complexity of family relationships and of his own feelings when his father Wilhelm remarries the very young Nunziata. The journey of awareness mixes incessantly with the self-deceptions of the ego, in a representation of extraordinary intensity of the effort to grow up and of the ambivalences of the heart. "My brilliant friend. Childhood, adolescence" (2011) by Elena Ferrante is the first of the four novels in the cycle that gave the mysterious writer worldwide success. The narrator, Elena, tells the story of herself and her friend Lila, with whom she develops a complex relationship of love and rivalry. The destinies of the two friends, opposite and complementary, unfold on the background of the Rione, a popular district of Naples, staging a tangle of family events, where the difficult conquest of freedom and identity clashes with misery, ignorance and violence of a world that is both archaic and very modern.
The Unit 3, «Good wives» in Post-war Milan, deals with three stories set in Milan, first pub-lished in 1960: a poem by Elio Pagliarani, "La ragazza Carla", and two plays by Giovanni Testori, "La Maria Brasca" and "L'Arialda". In all three cases, the protagonists are young women grappling with their entry into adulthood, amidst affairs of the heart, work troubles and tormented family relationships. All this is set against the backdrop of post-war Milan in great ferment, still grappling with reconstruction, but with the economic miracle already in sight.
The Unit 2, Literary system and historical-social context, devoted to the Theory of Literature, will show some fundamental issues of the relationships between Literature and historical context, from a multidisciplinary point of view, studying some crucial texts of Sociology, Literary Criticism and Philosophy between 19th and 20th Centuries.
Prerequisites for admission
Basic knowledge of Italian literary history from the Unification of Italy to the end of the twentieth century. Basic knowledge of narratology and rhetoric.
Teaching methods
Frontal lessons.
Teaching Resources
Programme Unit 1 (20 hours, 3 CFU):
Bildungsroman and Family Novel from Elsa Morante to Elena Ferrante
Bibliography and other didactic materials Unità 3 (attending students):
Texts:
Elsa Morante, L'isola di Arturo, Torino, Einaudi, or in Id., Opere, vol. I, Milano, Mondadori.
Elena Ferrante, L'amica geniale. Infanzia, adolescenza (2011), Roma, edizioni e/o.
Critical Bibliography:
Giovanna Rosa, L'isola dell'iniziazione impossibile, in Id., Cattedrali di carta. Elsa Morante ro-manziere, Milano, il Saggiatore, pp. 105-164.
Tiziana de Rogatis, L'amicizia femminile e Smarginatura frantumaglia sorveglianza: tra figlie e madri, in Id., Elena Ferrante. Parole chiave, Roma, edizioni e/o, pp. 55-121.
Bibliography and other didactic materials Unità 3 (non attending students):
Texts:
Elsa Morante, L'isola di Arturo, Torino, Einaudi, or in Id., Opere, vol. I, Milano, Mondadori.
Elena Ferrante, L'amica geniale. Infanzia, adolescenza (2011), Roma, edizioni e/o.
Critical Bibliography:
Giovanna Rosa, L'isola dell'iniziazione impossibile, in Id., Cattedrali di carta. Elsa Morante ro-manziere, Milano, il Saggiatore, pp. 105-164.
Alba Andreini, L'isola di Arturo di Elsa Morante, in Letteratura italiana. Le Opere, diretta da A. Asor Rosa, vol. IV, Il Novecento, tomo II La ricerca letteraria, Torino, Einaudi, pp. 685-712 [di-spensa].
Tiziana de Rogatis, L'amicizia femminile e Smarginatura frantumaglia sorveglianza: tra figlie e madri, in Id., Elena Ferrante. Parole chiave, Roma, edizioni e/o, pp. 55-121.
Stiliana Milkova, Il Minotauro e la doppia Arianna: spazio liminale, labirinto urbano e città femminile ne L'amica geniale di Elena Ferrante, «Contemporanea», 15, 2015, pp. 77-88 [dispensa].
Programme Unit 2: (20 ore, 3 CFU)
Literary system and historical-social context
Bibliography and other didactic materials Unit 2 (attending students):
Texts: Gianni Turchetta, Critica, letteratura e società, Roma, Carocci.
