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HU Credits:
2
Degree/Cycle:
1st degree (Bachelor)
Responsible Department:
Romance Studies
Semester:
2nd Semester
Teaching Languages:
English
Campus:
Mt. Scopus
Course/Module Coordinator:
Chiara Caradonna
Coordinator Office Hours:
Teaching Staff:
Dr. chiara Caradonna
Course/Module description:
What do new beginnings hold in store? Every beginning is the promise of something radically new and never seen before, and yet every new beginning also has to measure itself with the past, the present and the future. The course will provide an overview of some of the major and most influential Italian novels of the first half of the 20th Century, by devoting each class especially to the beginning of the novels listed below. How did the writer go about leading his or her reader into the novel? What expectations do the novel’s first pages arouse? What features of the novel can be recognized? How are the novel’s first pages intertwined with the historical, political and social issues of their time? What topics do they address, and how? What local realities of the Italian peninsula are discussed? These and many other questions will be addressed to the chosen novels with the help of narratological tools of literary analysis.
During the semester ca. 30-50 pp. will be read each week from the novel up for discussion, together with an introductory text on the author and his/her work. Each week students will be in charge of presenting the author and his overall work in a 10-15 min. presentation. In order to pass the course, students will be required to read at least two of the 11 novels in full.
Course/Module aims:
Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
– Possess an overall knowledge of the main Italian authors and novels of the 20th Century
– Possess an overall knowledge of the cultural and political context in which the novels were published
– Be able to perform close readings of prose with narratological tools
Attendance requirements(%):
100
Teaching arrangement and method of instruction:
Course/Module Content:
1) Italo Svevo, Senilità (1898)
2) Luigi Pirandello, Il fu Mattia Pascal (1904)
3) Sibilla Aleramo, Una donna (1906)
4) Ignazio Silone, Fontamara (1933)
5) Dino Buzzati, Il deserto dei Tartari (1940)
6) Carlo Levi, Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (1945)
7) Elsa Morante, L’isola di Arturo (1957)
8) Pier Paolo Pasolini, Una vita violenta (1959) [Masterclass with Prof. Claudia Bendetti, University of Pisa]
9) Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Il Gattopardo (1958)
10) Leonardo Sciascia, Il giorno della civetta (1961)
11) Giorgio Bassani, Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini (1962)
Required Reading:
Peter Bondanella, Andrea Ciccarelli,The Cambridge Companion to the Italian Novel, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003 [SELECTION]
Monika Fludernik, An Introduction to Narratology, Routledge, New York, 2009 [SELECTION]
Peter Hühn, John Pier, Wolf Schmid, Jörg Schönert, Handbook of Narratology, De Gruyter, New York, 2009 [SELECTION]
At least two out of the following novels:
- Italo Svevo, Emilio’s Carnival, trans. By Beth Archer Brombert, Yale University Press, 2001
- Luigi Pirandello, The late Mattia Pascal, trans. By William Weaver, Penguin Random House, New York, 2004
- Sibilla Aleramo, A woman at bay, trans. By Maria H. Lansdale, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, London, 1908
- Ignazio Silone, Fontamara, trans. by Nettie Sutro, Penguin, London, 1934
- Dino Buzzati, The Tartar Steppe, trans. by Stuart C. Hood, Farrar, Straus and Young, New York, 1952
- Carlo Levi, Christ stopped at Eboli, trans. by Frances Frenaye, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York, 2006
- Elsa Morante, Arturo’s Island, trans. By Ann Goldstein, Pushkin Press, London, 2019
- Pier Paolo Pasolini, A violent life, trans. By William Weaver, Carcanet Press, Manchester, 2008
- Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, The Leopard, trans. by Archibald Colquhoun, Vintage Classics, London, 2011
- Leonardo Sciascia, The day of the owl, trans. by Archibald Colquhoun, New York Review of Books Classics, New York, 2003
- Giorgio Bassani, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, trans. by Jamie McKendrick, Penguin, London, 2007
Additional Reading Material:
Further readings will be communicated at the beginning of the course.
Course/Module evaluation:
End of year written/oral examination 0 %
Presentation 0 %
Participation in Tutorials 0 %
Project work 60 %
Assignments 40 %
Reports 0 %
Research project 0 %
Quizzes 0 %
Other 0 %
Additional information:
A film was made out of each of the novels of the course, so parallel to the course a "cineforum" (film club) will take place (NOT mandatory) starting already in the first semester. Information will be available on the internet-site of the Department of Romance Studies.
For students of Italian, parallel reading sessions of some of the original texts will be held with Silvia Dal Canton. Interested students are requested to write to Dr. Caradonna beforehand so as to organize the schedule.
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