The aim of the course is to give the students the historical, cultural and critical instruments that are necessary to analyze the literary styles that have characterized Italian Contemporary Literature. The relationships between literature, culture and society will be put in evidence and discussed together with the students in order to provide them with a wider idea of what Italian literature is today.

By the end of the semester the students will be able to understand what are the elements that can be considered original to contemporary Italian literature and to identify their origin in relation to the socio-historical-economical evolution of the country during the period between the unification and nowadays.

By the end of this course students should be able to demonstrate:

a) an understanding of the style and of the cultural background of the writers studied in the course;

b) an ability to synthesize information from a range of primary sources in both oral and written form;

c) a capacity to construct a relevant and analytical response to a literary question;

d) self-management skills.

The first part of the course concentrates on the analysis of the nature of Twentieth-Century Italian Literature. It focuses on such themes as Modernity, Avant-Garde and Tradition, Identity literature, Gender, Doubles and Memory, War and Literary languages. The second part of the course will be consecrated to the Italian Literature of WWI, including works by Gabriele D'Annunzio, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Emilio Lussu, Giulio Trasanna and other prominent authors.

The course aims at providing students with a firm understanding of the literary, cultural and historical scene of Twentieth-Century Italy. During the course students will acquire the necessary linguistic and critical tools to analyse works of literature, discuss literary works using the correct terminology, and be encouraged to make autonomous judgments. Moreover, the course wishes to stimulate an open-minded approach to recent Italian cultural history.

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

Course books

Textbooks:

* Paolo Giovannetti, La letteratura italiana moderna e contemporanea. Guida allo studio, Roma, Carocci, 2016, ad eccezione delle pp. 27-37 (par. da 1.3.1 a 1.4.2 compreso); 93-134 (par. da 4.3.2 a 6.4 compreso); 159-183 (par. da 8.2 a 8.4.2).

* Alberto Casadei, Il Novecento. Seconda edizione, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2013.

Novels, poems and short stories:

* Giuseppe Ungaretti, Il porto sepolto, Venezia, Marsilio [Introduction by Carlo Ossola]

* Gabriele D'Annunzio, Notturno, Milano, Bur [Introduction by Guido Davico Bonino]

* Emilio Lussu, Un anno sull'Altipiano, Torino, Einaudi [Introduction by Mario Rigoni Stern]

* Giulio Trasanna, Soldati, Macerata, Quodlibet [Introduction by Riccardo Donati]

Additional online material – which is part of the exam material - will be posted on Moodle: blended.uniurb.it.

Course books

Non-Attending Students should also read these two texts: Il castello di Udine and Il giornale di guerra e di prigionia by Carlo Emilio Gadda.

Assessment

Written exam.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.