Attending students will prepare for the exam six of the twelve essays of the book.
Bibliography and other didactic materials Unità 2 (non attending atudents):
Texts: Gianni Turchetta, Critica, letteratura e società, Roma, Carocci.
Non attending students will prepare for the exam ten of the twelve essays of the book.
Programme Unit 3 (20 hours, 3 CFU):
«Good wives» in Post-war Milan
Bibliography and other didactic materials Unit 1 (attending students):
Texts:
Elio Pagliarani, La ragazza Carla, Milano, il Saggiatore.
Giovanni Testori, La Maria Brasca, Milano, Feltrinelli.
Giovanni Testori, L'Arialda, Milano, Feltrinelli.
Critical Bibliography:
Andrea Cortellessa, La parola che balla, introduzione a Elio Pagliarani, Tutte le poesie (1946-2005), Milano, Garzanti, pp. 14-31 [dispensa].
Gianni Turchetta, «Lo spasma dello spirito e lo spasma della materia»: I segreti di Milano di Giovanni Testori, in Milano da leggere, a cura di Barbara Peroni, Ufficio Scolastico lombardo, 2005, pp. 88-102 [dispensa].
Bibliography and other didactic materials Unit 1 (non attending students):
Texts:
Elio Pagliarani, La ragazza Carla, Milano, il Saggiatore.
Giovanni Testori, La Maria Brasca, Milano, Feltrinelli.
Giovanni Testori, L'Arialda, Milano, Feltrinelli.
Critical Bibliography:
Andrea Cortellessa, La parola che balla, introduzione a Elio Pagliarani, Tutte le poesie (1946-2005), Milano, Garzanti, pp. 14-31 [dispensa].
Giuseppe Andrea Liberti, La ragazza Carla di Elio Pagliarani tra esecuzione e metrica, «Italian Poetry Review», 12, 2017, pp. 317-331.
Gianni Turchetta, «Lo spasma dello spirito e lo spasma della materia»: I segreti di Milano di Giovanni Testori, in Milano da leggere, a cura di Barbara Peroni, Milano, Ufficio Scolastico lombardo, 2005, pp. 88-102 [dispensa].
Luca Daino, I Segreti del cuore nella Milano di Giovanni Testori, in Massimo Prada, Giuseppe Sergio (a cura di), Italiani di Milano. Studi in onore di Silvia Morgana, Milano, Ledizioni, pp. 729-745 [dispensa].
Bildungsroman and Family Novel from Elsa Morante to Elena Ferrante
Bibliography and other didactic materials Unità 3 (attending students):
Texts:
Elsa Morante, L'isola di Arturo, Torino, Einaudi, or in Id., Opere, vol. I, Milano, Mondadori.
Elena Ferrante, L'amica geniale. Infanzia, adolescenza (2011), Roma, edizioni e/o.
Critical Bibliography:
Giovanna Rosa, L'isola dell'iniziazione impossibile, in Id., Cattedrali di carta. Elsa Morante ro-manziere, Milano, il Saggiatore, pp. 105-164.
Tiziana de Rogatis, L'amicizia femminile e Smarginatura frantumaglia sorveglianza: tra figlie e madri, in Id., Elena Ferrante. Parole chiave, Roma, edizioni e/o, pp. 55-121.
Bibliography and other didactic materials Unità 3 (non attending students):
Texts:
Elsa Morante, L'isola di Arturo, Torino, Einaudi, or in Id., Opere, vol. I, Milano, Mondadori.
Elena Ferrante, L'amica geniale. Infanzia, adolescenza (2011), Roma, edizioni e/o.
Critical Bibliography:
Giovanna Rosa, L'isola dell'iniziazione impossibile, in Id., Cattedrali di carta. Elsa Morante ro-manziere, Milano, il Saggiatore, pp. 105-164.
Alba Andreini, L'isola di Arturo di Elsa Morante, in Letteratura italiana. Le Opere, diretta da A. Asor Rosa, vol. IV, Il Novecento, tomo II La ricerca letteraria, Torino, Einaudi, pp. 685-712 [di-spensa].
