ITALIAN LITERATURE

Università degli Studi
"G. d'Annunzio"

Chieti - Pescara

Single discipline educational activity

Course Sheet

Course code:

LC012

Academic Year of enrolment:

2022

Year of supply:

2022/2023

Type of Course:

Basic

Degree:

Course of 1st Cycle Degree in HUMANITIES

Disciplinary Sector:

ITALIAN LITERATURE

Location:

CHIETI

Credits:

Programme Year:

Professor and Collaborators:

CIMINI Mario

Cycle:

First semester

Hours of classroom activity:

Individual study hours:

216

Prerequisites:

No prerequisites.

Objectives

The teaching contributes to the learning objectives of the undergraduate programme in Humanities, in particular along the following lines:
Skills and Understanding
On completion of the course students must:
-possess in-depth and wide knowledge from a bibliographical viewpoint of the historical phases of Italian literature, the authors and the most representative texts;
- be able to move with ease among the basic themes and stylistic features linked to specific periods or proper to individual authors, also in relation to the broader cultural context in which they are placed;
- be able to read and analyse an Italian literary text, recognizing its constituent elements and placing it correctly in its cultural context.

Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
On completion of the course students must:
-be able to carry out targeted analyses of literary texts on diversified methodological bases;
-be able to carry out bibliographical research in an exhaustive and updated manner, both with telematic and traditional tools, orienting themselves correctly in an archive and succeeding in correctly finding and examining the sources.
Independence of Judgement
On completion of the course students must:
-have developed autonomous abilities in analysis and interpretation of literary texts, as well as in research, collection and discussion of critical studies;
-be able to supply critically grounded but also personal interpretations of the themes and texts studied.
Communications Skills
On completion of the course students must:
-have achieved a good level of expounding and communicating the subjects of study. In particular they must employ precisely and appropriately an expressive register proper to the specific discipline.
Learning Ability
On completion of the course students must:
-have developed the ability to orient themselves autonomously in research and in-depth study in the humanistic field;
-have developed abilities of interaction at a good level in diversified cultural and linguistic contexts, using the knowledge and skills they have learnt

Contents

The course is in two parts. The first will deal with authors, genres, movements and texts of Italian literature from its origins up to the turning point between the 19th and 20th centuries. The second will be an in-depth study of Verga as exponent of the veristic literature.

Extended Syllabus

Lessons and individual study will centre around: The question of the origins of Italian literature and the birth of the vernaculars; 13th century religious literature; Didactic-allegorical poetry of the origins; Sicilian school; Sicilian-Tuscan lyric poetry; Dolce stil novo; Dante Alighieri (in particular: reading and analysis of 30 cantos of the “Comedy”, 10 for each part); Comic-realist poetry of the 13th and 14th century; Petrarch; Giovanni Boccaccio; 14th century poetry and prose; Humanism and Renaissance; Matteo M. Boiardo; Poliziano; Lorenzo de’ Medici; Luigi Pulci; Ludovico Ariosto; Pietro Bembo; Niccolò Machiavelli; Cinquecento lyric poetry and treatises; Torquato Tasso; Francesco Guicciardini; Galileo Galilei; Baroque prose and lyrics; Giovan Battista Marino; Academy of Arcadia; Pietro Metastasio; Culture and literature of the Enlightenment; Carlo Goldoni; Giuseppe Parini; Vittorio Alfieri; Pre-romanticism, Neoclassicism and Romanticism; Ugo Foscolo; Giacomo Leopardi; Alessandro Manzoni; The Scapigliati; Naturalism and Verism; Giovanni Verga, Luigi Capuana and other verist writers; Giosuè Carducci; Decadent Movement; Giovanni Pascoli; Gabriele D'Annunzio.
In-depth study will revolve around the figure and oeuvre of Giovanni Verga, in particular the texts of his verist period (“Vita dei campi”, “I Malavoglia”).
In the course of the lessons a detailed list will be supplied of the texts which, for each author, will be examination material. This list, together with teaching material used in the lessons, will be available on the website https://www.dilass.unich.it/didattica.

Recommended Bibliography

For the first part:

An authoritative reading list concerning the history of literature, such as:

- R. Luperini, P. Cataldi, L. Marchiani, La scrittura e l’interpretazione, Palermo, Palumbo, 2000 (and subsequent editions, inc. with different titles);
- G. Baldi, S. Giusso, M. Razetti, Dal testo alla storia. Dalla storia al testo, Torino, Paravia, 2000 (and subsequent editions, inc. with different titles);

- As an alternative, students possessing one of the suggested readings, can study Alfano-Italia-Russo-Tomasi, Letteratura italiana. Manuale per studi universitari, Milano, Mondadori, 2018 (2 voll.)

Recommended editions of Dante’s “Commedia”: Pasquini-Quaglio, Milano, Garzanti, 1982-86; T. Di Salvo, Bologna, Zanichelli, 1995; G. Inglese, Roma, Carocci, 2007; Chiavacci Leonardi, Milano, Mondadori, 2005.

For the second part:

- A. Manganaro, Verga, Bonanno Editore, Acireale-Roma, 2011;
- Tra Verga e Capuana. Documenti per una poetica del verismo, a cura di M. Cimini e S. Pettine, Lanciano, Carabba, 2022;
- G. Verga, Vita dei campi (qualsiasi edizione);
- G. Verga, I Malavoglia (qualsiasi edizione).

It is recommended to consult a manual of metrics and rhetoric; for example:

- P. G. Beltrami, Gli strumenti della poesia, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2002.
- B. Mortara Garavelli, Il parlar figurato. Manualetto di figure retoriche, Bari, Laterza, 2014.

Non-attendees are required to study:

- M. Cimini, Modelli e forme della narrazione. Dall'eredità manzoniana a Silone, Lanciano Carabba, 2012 (pp. 53-94)

Teaching Methods

- Traditional lessons (with teacher up front);
-Interactive lessons;
-Text reading, analysis, comment;
-Discussion and development of interpretive hypotheses.

Evaluation methods

Verification of learning:

Ascertainment of the knowledge and skills acquired is subdivided in two phases: a preliminary written test on material from Part I (history of literature, authors, movements and texts) and an oral test to assess learning with regard to the in-depth study of Verga.

The written test must meet criteria of correct orthography, morphology, syntax and semantics, of expressive clarity and summarizing skill, as well as demonstrating appropriate knowledge of the themes in question. It will consist of open answer questions (with limited length of answer) and requests to paraphrase or analyse the studied texts.
The oral exam concerned the second part is an interview whose purpose is to assess both knowledge of contents and the student’s critical and methodological skills. Access to the oral is gained by passing the written test (18/30). The assessment gained in this first part is valid for 12 months.
The final mark, which goes from 1 to 30, is not the result of the mathematical average of the two tests: assessment of the oral test may increase that of the written up to a maximum of 4 marks. The grading scale goes from 1 to 30 with honours (cum laude): 1-17 fail, 18-21 sufficient, 22-24 fair, 25-27 good, 28-29 very good, 30-30 with honours (cum laude) excellent.
Trials of the written exams will be held during the latter part of the lessons.
NB: Erasmus students need not sit the written test.

Contacts/More Information

The course is structured in a single module of 12 ECTS.

-Organisation of teaching:

84 hours of lessons, seminars and redevelopment of the themes dealt with.

Students of the old regulations or who have a study plan with a credit load other than 12 ECTS must agree on a specific programme with the teacher.

Università degli Studi
"G. d'Annunzio"

Chieti - Pescara

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