GERMAN LITERATURE
Oral exam
In order to be admitted to the exam it is necessary to read the works listed below in READINGS.
Non-participant students have to prepare for the oral exam:
Fambrini, Alessandro: Letà del realismo. La letteratura tedesca dellOttocento (Carocci)
The course aims to provide basic knowledge of German literary and cultural history, of the characteristic features of its main periods, in particular that of the age of REALISM and of some prominent authors of this period, 'classics' of German literature (such as Büchner,Mörike, Stifter, Storm etc.). The student will acquire the analytical tools to understand the individual works of the authors in question and place them in their respective historical, cultural and literary context. It will be sensitized to the problems of literary and cultural historiography in general and of the periodization of German literature in the specific and enabled to orientate himself autonomously in the field of German Studies in order to be able to identify and eventually specify future research interests.
REALISM - 19th CENTURY LITERATURE AND AESTHETIC CULTURE
The nineteenth century is generally considered the century of realism. Artists not only proclaimed themselves realists during that period; realism was also generally the cultural style of the moment and "realism", as a keyword, on everyone's lips. But there were many realisms in universal artistic history: from 'hyper-realism' and 'magical realism' of our days to the Dutch pictorial realism of the seventeenth century; from the realism of Brecht to the one of Lessing; from Renaissance and Baroque realism to that of ancient art. Considering mimesis the main characteristic of art tout court, realism would, even more, be the main characteristic of all arts in all times. But what sense could it have, then, call that particular stylistic phenomenon of nineteenth-century-art 'realism' too?
The course will try to answer this question starting from the nineteenth-century German literature, comparing the characteristics of the art of storytelling of its major representatives (authors like Storm and Stifter, Meyer and Mörike, Büchner and Raabe et al.) with realisms in confining periods and in other arts of the period. Particular attention will be paid to the work of writer-musician Richard Wagner and his 'Gesamtkunstwerk' as a kind of nineteenth-century Realism prototype and living proof of the fact that realism is to be considered in fact an expression of a general cultural aestheticism.
READINGS.
In order to be admitted to the exam it is necessary to read the works listed here:
1) Secondary Literature
Auerbach, Erich: Mimesis. Il realismo nella letteratura occidentale (Einaudi), vol. II, p. 198 - p. 343.
Dahlhaus, Carl: Il realismo musicale. Per una storia della musica ottocentesca, Bologna 1987 (Il Mulino).
Nochlin, Linda: Il realismo della pittura europea del XIX secolo, Torino 2003 (Einaudi)
2) Primary Literature (5 texts of your choice)
Büchner, Georg: Lenz, Milano 1989 (Adelphi).
Keller, Gottfried: Romeo e Giulietta nel villaggio, Venezia (Marsilio) 2002.
Mörike, Eduard: Mozart in viaggio verso Praga (Elliot 2018)/ (Passigli 2009)
Stifter, Adalbert: Cristallo di rocca . In: A.S., Pietre colorate, Venezia (Marsilio) 2005, p.153-198.
Storm, Theodor: Immensee e altre novelle, a cura di Fabrizio Cambi, Trento (Università di Trento) 1998.
- Il cavaliere del cavallo bianco. In: Th. S., Novelle, Milano (Garzanti) 1996, S. 310-427.
Fontane, Theodor: Effi Briest, Milano (Garzanti) 1998.
Raabe, Wilhelm: Das Odfeld.
Wagner, Richard: Tristano e Isolda. Testo tedesco a fronte, 2011 (Ariele).
- Lopera darte del futuro. Alle origini della multimedialità 2017 (goWare)
- Scritti teorici e polemici. Musikdrama, Del dirigere e altri saggi 2016 (EDT).
Lectures
Recommendations for additional lectures:
Beuchot, Mauricio/ Jerez, Lose L.: Manifesto del nuovo realismo analogi (Mimesis).
Stern, Joseph Peter: On realism
Boyle/Swales: Realism in European Literature
Roncaglia, Aurelio: saggio introduttivo a: Erich Auerbach, Mimesis, vol. I, p. VII-XXXIX.
Garrone, Emanuela: Realismo neorealismo e altre storie 2016 (Mimesis)
Lukács, György: Saggi sul realismo 1970 (Einaudi)
The lecturer's office hours during term time will be announced on the website of the Department.