Ateneo - UPO

The integrated course in Italian Literature I+II (12 credits) consists of the two courses of Italian Literature I (6 credits; prof. Curreri) and Italian Literature II (6 credits; prof. Gibellini). Each year the specific topics of the two courses change. Attention remains constant for authors, works and essential issues of Italian literature, for their historical contextualization and for the use of appropriate tools for analysis, interpretation and commentary on the literary text. Finally, due to the importance of the subject addressed and the centuries that host it, the two courses converge, connecting, with different methods and selection but both nourished by history, the 12th-14th centuries with the 16th- XX.
Academic Year 2024/2025:
The course ITALIAN LITERATURE I is dedicated to the years 1964-1976, spanned by selecting three texts by three authors who stage, each in their own way, the rebirth of a problematic interest around three characters, taken from archives, who undergo trials for heresy: Diego La Matina (1622-1658), in that unfinished but very successful and precious book by Leonardo Sciascia, Morte dell’inquisitore (1964); Paolo Caliari known as Veronese (1528-1588), taken up in a forgotten but significant story by Neri Pozza, Processo per eresia (1970); Domenico Scandella, known as Menocchio (1532-1599), in the reconstruction given by Carlo Ginzburg's famous essay, Il formaggio e i vermi (1976). This will be followed by a final lesson on L'Inquisitore (1975), the future "chronicle" from Sciascia in 1985 with the title of Don Mariano Crescimanno.
The course ITALIAN LITERATURE II is dedicated to the theme of dreams and visions in some texts of Italian literature of the Middle Ages (De Amore by Andrea Cappellano, Dante's Vita nuova and Commedia, Rerum vulgarium fragmenta and Triumphi by Petrarca, Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta and Decameron by Boccaccio).

ITALIAN LITERATURE I: 1) Institutional part: R. Ceserani, L. De Federicis, Il materiale e l’immaginario. Letture esemplari. Dal 1960 a oggi, Torino, Loescher, 1996, pp. 2-38, 110-116, 124-129 (Leonardo Sciascia. Il narratore come testimone storico), pp. 267-269; L. De Federicis, Letteratura e storia, Roma-Bari, Laterza («Alfabeto letterario»), 1998. 2) Monographic part: L. Curreri, Processi per eresia. Un libro non finito, un racconto, un saggio, Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino (to be published in april 2025). 3) Students 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, 205-208, 209-215; Carlo Ginzburg, Il formaggio e i vermi, Milano, Adelphi, 2019. Some pages relating to the most difficult to find materials (which are not simply old and outdated) will be uploaded by the teacher to the DIR. In his presentation of the course, the teacher will refer to two substantial volumes by Adriano Prosperi, Eresie, Macerata, Quodlibet, 2021 e Id., Inquisizioni, Macerata, Quodlibet, 2023.
ITALIAN LITERATURE II: 1) 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. 1-328 (epoche 1 e 2). 2) Monographic part: the teacher will prepare a booklet with the texts that will be commented on in class, and which will be deposited in the copy shop "Lisa" (Vercelli, via Galileo Ferraris 76) before the start of the lessons. Students will be notified when the booklet is available. 3) Recommended but not mandatory readings: Jacques Le Goff, I sogni nella cultura e nella psicologia collettiva dell’Occidente medievale, in Idem, Tempo della Chiesa e tempo del mercante e altri saggi sul lavoro e la cultura nel Medioevo, Torino, Einaudi, 1977, pp. 279-286; Ignazio Baldelli, Visione, immaginazione e fantasia nella Vita nuova, in I sogni nel Medioevo, a cura di Tullio Gregory, Roma, Edizioni dell’Ateneo, 1985, pp. 1-10; Jacques Le Goff, Il meraviglioso nell’Occidente medievale, in Idem, Il meraviglioso e il quotidiano nell’Occidente medievale, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1999, pp. 5-23; Silvia Longhi, Il corpo malato: Fiammetta e Don Rodrigo, in Eadem, Forme di Mostri. Creature fantastiche e corpi vulnerati da Ariosto a Giudici, Verona, Fiorini, 2005, pp. 81-97; Guglielmo Barucci, «Simile a quel che talvolta si sogna». I sogni del Purgatorio dantesco, Firenze, Le Lettere, 2012; Floriana Calitti, Boccaccio e lo straordinario successo del tema del “cuore mangiato”, in Altritaliani.net, 22 gennaio 2014; Maurizio Bettini, Viaggio nella terra dei sogni, Bologna, il Mulino, 2017.

