Ateneo - UPO

GERMAN CULTURE AND INTERMEDIALITY: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL

The readings are indicative until it is known whether a German colleague will be a visiting professor during the course. More specific information will be uploaded in January on DIR in the detailed course programme, in which the criticism to be studied will also be indicated.
- Shigeru Mizuki, Hitler. Non-commercial Italian edition. It will be made available by the lecturer.
- Ingrid Sabish, Heiner Lünstedt, Sophie Scholl e la Rosa Bianca, Lindau, 2023. Will be available in the library.
-Art Spiegelmann, Maus, Einaudi, 2020-2021. Will be available in the library.
- David Sala, Il giocatore scacchi. Dalla novella di Stefan Zweig, Gallucci, 2022. Will be available in the library.
- Stefan Zweig, La novella degli scacchi, con testo a fronte, BUR, 2013. Available in the library.

Through face-to-face teaching and self-study activities, the course aims to enable students to develop the ability to outline the basics of comic theory and tools and to analyse the proposed graphic novels in relation to the concepts of intermediality and memory. A more advanced objective is to provide students with the necessary skills to make critical considerations, including personal ones, and to develop the ability to analyse the central themes of the course.

Good knowledge of the German language for students studying German. No prerequisites for others.

Lectures, critical reading, translation and commentary on texts, use of multimedia materials.

Critical literature and further information will be provided at the beginning of the course.
The registration on DIR is required. Please check the teacher's page on Upobook regularly.
Non-attending students (i.e. not attending more than the half of the lessons) are requested to contact the teacher in order to get their detailed program by mail. The preparation of the non-attendance program is necessary in order to obtain the 6CFU foreseen for the module, which also includes either the 30 hours of lectures or the reading of substitute materials to be carried out in an equal number of hours.
Please read the texts before we will analyze them in the lessons, so you will be able to better understand the explanations and to participate in the discussion.
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.

Oral examination in Italian and German with questions on the following topics:
- verification of the historical and cultural context of National Socialism, the fundamentals of comic, and knowledge of the texts discussed in the lecture or studied in the critique. The parts discussed in German in the lecture will be asked in German - 40% of the weighting of the examination grade, of which 10% relates to the language part.
- verification of the ability to analyse and interpret texts, to express critical judgements, including original ones, to analyse the graphic novels and to develop a specific critical discourse on the individual topics or texts that relate to the central themes of the course. - 50% of the exam grade weight.
- Verification of the ability to translate one of the language texts read and translated in class into Italian - remaining 10% of the weight of the grade for the examination part in German.
Evaluation is based on the ability to focus on the main features of the course and on the theme of the graphic novel, on the degree of knowledge and understanding of the texts in the syllabus, on the ability to apply theoretical knowledge to the texts or to the interpretative problems proposed, also through reference to the critical bibliography indicated by the lecturer, on linguistic mastery in communicating the course content in Italian and on linguistic competence in oral production in German and in translation from the foreign language into Italian.

The course aims to offer the basic tools to approach the reading of graphic novels from a theoretical and critical point of view, with a greater awareness of the history of the 'ninth art', as well as the techniques and tools it uses. An introductory part of the course will be followed by an analysis of some graphic novels dealing with one of the most tragically significant epochs in German culture and history: The Third Reich. Biographies (of Hitler and his opponents), treatises on the Shoah and intermedial adaptations of the literature of exile will allow for an in-depth discussion of the reworking of the past in an intermedial and multimodal way.

In order to attain the knowledge and skills corresponding to the minimum sufficiency level, students are required to demonstrate
Knowledge and ability to analyse the theoretical foundations, the tools of comic analysis and the texts analysed.
Ability to expound the central topics with clarity, with references to the historical, cultural context of the works in relation to intermediality and with an appropriate critical vocabulary in both Italian and German.
Ability to translate texts proposed for this purpose into Italian.