Ateneo - UPO

The Integrated Course in Italian Literature I+II (12 credits) consists of the two courses, Italian Literature I (6 credits; Professor Curreri) and Italian Literature II (6 credits; Professor Gibellini). The specific topics of the two courses change each year. The focus remains on authors, works, and key issues in Italian literature, their historical context, and the use of appropriate tools for analyzing, interpreting, and commenting on literary texts. ACADEMIC YEAR 2025-26: The course in ITALIAN LITERATURE I focuses on how to communicate literature today and, in the past, on the vast cultural research expressed by the Italian novel of the second half of the nineteenth century, and in particular the long fin de siècle period that tends to spill over into at least the early twentieth century, with very diverse authors and texts, sometimes ‘continued’ by others: Carlo Collodi, Luigi Capuana, Igino Ugo Tarchetti, Marchesa Colombi, Giovanni Verga, Antonio Fogazzaro, Neera, Edmondo De Amicis, Luigi Gualdo, Gaetano Carlo Chelli, Carlo Dossi, Contessa Lara, Paolo Valera, Carolina Invernizio, Alfredo Oriani, Matilde Serao, Federico De Roberto, Italo Svevo, Emilio Salgari, Gabriele d’Annunzio, Luigi Pirandello. The course in ITALIAN LITERATURE II is dedicated to the theme of lying, deception, and self-deception in Italian Renaissance literature.

ITALIAN LITERATURE I: 1) Institutional part: Comunicare la letteratura. Un vivace ABC, ed. by Luciano Curreri, Lucia Rodler, Firenze-Milano, Le Monnier Università-Mondadori Education, 2026; Il romanzo in Italia. II. L’Ottocento, ed. by Giancarlo Alfano, Francesco de Cristofaro, Roma, Carocci, 2018, pp. 191-201, 255-500, 529-584, 591, 593-601. 2) Monographic part: Luciano Curreri, Metamorfosi della seduzione. La donna, il corpo malato, la statua in d'Annunzio e dintomi, Pisa, ETS, 2008 (free PDF on the UNIUPO platform). Students will also be invited to select and read three novels published between 1869 and 1913: Fosca (Tarchetti) 1870: Vita di Alberto Pisani (Dossi) 1875: Tigre reale (Verga) 1879: Giacinta (Capuana) 1881: Malombra (Fogazzaro) 1881: I malavoglia (Verga) 1881: No (Oriani) 1883: Le avventure di Pinocchio (Collodi) 1883: L'eredità Ferramonti (Chelli) 1885: La Conquista di Roma (Serao) 1885: Un matrimonio in provincia (Marchesa Colombi) 1886: Il bacio di una morta (Invernizio) 1886: Cuore (De Amicis) 1886: Teresa (Neera) 1891: L’illusione (De Roberto) 1891-1894 (1980): Primo maggio (De Amicis) 1892: Decadenza (Gualdo) 1892: Una vita (Svevo) 1892: Amore e ginnastica (De Amicis) 1893 (1901): L’esclusa (Pirandello) 1894: I Viceré (De Roberto) 1894: Trionfo della morte (d'Annunzio) 1895: Il romanzo della bambola (Contessa Lara) 1896: La disfatta (Oriani) 1896: Le vergini delle rocce (d’Annunzio) 1898: Senilità (Svevo) 1898: Il corsaro nero (Salgari) 1899: Vortice (Oriani) 1899: Avventure straordinarie di un marinaio in Africa (Salgari) 1900: Il fuoco (d’Annunzio) 1900: Gli scorridori del mare (Salgari) 1901: La folla (Valera) 1901: Il marchese di Roccaverdina (Capuana) 1902 (ma postumo, 1929): L’imperio (De Roberto) 1904: Il fu Mattia Pascal (Pirandello) 1905: Il treno della morte (Invernizio) 1908: Cartagine in fiamme (Salgari) 1910: Leila (Fogazzaro) 1913: I vecchi e i giovani (Pirandello) 1913: La Leda senza cigno (d’Annunzio). ITALIAN LITERATURE II: 1) For the institutional part: Giancarlo Alfano, Paola Italia, Emilio Russo, Franco Tomasi, Letteratura italiana. Dalle Origini a metà Cinquecento. Manuale per studi universitari, Mondadori Università, 2018, pp. 329-705 (epoche 3, 4 e 5). 2) For the monographic part: a booklet with the texts that will be commented on in class will be deposited in the copy shop before the start of the lessons. Students will be notified when the booklet is available. 3) For further information (recommended but not mandatory readings): Harald Weinrich, Linguistica della menzogna, in Idem, Metafora e menzogna: la serenità dell’arte, Il Mulino, 1976; Maria Bettetini, Breve storia della bugia. Da Ulisse a Pinocchio, Raffaello Cortina Editore, 2001; Francesco Ferretti, Menzogna e inganno nel Furioso, in «Versants», 59, 2012, pp. 85-109; Cecilia Gibellini, Giovan Battista Casti tra Boccaccio e Voltaire: lettura intertestuale delle Novelle galanti, Carabba, 2015.

