Learning outcomes

The course aims to offer students insights into the nature and working of Italian literary tradition, considering its main characteristics, topics and literary forms from the origins until Italian Unification.

Program

Prerequisites: students must have a general knowledge of Italian Literature

Course content: For the introductory part: presentation of the main movements and authors of the Italian literary tradition from the origins until Italian Unification, making reference to exemplary texts.
For the main part of the course: Reading of the Dante’s Inferno


Reference Texts: For the introductory part, both for attending and non-attending students: Gino Tellini, Letteratura italiana. Un metodo di studio, Firenze, Le Monnier Università, 2011 (the first two sections: Dalle origini al Rinascimento and Dalla Nuova Scienza all’epica risorgimentale, pp. 3-336).
For the main part of the course: for the first canticle of Dante’s Comedy we recommend one of the following editions with comment: the Divine Comedy edited by Natalino Sapegno (la Nuova Italia), or by Emilio Pasquini and Antonio Enzo Quaglio (Garzanti), or by Anna Maria Chiavacci (Mondadori).

Critical bibliography: for a first introduction to Dante’s Comedy it is necessary to study the introductions of the recommended critical editions and the following texts:
Giorgio Inglese, Dante: guida alla Divina Commedia, Roma, Carocci.
Further texts and readings will be given during the lessons. For a in-depth analysis of Dante and his work the following texts are recommended (they are not compulsory for attending students):

Bruno Nardi, Dante e la cultura medievale, Roma-Bari, Laterza;
Eric Auerbach, Studi su Dante, Torino, Einaudi;
Gianfranco Contini, Un’idea di Dante, Torino, Einaudi;
Marco Santagata, L’io e il mondo. Un’interpretazione di Dante, Bologna, il Mulino.
Per una storia dell’inferno: George Minois, Piccola storia dell’inferno, Bologna, il Mulino (it is not compulsory for attending students).


Non-attending students must demonstrate a precise knowledge of at least fifteen cantos of Dante’s Inferno, study Giorgio Inglese, Dante: guida alla Divina Commedia (Roma, Carocci) and at least two among the above mentioned critical essays. A written list of the cantos and of the critical texts that have been chosen for the oral exam has to be shown during the test.

Didactic methods: Lectures and eventually seminars.

Examination Methods

Oral examination.