Ateneo - UPO

Like a two-faced Janus, the course concentrates on how to communicate literature today and, yesterday, on the vast cultural research expressed by the Italian novel of the second half of the 19th century and, in particular, of that long fin de siècle that tends to extend at least into the very early 20th century, with very different authors and texts, sometimes “continued” by others: Carlo Collodi (1826), Luigi Capuana (1839), Igino Ugo Tarchetti (1939), Marchesa Colombi (Maria Antonietta Torriani, 1840), Giovanni Verga (1840), Antonio Fogazzaro (1842), Neera (Anna Radius Zuccari, 1846), Edmondo De Amicis (1846), Luigi Gualdo (1847), Gaetano Carlo Chelli (1847), Carlo Dossi (1949), Contessa Lara (Eva 'Evelina' Cattermole, 1849), Paolo Valera (1850), Carolina Invernizio (1851), Alfredo Oriani (1852), Matilde Serao (1856), Federico De Roberto (1861), Italo Svevo (1861), Emilio Salgari (1862), Gabriele d'Annunzio (1863), Luigi Pirandello (1867). This varied but carefully selected panorama - within which we must not forget the importance of Francesco De Sanctis (1817), Cesare Lombroso (1835), Anna Maria Mozzoni (1837) and the entire scapigliata avant-garde, as well as the French influence in terms of 'isms', psychology and philosophy - already gives us an idea of the modern 'liquidity' of the centuries, which are not watertight compartments but immense halls designed for a writing (and a teaching) in continuous and metamorphic communication. In this sense, the case of Gabriele d'Annunzio (1863-1938) is exemplarym for itself and as it concerns a more general novelistic transition, especially starting from the paradigm that the teacher identifies as an «aesthetisation of the pathological».

For the institutional part: Comunicare la letteratura. Un vivace ABC, edited by Luciano Curreri e Lucia Rodler, Firenze-Milano, Le Monnier Università-Mondadori Education, 2026; Il romanzo in Italia. II. L'Ottocento, edited by Giancarlo Alfano and Francesco de Cristofaro, Rome, Carocci, 2018, pp. 191-201, 255-500, 529-584, 591, 593-601. For the 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). The student will also be invited to choose and read three novels published between 1869 and 1913: 1869: 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 (ma postumo, 1980): Primo maggio (De Amicis) 1892: Decadenza (Gualdo) 1892: Una vita (Svevo) 1892: Amore e ginnastica (De Amicis) 1893 (ma su quotidiano nel 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)

The course proposes, at a basic level, to offer students (a) the components of literary communication but within renewed perspectives and the reasons for a periodisation (how we deal with a periodisation, with a broad and complex historical context that we attempt to circumscribe and frame between literary history and criticism) and (b) the lines of a fin de siècle paradigm between the historiography of the present and the history of ideas, between realism and psychology, between publishing and fiction, between journalism and the new reading public, between feminist claims and anthropology, medicine, sociology. (c) The ultimate aim is to make students recognise how much the cultural research found in the Italian novel of the 19th century, and in particular during 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.

Basic historical and literary knowledge relating to the 19th and very early 20th century.

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

Students who plan not to attend classes are kindly requested to contact the teacher to get some general guidelines for the exam preparation and to arrange some supplementary readings.

The final exam consists of an oral examination, which will focus on the following points: 1. Verification of knowledge of the cultural research found in the Italian novel of the nineteenth century, and in particular during 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 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. 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).

In order to attain the knowledge and skills corresponding to a passing level, student 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 (1869-1913) (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 student must demonstrate: a personal vision of the themes addressed in the lessons, combined with a critical ability for analysis and synthesis.