Tiziana de Rogatis, L'amicizia femminile e Smarginatura frantumaglia sorveglianza: tra figlie e madri, in Id., Elena Ferrante. Parole chiave, Roma, edizioni e/o, pp. 55-121.
Stiliana Milkova, Il Minotauro e la doppia Arianna: spazio liminale, labirinto urbano e città femminile ne L'amica geniale di Elena Ferrante, «Contemporanea», 15, 2015, pp. 77-88 [dispensa].
Programme Unit 2: (20 ore, 3 CFU)
Literary system and historical-social context
Bibliography and other didactic materials Unit 2 (attending students):
Texts: Gianni Turchetta, Critica, letteratura e società, Roma, Carocci.
Attending students will prepare for the exam six of the twelve essays of the book.
Bibliography and other didactic materials Unità 2 (non attending atudents):
Texts: Gianni Turchetta, Critica, letteratura e società, Roma, Carocci.
Non attending students will prepare for the exam ten of the twelve essays of the book.
Programme Unit 3 (20 hours, 3 CFU):
«Good wives» in Post-war Milan
Bibliography and other didactic materials Unit 1 (attending students):
Texts:
Elio Pagliarani, La ragazza Carla, Milano, il Saggiatore.
Giovanni Testori, La Maria Brasca, Milano, Feltrinelli.
Giovanni Testori, L'Arialda, Milano, Feltrinelli.
Critical Bibliography:
Andrea Cortellessa, La parola che balla, introduzione a Elio Pagliarani, Tutte le poesie (1946-2005), Milano, Garzanti, pp. 14-31 [dispensa].
Gianni Turchetta, «Lo spasma dello spirito e lo spasma della materia»: I segreti di Milano di Giovanni Testori, in Milano da leggere, a cura di Barbara Peroni, Ufficio Scolastico lombardo, 2005, pp. 88-102 [dispensa].
Bibliography and other didactic materials Unit 1 (non attending students):
Texts:
Elio Pagliarani, La ragazza Carla, Milano, il Saggiatore.
Giovanni Testori, La Maria Brasca, Milano, Feltrinelli.
Giovanni Testori, L'Arialda, Milano, Feltrinelli.
Critical Bibliography:
Andrea Cortellessa, La parola che balla, introduzione a Elio Pagliarani, Tutte le poesie (1946-2005), Milano, Garzanti, pp. 14-31 [dispensa].
Giuseppe Andrea Liberti, La ragazza Carla di Elio Pagliarani tra esecuzione e metrica, «Italian Poetry Review», 12, 2017, pp. 317-331.
Gianni Turchetta, «Lo spasma dello spirito e lo spasma della materia»: I segreti di Milano di Giovanni Testori, in Milano da leggere, a cura di Barbara Peroni, Milano, Ufficio Scolastico lombardo, 2005, pp. 88-102 [dispensa].
Luca Daino, I Segreti del cuore nella Milano di Giovanni Testori, in Massimo Prada, Giuseppe Sergio (a cura di), Italiani di Milano. Studi in onore di Silvia Morgana, Milano, Ledizioni, pp. 729-745 [dispensa].
Assessment methods and Criteria
The exam consists of an oral interview on the topics of the program, aimed at ascertaining the knowledge of the main topics covered, the acquisition of the basic methodological tools for the interpretation of literary texts and the ability to apply them appropriately and autonomously to the scheduled texts. Attendance at the lessons is strongly recommended for better preparation for the exam.
However, the program already includes integrations for students who are unable to attend. There are no intermediate tests, nor exams with partial programmes: students will have to present all the teaching units for the exam, without exceptions. Students must register through the appropriate links on the University website: only in this case can the exams be regularly registered.
However, the program already includes integrations for students who are unable to attend. There are no intermediate tests, nor exams with partial programmes: students will have to present all the teaching units for the exam, without exceptions. Students must register through the appropriate links on the University website: only in this case can the exams be regularly registered.
L-FIL-LET/11 - CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN LITERATURE - University credits: 9
Lessons: 60 hours
Professors:
Daino Luca, Turchetta Giovanni
Professor(s)