The course Italian Literature I aims, at a basic level, to offer students the reasons for a periodization (how one engages with a periodization, with a complex historical context that we try to delimit and frame between literature and history, between fiction and non-fiction, between story and essay). At an advanced level, the ultimate objective is to make students recognize how cultural research expressed by a widespread narrative and essayistic attitude is grafted onto a social discourse which 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).
The Italian Literature II course aims to promote knowledge of the poetics, genres, texts and authors of Italian literature of the Middle Ages (basic level), the understanding of the texts of medieval Italian literature, through correct paraphrasing (basic level) and attention to their linguistics and stylistics aspects (advanced level). It also aims to develop the ability to analyze texts by framing them within genres and connecting ideological and literary elements (basic level), and considering them in an intertextual perspective (advanced level).
The common objectives of the two courses are therefore the development of the capacity for analysis and historical contextualisation of literary texts, and together with communication skills (at a basic level, the ability to explain the concepts and data learned in an orderly and clear manner, using appropriate language; at an advanced level, the ability to present the results of the study with argumentative effectiveness and critical autonomy) and expression of judgments (at an advanced level, the ability to identify data and tools useful for formulating motivated evaluations on the texts and problems addressed).

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

Lectures with discussions and questions; 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 grade will be assigned based on the overall result of the exam, obtained by considering the results of the tests of the two partial exams, which, although each one focuses on the reference program, with specific methods, have as common criteria the evaluation of the degree of knowledge and understanding 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 the heading «Training objectives».
ITALIAN LITERATURE I: The final exam consists of an oral exam, which will focus on the following points: 1. Verification of knowledge of the cultural research expressed by the Italian short stories and essays of the 1960s and 1970s, starting from the texts adopted and corresponding to 50% of the weight on the vote of examination; 2. Verification of the skills required 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 teacher) and at the same time of the communication skills and potential in expressing a certain critical, autonomous ability, starting from a question on the teacher's essay, corresponding to 50% of the exam mark. To pass the exam you will need to answer at least sufficiently to each of the questions.
ITALIAN LITERATURE II: The final exam consists of a written test, which will focus on the following points: (1) Verification of knowledge of the texts of Italian literature of the Middle Ages (general part): a question about a work, an author, a problem, referring to the manual adopted (indicated under "Reference texts") - 30% of the weight on the exam grade; (2) Verification of the ability to examine and interpret the texts (with particular attention to the topic of the course), and together of communication skills and the ability to express judgments: a question on one or more texts among those included in the booklet prepared by teacher - 35% of the weight on the exam grade; (3) Verification of the ability to examine and interpret texts, to express judgments, and to apply oneself to the analysis of the literary text: a question consisting in the paraphrase, analysis and comment of a passage among those anthologized in the manual adopted or in the dossier prepared by teacher - 35% of the weight on the exam mark. To pass the exam, it will be necessary to answer at least sufficiently to each of the questions.

ITALIAN LITERATURE I:
1. Presentation of the course: heresies and inquisitions or inquisitions and heresies (XVI-XX centuries)?
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. Concluding lesson on L'inquisitore (1975), future Sciascia’s short story in 1985 with the title of Don Mariano Crescimanno.

ITALIAN LITERATURE II:
1. True and deceptive dreams from antiquity to the Middle Ages (Homer, Virgil, Cicero, Macrobius, Andrea Cappellano). 2. Dante: dreams in the Vita nuova and in the Commedia. 3. Petrarch and the dreams of Laura (Rerum vulgarium fragmenta; Triumphi). 4. Boccaccio: premonitory dreams, revealing dreams and prophetic visions in the Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta and in the Decameron.

Integration of the gender dimension: specific attention will be dedicated to those texts and those authors (Andrea Cappellano, Boccaccio) who give voice to women, making them speak in the first person and presenting the experience of love and the reflection on it from a female perspective.

In order to achieve the knowledge and skills corresponding to the level of sufficiency, you are asked to demonstrate: (KNOWLEDGE) knowing the main typologies of Italian fiction and non-fiction of the second half of the twentieth century and of the sixties and seventies in particular (Italian literature I); knowing, in the main junctions, the poetics, genres, texts and authors of Italian literature of the Middle Ages, and, in a more in-depth way, some works of primary importance, examined through the theme of dreams and vision (Italian literature II) ; (SKILLS) knowing how to analyze and interpret literary texts, connecting the historical and ideological elements to the more strictly literary and linguistic ones; (TRANSVERSAL SKILLS) knowing how to present knowledge, information and opinions relating to the texts and problems covered in a clear and effective way, using appropriate language and terminology. To achieve an advanced level, you are asked to demonstrate: an independent vision of the topics covered in class, combined with analytical and synthesis skills; full expressive mastery.