Ateneo - UPO

The “Integrated” Course of Italian and Comparative Literature for Students studying foreign languages (12 credits) consists of the two courses of Italian Literature for Students studying foreign languages I (6 credits) and Comparative Literature A (6 credits). Each year the specific topics of the two courses change. The attention remains on authors, works, and key issues in Italian and other national literatures, on their historical contextualization, and on the use of appropriate tools for analyzing, interpreting, and commenting on literary texts.

Academic year 2025/2026:

Italian and Literature for Students studying foreign languages I is dedicated to Eugenio Montale’s poetic collection “Ossi di Seppia”.
The Course of Comparative Literature A consists of a general introduction, dedicated to some fundamental paths of theory, methodology, and literary comparative studies, and a focus seminar entitled “Writing of the Self as a Picaro”.

ITALIAN LITERATURE I for Students studying foreign languages:
1. Eugenio Montale, Ossi di seppia, edizione commentata da Pietro Cataldi e Floriana d'Amely, con scritti di Pier Vincenzo Mengaldo e Sergio Solmi, Milano, Mondadori («Lo Specchio»), 2025. N.B. IT IS IMPORTANT THAT THIS IS THE EDITION (ISBN 978880478475), NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH OTHER EDITIONS, EVEN FROM THE SAME PUBLISHER, WHICH DO NOT HAVE THE COMMENTARY. VERIFY THAT THIS IS THE EDITION WITH COMMENTARY BY CATALDI AND D'AMELY. 2. For the monographic part: the teacher will prepare a file with the texts that will be commented on in class, and which will be deposited in the copy shop (Lisa copy shop in Vercelli, via Galileo Ferraris 76) before the start of the lessons. A notice will be published on the DIR platform, in the area dedicated to the course, when the file is available.

Other reference texts, for further information (recommended but not mandatory readings): Gianfranco Contini, Una lunga fedeltà. Scritti su Eugenio Montale, Torino, Einaudi, 1974; Tiziana Arvigo, Guida alla lettura di Montale - Ossi di seppia, Roma, Carocci, 2001; Enrico Testa, Montale, Firenze, Le Monnier università-Mondadori education, 2016; Montale, a cura di Paolo Marini e Niccolò Scaffai, Roma, Carocci, 2019. Supplements for non-attending students.

Non-attending Students will have to supplement the materials indicated above (1. annotated edition of Ossi di seppia; 2. booklet available at the copy shop) with some supplementary readings, which they will agree with the teacher: they are therefore invited to contact her by writing directly to cecilia.gibellini@uniupo.it.

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE A

General Introduction
STEFANIA SINI, FRANCA SINOPOLI (eds), Percorsi di teoria e comparatistica letteraria, Milano, Pearson, 2021.

Focus Seminar
1. - Lazarillo de Tormes. 2. Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders or Mark Twain, Adventure of Huckleberry Finn. 3. Bogumil Hrabal, Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále. 4. Viktor Erofeev, Moskva Petuški.

Film: 1. Mario Monicelli, L’armata Brancaleone (1966) or Stanley Kubrick, Barry Lindon (1975); 2. Joel Cohen & Ethan Coen, O Brother, Where are Thou? (2000) or Terry Gilliam, The Man Who Killed Don Quiqote (2018).

Supplements for Students not attending classes:
1. Antonio Gargano (a cura di), Le maschere del picaro. Storia di un personaggio e di un genere romanzesco, Pisa, Pacini, 2020; 2. Sara Sullam, Moll Flanders. Matrici, Milano, Mimesis, 2018.
For further insights: J. Ardila (Ed.), The Picaresque Novel in Western Literature: from the Sexteenth to the Neopicaresque, Cambridge University Press, 2015.

Outcomes (a) Knowledge and understanding: knowledge of the life, poetics and works of the authors discussed in the course; knowledge of the fundamentals of literary theory, comparative literature and basic tools for analysing literary works (basic level); knowledge of the poetic and narrative texts and films discussed in the course, with in-depth attention to their linguistic, stylistic, rhetorical and narratological dimensions (advanced level). (b) Ability to apply knowledge and understanding: Ability to read and analyse a literary work, linking ideological and literary elements (basic level); ability to analyse texts from an intertextual perspective, recognising their historical context, philological and editorial history, genre, expressive, rhetorical and ideological strategies, and characteristic techniques, and ability to discuss issues of interpretation (advanced level). (c) outcomes - Making judgments: Acquisition of the ability to express reasoned judgements on texts and their interpretations (basic level). Ability to formulate critical judgements on texts, critically discussing their merits and limitations, also in dialogue with the most recent theoretical and critical trends, with particular attention to the historical and literary context in which the texts are produced, their main structural and compositional elements, and their historical, ideological and social vitality (advanced level). (d) communication skills: ability to present to a single interlocutor or in public concepts and data learned in an orderly and clear manner, using appropriate language (basic level); Ability to present the results of readings clearly and effectively, using appropriate terminology and avoiding mnemonic repetition, (advanced level). (e) study skills: ability to read and analyse poetic, narrative and filmic texts, recognising their historical context and main expressive strategies (basic level). Knowing how to move in front of a text between a synthetic understanding of the whole and an analytical articulation of the details. Acquisition of the ability to independently integrate the topics discussed in class, also through a basic orientation in the use of digital sources and in library work (advanced level)

Basic knowledge of Italian literature in its historical development and elementary skills in reading literary texts (normally acquired at high school level).

