This course combines seminar discussions of the readings and lectures by the professor.

Italian Literature II - Spring Semester 2020

Monday, 4:00-5:30 pm

             5:45-7:15 pm, Room G2

Prof. Fiammetta Di Lorenzo (fiammettadil@gmail.com )

Syllabus

Main Goals:

This course is designed as a broad introduction to the Italian literature and culture from 18th to 20th century. In the first part, we will explore the crucial role exerted by literature, and in particular by the novel, in the creation of a collective pact around the idea that not only did a nation called Italy already exist, but that it should also be politically unified. Indeed, it is only in conjunction with the emergence of a national problem that the novel, a genre formerly “prohibited” in the Italian literary tradition, could be rehabilitated and play a fundamental role in the building of a shared understanding of the nation. The analysis of different texts will allow us to recognize conflicting ideas of national communities and thus to retrace the complexity of the Italian Risorgimento. After the unification, we will look at the new nation state through the lens provided by authors such as Verga, Serao, and De Roberto. The unity and the reliability of the self will be put in question, in the aftermath of WWI, by Pirandello and Svevo. The last classes will be devoted to the second half of the 20th century. Through the analysis of texts by Fenoglio, Ortese, Pasolini, Morante, Calvino, and Saviano, we will explore some of the key-moments of the Italian recent history.      

Requirements:   

• Class participation: You are expected to actively read all assigned readings before each lesson, and to contribute meaningfully to classroom discussions. While attendance is necessary in order to obtain a good class grade, your presence alone does not constitute participation.

• Each class, a student will be in charge of a secondary reading (TBD with the instructor in the first week of classes): he or she will prepare an introduction highlighting the main points of the text and will be responsible for leading the in-class discussion.

Final exam:

The final exam will consist in a written quiz based on the assigned readings and the topics addressed during the classes.

Texts:

Peter Brand, Lino Pertile, The Cambridge History of the Italian Literature, Cambridge, CUP, 1999.

Alessandro Manzoni, The Betrothed, Transl. by B. Pelmann, London: Penguin. 2006

All other readings will be available in digital version.

Schedule

                                         A New Sensibility: Enlightenment and Romanticism

• Introduction

Kant, pp. 58-64; Habermas, pp. 43-51; Watt, pp. 134-44;

• The Educated Spectator: Goldoni’s Reform

Goldoni, Pamela

                                         The Rise of the Italian Novel

• Italy as an Imagined Community

Benedict Anderson; Alberto Mario Banti; Manzoni; Cuoco, Excerpts from The Historical Essay

• Manzoni’s The Betrothed

     Manzoni, Selected Chapters

• Manzoni’s The Betrothed

     Manzoni Selected Chapters; Calvino, The Betrothed: The Novel of Ratios and Power

• Manzoni’s The Betrothed

     Manzoni Selected Chapters; Gramsci on Risorgimento

• An Alternative Model: Ippolito Nievo’s Confessions of an Italian

Nievo, Excerpts

The Age of Disillusionment

• Verga, Libertà; Gramsci, Selected readings
• De Roberto; Pirandello, The Old and the Young (excerpts)
• The Collapse of the Self

Pirandello, On Humour; Svevo, excerpts from Zeno’s Conscience

• Svevo, Zeno’s Conscience.

From WWII to the Economic Boom

• Partisan Fenoglio; Primo Levi
• Still the Southern Question

     Anna Maria Ortese, Readings from Neapolitan Chronicles

• Where Have All the Fireflies Gone?

Readings from Pasolini and Calvino

1968 and its Aftermath

• Youth and Women

Selected readings from Elsa Morante, Goliarda Sapienza, and Carla Lonzi

• Sciascia

Selected readings

• After Postmodernism

Saviano’s Gomorrah, selected chapters

• Saviano

   Saviano’s Gomorrah, selected chapters

Rubric for Assessing Student Participation

Exemplary

Proficient

Developing

Unacceptable

Frequency of

participation

in class

Student initiates

contributions more than once in each session.

Student initiates

contribution once in each session.

Student initiates

contribution at

least in half of the sessions

Student does not initiate contribution

& needs

instructor to

solicit input.

Quality of

comments

Comments always

insightful & constructive;

uses appropriate

terminology. Comments

balanced between general

impressions, opinions &

specific, thoughtful

criticisms or contributions.

Comments mostly insightful & constructive;

mostly uses appropriate terminology. Occasionally

comments are too general or not relevant

to the discussion.

Comments are sometimes

constructive, with occasional signs of insight. Student does not use appropriate

terminology; comments not always relevant to the discussion.

Comments are

uninformative, lacking in

appropriate terminology.

Heavy reliance on

opinion & personal taste,

e.g., “I love it”, “I hate it”,

“It’s bad” etc.

Listening

Skills

Student listens attentively when others present materials, perspectives, as indicated by

comments that build on others’

remarks, i.e., student hears what others say

& contributes to the dialogue.

Student is mostly attentive when others present ideas, materials, as indicated by

comments that reflect & build on others’ remarks.

Occasionally needs encouragement or

reminder from T.A of focus of comment.

Student is often inattentive

and needs reminder of

focus of class.

Occasionally makes

disruptive comments

while others are speaking.

Does not listen to others;

regularly talks while others

speak or does not pay

attention while others

speak; detracts from

discussion; sleeps, etc.

Attendance is mandatory. Non-attending students are not allowed to take the exam.

• Class participation: Students are expected to actively read all assigned readings before each lesson, and to contribute meaningfully to classroom discussions. While attendance is necessary in order to obtain a good class grade, students' presence alone does not constitute participation. Class participation is worth 40% of the final grade.

• Weekly reports: each class a student will be in charge of a secondary reading (TBD with the instructor in the first week of classes): he or she will prepare an introduction highlighting the main points of the text and will be responsible for leading the in-class discussion. 20% of the final grade will be based on that.

• Final Exam will represent 40% of the final grade.

https://classroom.google.com/c/NjI1MDYwMzIzMDda