Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is to provide an exhaustive outline of the Italian literary tradition and its main formal and thematic features from the beginning to the Italian Unity.

Program

Prerequisites: Basic knowledge of Italian Literature
Course Subject:
For the preliminary part: The main authors and moments of the Italian Literary Tradition from the beginning to the Italian Unity will be presented through exemplary texts.
For the advanced part: Dante’s “Purgatorio” reading
Required texts:
For the Preliminary part , attending and not attending students:
Gino Tellini, Letteratura italiana. Un metodo di studio, Firenze, Le Monnier Università, 2011 (the first two sections: Dalle origini al Rinascimento e Dalla Nuova Scienza all’epica risorgimentale, pp. 3-336).
The book’s knowledge must be completed with an anthological selection of works from Italian literary tradition’s most important authors (available on the e-learning platform). During the course the texts to be analyzed will be pointed out by the teacher.
Among the anthological selection not attending students must demonstrate their competence in analysing:

Petrarca,”Canzoniere”: five poetic works, including at least one “canzone”;
Boccaccio, “Decameron”: five stories;
Machiavelli, two chapters of the “Principe” and one scene from the “Mandragola”;
Ariosto, “Orlando furioso”: one “canto” among those in the anthology;
Tasso, “Gerusalemme liberata”: one “canto” among those in the anthology;
Goldoni: the choice of one Comedy plays act;
Parini ,one “ode” or a passage from “Il Giorno”;
Alfieri: one act from the “Mirra” or an anthological passage from “Vita”;
Foscolo: two sonets or a section from “Dei Sepolcri”;
Leopardi: three cantos and one of the “Operette morali”;
Manzoni: one poetic work or one passage of “I Promessi Sposi”.

Students must make out the list of their chosen passages in order to show it to the examiner.

For the advanced part: for the second “Cantica” of the “Divina Commedia” di Dante, one of the following editions is suggested among many others:
notes by Natalino Sapegno ( La Nuova Italia),
notes by Emilio Pasquini and Antonio Enzo Quaglio (Garzanti);
notes by Anna Maria Chiavacci (Mondadori);
notes by Giorgio Inglese, Roma, (Carocci, 2011).
Useful reference book: Vittorio Sermonti, Il Purgatorio di Dante, con la supervisione di Gianfranco Contini, Milano, Rizzoli, 1990.
Critical bibliography: to approach Dante’s “Commedia” it’s useful to read: Giorgio Inglese,“Dante: guida alla Divina Commedia”, Roma, Carocci.
Further bibliographical suggestions will be given by the teacher during the course.


To study in depth Dante’s works and biography, the following essays are suggested ( 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.
For the Purgatorio’s story it’s essential to read : Jacques Le Goff, La naissance du Purgatoire, Paris, Gallimard, 1981 -tr. it.: La nascita del Purgatorio, Torino, Einaudi, 1982( not compulsory for attending students).

Not attending students, besides showing an accurate and detailed knowledge of at least fifteen cantos of Dante’s Purgatorio, must also study:
-Giorgio Inglese, Dante: guida alla Divina Commedia, Roma, Carocci
and at least two critical studies among those above-mentioned. The list of the selected cantos and the critic essays must be shown to the examiner.
Teaching methods:
lectures and seminar-workshops

Examination Methods

Oral examination