Frontal lessons accompanied and followed by discussion; reading and commenting on the texts in class, with the possibility of individual or group contributions; online teaching (DIR).

Professors will make materials available to students through the university IT service (DIR), to which students are invited to register before the start of lessons. Non-attending students are asked to contact the professors to get some general indications for the preparation of the exam and to arrange some supplementary readings.

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 didactic aspects.

Italian Literature: Written exam.

The final exam consists of a written exam, which will focus on the following points: 1. Verification of the ability to interpret texts (with particular attention to the course topic), and together with the communication skills and the ability to express judgments: a question on an issue, theme or problem among those addressed in the study of Ossi di seppia, in order to verify both the knowledge and the degree of in-depth analysis and critical reworking of the texts – 50% of the weight on the exam grade; 2. Verification of the ability to examine and interpret texts, to express judgments, and to apply oneself to the analysis of literary texts: a question consisting of the analysis and commentary of a text of Ossi di seppia, or of one among those anthologized in the file prepared by the teacher – 50% of the weight on the exam grade. To pass the exam, it will be necessary to answer each of the questions at least sufficiently. The evaluation is based on the level of knowledge and understanding of the texts in the program, on the ability to apply the knowledge to the text or to the proposed interpretative problem, and on the level of expressive and communicative ability.

Comparative Literature A :
Students can choose between the written and oral forms of examination.
Both in oral and written form, the exam will consist in:
1) One question or more questions about theory of literature, literary comparative studies and literary methodology (general introduction);
2) Reading, and narratological and stylistical analysis of an excerpt from literary texts and of films; their commentary and interpretation in the light of the issues addressed in the focus seminar.
To pass the exam, it will be necessary to answer at least sufficiently to the questions relating to both parts.
The evaluation is based 1. on the level of knowledge and understanding of the texts in the program (40%), 2. on the ability to apply the knowledge to the text or to the proposed interpretative problem (40%), and on the level of expressive and communicative ability (20%).

N.B. The evaluation of the written exam will also include grammatical correctness (orthography, morphology, syntax)

The final grade of the exam Comparative Literature for Students studying foreign languages will be the result of the average – reasoned, and no mechanical - of the grades of the two exams Italian Literature for Students studying foreign languages I and Comparative Literature A.

Italian Literature:

1. Outlines of the history of italian poetry in the first half of the twentieth century. 2. Eugenio Montale: biographical events, poetic seasons, dialogue with other authors. 3. Montale's Ossi di seppia.

Comparative literature:
First week: presentation of the Course (General Introduction and Focus Seminar). The experience of literature. Imagination and reading. The ceremonial frame. The picaresque literature. Lazarillo. Introduction, reading, commentary analysis. Second week: Theories of reception and the act of reading. Lazarillo. Reading, commentary analysis. Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders, Introduction, reading, commentary analysis. Third week: Narrative and narratology. Temporality, narrator, point of view. Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders, reading, commentary analysis. Fourth week: Narrative and narratology. Mediacy. Narrative situations. Character Theories. aniel Defoe, Moll Flanders, reading, commentary analysis. Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Introduction, reading, commentary analysis. Fifth week: Rhetoric and argumentation. Spaces of literature. Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, reading, commentary analysis. Sixth week: The comparative history of literature and world literature. Translation and transmediality. Bogumil Hrabal, Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále, introduction, reading, commentary analysis. Seventh week. Intersectionality and literary criticism. Women and gender studies. Bogumil Hrabal, Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále, reading, commentary analysis. Eighth week. Venedikt Erofeev, Moskva Petuški, introduction, reading, commentary analysis. Conclusion of the course.

In order to achieve the knowledge and skills corresponding to the sufficiency level, the student is asked to demonstrate:
1.KNOWLEDGE
Knowledge of Eugenio Montale's biography, poetics and works. Knowledge of some literary and film examples in the history of the picaresque genre and the role of first-person narration in the constitution of the hero's self. Knowledge of the poetic, narrative and film texts discussed in the course, with particular attention to linguistic, stylistic, rhetorical and narratological dimensions; knowledge of the fundamentals of literary theory, comparative literature and the tools for analysing literary works.
2. SKILLS
Ability to analyse and interpret 20th-century literary texts (and in particular Montale's Ossi di seppia), linking ideological elements to those that are more strictly literary. Knowing how to analyse picaresque tales from different eras, identifying their characteristic techniques and the specific link between first-person narration and the construction of the self Acquisition of tools for analysing narrative works. Ability to read and analyse narrative works, recognising its historical context, expressive strategies and characteristic techniques. Acquisition of the ability to compare works from different literary traditions, contextualising them historically and culturally and identifying their stylistic and genre-specific features.

3. TRANSVERSAL SKILLS
Being able to present with clarity and argumentative efficacy, using the appropriate terminology the results of the readings carried out.

For the achievement of an advanced level, the student must demonstrate:
a global and unitary understanding of the path formed by the course, with the acquired complementarity between theoretical-methodological skills and interpretative skills.
The ability to autonomously re-elaborate the contents of the course and to apply the tools and knowledge acquired to texts and materials other than those included in the program.
The active and confident competence of critical and theoretical terminology combined with excellent communication skills.