Ateneo - UPO

The course is devoted to a dozen years of our culture, literary and nonfiction history, years between 1964 and 1976, after the end of the boom and up to the lead years. To try to traverse them, we will select three texts by three authors (born in the 1910s, 1920s and 1930s) which they stage, each in his or her own way, the resurgence of a problematic interest around three different but real characters, drawn from archives, suffering trials for heresy in a past that seems to speak to the present of the years mentioned above and partly, as well and unfortunately, to our own: Diego La Matina (1622-1658), a religious in mid-17th-century Spanish Palermo, in that unfinished but very successful and valuable book by Leonardo Sciascia (1921-1989) that is Morte dell'inquisitore (1964, with Le parrocchie di Regalpetra in 1967); Paolo Caliari known as the Veronese (1528-1588), a painter tried in 1573 within the Venetian Republic for La Cena del Signore and historically taken up in a forgotten but significant tale by Neri Pozza (1912-1988), Processo per eresia (1970); Domenico Scandella known as Menocchio (1532-1599), a Friulian miller, twice put on trial, in 1584 and 1599, in the reconstruction given by Carlo Ginzburg's (1939) famous essay, Il formaggio e i vermi (1976). This will be followed by a final lesson on L’Inquisitore (1975), the future Sciascia «little chronicle» in 1985 under the title of Don Mariano Crescimanno.

For the institutional part: R. Ceserani, L. De Federicis, Il materiale e l’immaginario. Letture esemplari. Dal 1960 a oggi, Torino, Loescher, 1996; especially pp. 2-38, 110-116, 124-129, dedicated to Leonardo Sciascia (1921-89). Il narratore come testimone storico (where you can read the «little chronicle» Don Mariano Crescimanno, 1975), and the pp. 267-269; L. De Federicis, Letteratura e storia, Roma-Bari, Laterza («Alfabeto letterario»), 1998.

For the monographic part: L. Curreri, Processi per eresia. Un libro non finito, un racconto, un saggio, Soveria Mannelli (CZ), Rubbettino («Quaderni di Regalpetra»), due out in april 2025

The student will also be invited to read:

Leonardo Sciascia, Morte dell’inquisitore, Milano, Adelphi, 1993;

Neri Pozza, Processo per eresia (1573), in Id., Processo per eresia e altre storie, Firenze, Vallecchi, 1970, pp. 153-182, illustrations at the end of the text and Author’s Note on pp. 205-208; the glossary on pp. 209-215 is also useful.

Carlo Ginzburg, Il formaggio e i vermi, Milano, Adelphi, 2019.

Some pages on the more difficult-to-find materials (which are not simply old and outdated) will be uploaded by the teacher on the DIR.

In his presentation of the course, the teacher will refer two large volumes by Adriano Prosperi, Eresie, Macerata, Quodlibet, 2021 and Id., Inquisizioni, Macerata, Quodlibet, 2023.

At a basic level, the course proposes to offer students the reasons for a periodisation (how we deal with a periodisation, with a complex historical context that we attempt to circumscribe and frame between literature and history, fiction and non-fiction, tale, short story and essay).
At an advanced level the ultimate aim is to make students recognise how much the cultural research expressed by a widespread narrative and essayistic attitude is grafted onto a social discourse that yesterday as today, in the past as in the present, tends to present an inquisitorial perspective from which we should learn to distance ourselves (critical distances, useful for a resistance of thought, of humanism).

Basic historical and literary knowledge relating to the 1960s and 1970s.

Lectures followed by discussions and questions; web-based teaching if necessary.

DSA/BES. Students with physical disabilities, Learning Disabilities or Special Education Needs can request specific services and tools via the Staff Sviluppo e Coordinamento Carriere e Servizi alle Studentesse e agli Studenti, consulting the University webpage: https://www.uniupo.it/en/services/services-students-physical-or-learning-disabilities Students with disabilities, learning disabilities or special education needs, once they have contacted the University Staff, can refer to the tutor in charge of the course to define the examination modalities, concerning academic aspects.

The final exam consists of an oral examination, which will focus on the following points: 1. Verification of knowledge of the cultural research expressed by the Italian short story and essay of the 1960s and 1970s, starting from the texts adopted and indicated above and corresponding to 50% of the weight on the exam grade; 2. Verification of the ability to examine and interpret the authors and texts studied (with particular attention to the texts chosen and read by the students and those monographically treated by the teacher) and at the same time of the communication skills and the potential to already show a certain level of independent critical ability, starting from a question on the teacher's essay, corresponding to 50% of the exam grade. At least acceptable answers to each of the questions will be required to pass the examination.

1. Course presentation: heresies and inquisitions or inquisitions and heresies?
2. Leonardo Sciascia (1921), Morte dell’inquisitore (1964).
3. Neri Pozza (1912), Processo per eresia (1970).
4. Carlo Ginzburg (1939), Il formaggio e i vermi (1976).
5. A final lesson on L’inquistore (1975), the future Sciascia «little chronicle» in 1985 under the title of Don Mariano Crescimanno.

In order to attain the knowledge and skills corresponding to a passing level, students is asked to demonstrate: (KNOWLEDGE) to know the main typologies of the Italian fiction and non-fiction of the second half of the 20th century and the 1960s and 1970s in particular; (SKILLS) to be able to analyse and interpret literary texts, linking historical elements to more strictly literary and linguistic ones; (TRANSVERSAL SKILLS) to be able to present in a clear and effective manner knowledge, information and opinions related to the texts and problems dealt with, using appropriate language and terminology. For the attainment of a more advanced level, the students must demonstrate: a personal vision of the themes addressed in the lessons, combined with a critical ability for analysis and synthesis.