CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN LITERATURE
Oral
The course aims to perfect the students’ critical skills about literary phenomena of the 20th century through careful comparison between narrative texts which are formally and historically contextualized.
Starting with the historical and ideological picture of the concept of modernity, and from the formal and social-cultural importance of the novel genre, we will investigate the relationship between narrative writing and the author’s responsibility as an intellectual during the period of fascist totalitarianism (1922-1945). For this purpose, a wide sample of novels published and/or written during this period will be presented and discussed.
Main bibliography ― Student should read two novels chosen from the following list (any edition, as long as it is complete, will be accepted): A. MORAVIA, Gli indifferenti (280 pp.); V. BRANCATI, Il bell’Antonio (260 pp.); E. VITTORINI, Conversazione in Sicilia (210 pp.); I. SILONE, Fontamara (205 pp.); C. LEVI, Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (215 pp.); C.E. GADDA, La cognizione del dolore (190 pp.); C. ALVARO, L’uomo è forte (250 pp.); D. BUZZATI, Il deserto dei Tartari (205 pp.); S. SATTA, La veranda (200 pp.); E. LUSSU, Marcia su Roma e dintorni (170 pp.); G. DELEDDA, L’argine (180 pp.).
Critical bibliography ― A. CASADEI, M. SANTAGATA, Manuale di letteratura italiana contemporanea, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2007 (pp. 5-224).
Lectures