28991 - Contemporary Italian Literature (LM)

Academic Year 2013/2014

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Italian Culture and Language for Foreigners (cod. 0983)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student will know the main historical and critical questions posed by authors and texts of the contemporary italian literature. He/She also will know the lines of the critic debate and use the main methods to analise literary texts.

Course contents

ARGUMENT:

 Italian  postcolonial literature and world literature



DESCRIPTION:

During the course we will increase knowledge of individual authors develop a comparative reading of texts in the programme. The course will focus on the techniques that imaginative writers use to articulate poscolonial dimensions and on the relationships between authors and readers, languages and cultures in the global world. This course will also introduce students to the italian migrant writers.


Readings/Bibliography

Students will fully read the following texts:

Joseph Conrad, Cuore di tenebra, Feltrinelli 2003
Ennio Flaiano, Tempo di uccidere, Einaudi, 2009
Gabriella Ghermandi, Regina di perle e di fiori, Donzelli, 2007
Wu Ming2 e Antar Mohamed, Romanzo meticcio, Einaudi, 2012 or Wu Ming1 e Roberto Santachiara, Point Lenana, Einaudi 2013



They will also read:

G.Benvenuti e R.Ceserani, La letteratura nell'età globale, Il Mulino, 2012

Teaching methods

The lessons are, most of all, lectures held by the teacher. During the lessons, students will be encouraged to participate. We will use also some tools to support teaching, especially power-point. Movies and documentaries will be shown for the contextualization of readings scheduled. Finally, scholars will be invited for some specific issues and for the presentation of some texts and authors.

Assessment methods

The oral test consists in an oral interview which has the aim of evaluating the critical and methodological ability of the students. The students will be invited to discuss the tests on the course programme. The student must demonstrate an appropriate knowledge of the bibliography in the course programme. Access to the oral test depends on having passed the written test. The final mark is not a mathematical average of the two tests.

Those students who are able to demonstrate a wide and systematic understanding of the issues covered during the lessons, are able to use these critically and who master the field-specific language of the discipline will be given a mark of excellence.

Those students who demonstrate a mnemonic knowledge of the subject with a more superficial analytical ability and ability to synthesize, a correct command of the language but not always appropriate, will be given a ‘fair' mark.

A superficial knowledge and understanding of the material, a scarce analytical and expressive ability that is not always appropriate will be rewarded with a pass mark or just above a pass mark.

Students who demonstrate gaps in their knowledge of the subject matter, inappropriate language use, lack of familiarity with the literature in the programme bibliography will not be given a pass mark.

Teaching tools

In addition to lectures, held by the teacher, audiovisual tools will be used to support the teaching. Scholars will also be invited to bring a significant contribution to increasing the issues upon which focuses the course.

Office hours

See the website of Giuliana Benvenuti