SOCIOLOGY OF LITERATURE

Introduction to sociological criticism as interpretation of the relationship text/context (influences of the social context on authors and works, ideological orientations involved in the text, forms of representation of the real) and as a research into the circulation of themes, genres and styles.

Lectures and seminars

The course provides a dual articulation. In the first module, it is planned to study the themes, problems and main works of the sociology of 20th-century literature. The second module focuses the nineteenth century paradigm of the novel and involves the reading of some narrative works of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

A General problems (3 ECTS).

- Gianni Turchetta, Critica, letteratura e società, Carocci, pp. 7-291.

- one book of your choice: Walter Benjamin, L’opera d’arte nell’epoca della riproducibilità tecnica, Einaudi; Walter Benjamin, Angelus Novus, Einaudi; Roland Barthes, Miti d’oggi, Einaudi; Hans Robert Jauss, Storia della letteratura come provocazione, Bollati Boringhieri; Pierre Bourdieu, Le regole dell’arte, Il Saggiatore, pp. 53-176; Paolo Jedlowski, Il racconto come dimora, Bollati Boringhieri; Dwight Macdonald, Masscult e midcult, Piano B.

B Focus (3 ECTS).

La serietà del quotidiano: il romanzo borghese

- Erich Auerbach, Mimesis, vol. II, Einaudi, pp. 220-343; Franco Moretti, Il borghese, Einaudi, pp. 1-186.

- two books of your choice: Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe; Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice; Honoré de Balzac, Père Goriot; Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary; Gustave Flaubert, L’education sentimentale; Giovanni Verga, Mastro-don Gesualdo; Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness; Thomas Mann, I Buddenbrook; Virginia Woolf, To the lighthouse.

Please remember that in compliance with art 171 L22.04.1941, n. 633 and its amendments, it is illegal to copy entire books or journals, only 15% of their content can be copied.

For further information on sanctions and regulations concerning photocopying please refer to the regulations on copyright (Linee Guida sulla Gestione dei Diritti d’Autore) provided by AIDRO - Associazione Italiana per i Diritti di Riproduzione delle opere dell’ingegno (the Italian Association on Copyright).

All the books listed in the programs can be consulted in the Library.