The course of ITALIAN LITERATURE I proposes, at a basic level, to offer the student (a) the components of literary communication but within renewed perspectives and the reasons for a periodization (how we engage with a periodization with a broad and complex historical context that we attempt to delimit and frame between literary history and criticism) and (b) the lines of a finesecular paradigm between historiography of the present and history of ideas, between realism and psychology, between publishing and fiction, between journalism and the new readership, between feminist claims and anthropology, medicine, sociology. (c) The ultimate aim is to make students recognise how much the cultural research expressed by the Italian novel of the 19th century and in particular by the fin de siècle is grafted onto a social discourse where images and ideas, figures and words, convey intersignes, i.e. more or less “mysterious” events that challenge the certainties of a “positive” (scientific) world and direct them towards a deconstructive and plural “apocalypse”, which can however be recomposed through ancient and modern literary and philosophical plots. The ITALIAN LITERATURE II course proposes, at a basic level, knowledge of the poetics, genres, texts and authors of Italian Renaissance literature and in-depth knowledge of some major works, examined through the theme of lies, deception and self-deception; the comprehension of the texts of Italian Renaissance literature, through correct paraphrasing (basic level) and attention to their linguistic and stylistic dimension (advanced level); the ability to analyse texts by framing them within genres and linking biographical, ideological and literary elements (basic level) and the ability to analyse texts from an intertextual perspective and discuss their interpretative problems (advanced level). Common objectives of the two courses are the development of the ability to analyse and historically contextualise literary texts, as well as of communicative skills (at a basic level, the ability to explain in an orderly and clear manner the concepts and data learnt, using appropriate language; at an advanced level, the ability to present the results of the study with argumentative effectiveness and critical autonomy) and of expressing judgements (at an advanced level, the ability to identify data and tools useful for formulating reasoned evaluations of the texts and problems addressed).

Basic historical-literary knowledge relating to the eras on which the two courses focus.

Frontal lessons with discussion; reading and commenting on the texts in the classroom, with questions and discussion; online teaching (DIR) if necessary.

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 mark will be awarded on the basis of the overall result of the examination, obtained by considering the results of the two partial examinations, which, although each one deals with the reference programme in its own specific way, have as common criteria the assessment of the degree of knowledge and comprehension of the texts in the programme, the ability to apply knowledge to the text or to the proposed interpretative problem, the degree of expressive, linguistic and argumentative competence, according to the parameters provided under ‘Learning objectives’. ITALIAN LITERATURE I: 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 nineteenth-century Italian novel, and in particular by that long fin de siècle that tends to cross over at least into the very early twentieth century, starting from the text 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 examined (with particular attention to the texts chosen and read by the students and those monographically treated by the lecturer) and at the same time of the communication skills and the potential to already express a certain critical capacity, autonomously, starting from a question on the lecturer's essay, corresponding to 50% of the exam grade. At least sufficient answers to each of the questions will be required to pass the examination. ITALIAN LITERATURE II: The final exam consists of an oral examination, which will focus on the following points: (1) Verification of knowledge of the texts of Italian Renaissance literature (general part): a question on a work, an author, a problem, with reference to the adopted textbook (indicated under Reference Texts) - 40% of the weight on the exam grade; (2) Verification of the ability to examine and interpret the texts (with particular attention to the theme of the course), and of the communication skills and the ability to make judgements: a question on one or more texts from among those included in the booklet prepared by the lecturer - 30% of the weighting on the exam grade; (3) Verification of the ability to examine and interpret texts, to make judgements, and to apply oneself to the analysis of the literary text: a question consisting of the paraphrasing, analysis and commentary of a passage from among those anthologised in the adopted textbook or in the booklet prepared by the lecturer - 30% of the weighting on the exam grade. At least a sufficient response to each of the questions is required to pass the examination. Assessment is based on the degree of knowledge and understanding of the texts and authors on the syllabus, the ability to apply the knowledge to the text or the proposed interpretative problem, and the degree of expressive and communicative ability.

ITALIAN LITERATURE I: 1. Introduction to the Italian novel of the second half of the 19th century and the fin de siècle. 2. The woman, the sick body, the statue. Cultural aesthetisation of the pathological and the novelistic transition in d'Annunzio and his contemporaries (1869-1913). 3. Seduction and illness. Post-Unitarian Italian fiction and its surroundings. 4. The «precisions of science» and the «seductions of the dream». On the Novel, Illness, and Interpretation from Trionfo della morte (1894). 5. Virgins and statues, sculptors and assssins. Fascination and Seduction around the Vergini delle rocce (1896). 6. «Solitudes without history», memory and the «ancient rhythm of metamorphosis». Literary and philosophical plots for rereading La Leda senza cigno (1913). ITALIAN LITERATURE II: 1) The Novella del Grasso legnaiuolo. 2) Seduction and blasphemy in Masuccio Salernitano and Giambattista Casti. 3) Machiavelli: lies and deceit in Il Principe and in La Mandragola. 4) Lie, deception and self-deception in the Orlando Furioso. 5) Sprezzatura and dissimulazione onesta: courtly treatises.

In order to attain the knowledge and skills corresponding to the sufficiency level, one is asked to demonstrate: (KNOWLEDGE) to know the main typologies of the Italian novel of the second half of the 19th century and of the long fin de siècle (Italian Literature I); to know, at the main junctures, the poetics, genres, texts and authors of Italian Renaissance literature, and, in a more in-depth manner, some works of primary importance, examined through the theme of lies, deception and self-deception (Italian Literature II); (SKILLS) to be able to analyse and interpret literary texts, linking historical and ideological elements to more strictly literary and linguistic ones; (TRANSVERSAL SKILLS) to be able to clearly and effectively present knowledge, information and opinions related to the texts and problems dealt with, using appropriate language and terminology. For the attainment of an advanced level, you are asked to demonstrate: an autonomous vision of the topics addressed in class, combined with the ability to analyse and synthesise; a full mastery of expression.