CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE AND VISUAL ARTS

The course, featured by a strong interdisciplinary approach, aims to provide students with knowledge and methodological skills addressed to identify the interactions between contemporary literature and visual languages and arts. The course is devoted to the following specific knowledge and skills:

- Indentification of intertextual, interdisciplinary and intermedial networks concerning the specific literary languages of contemporary culture (by reading exemplary works of Italo Calvino).

- Textual analyses and identification of specific semantic, stylistic, rhetorical features, as well as distinction of genres and forms in the interplay between literature and visual languages.

- Analysis of the interplay between literature and cinema; analysis of transmedia translations in the perspective of contemporary theories on adaptation.

The course is divided into two modules (each one of 18 hours): through the first one, dedicated to the analysis of the interplay between literature and figurative arts, photography and cinema in Calvino’s novels and essays, the students will acquaint themselves with the rich variety of the main paradigms of visual culture studies, whilst acquiring the theoretical, methodological and analytical tools, which will then be applied to the case studies proposed in the second module. The second part of the course presents some examples of adaptations of literary texts to the big and the small screens, in which the great variety of forms, codes, languages (from classical theater, to comics, to photography) overlaps with complicated “gender trouble”. Students will have to choose two examples and discuss their analysis in a seminarial form. Face to face time and laboratory dimension will alternate and the steady, active participation of the students in the lessons will be encouraged.

Modulo A. Literature and Visual Arts in Italo Calvino’s Work (3 CFU)

Modulo B. Adaptations, Intersemiotic Translations and Transmedia Routes from literature to cinema (3 CFU)

Module A. Literature and Visual Arts in Italo Calvino’s Work (3 CFU)

Texts:

- I. Calvino, Le città invisibili, Milano, Mondadori, 2016 (o qualsiasi altra ed.)

- Id., Visibilità, in Lezioni americane, in Id., Saggi 1945-1985, a cura di M. Barenghi, Milano Mondadori, 1995, pp. 697-714.

- Id., Senza colori, in Le Cosmicomiche, in Id., Romanzi e racconti, a cura di M. Barenghi e B. Falcetto, Milano, Mondadori, 1992, vol. II, pp. 124-134.

- Id., Il cielo di pietra, in Id., Romanzi e racconti, Milano, Mondadori, 1992, vol. II, pp. 1216-1223

- Id., L’altra Euridice, in Id., Romanzi e racconti, Milano, Mondadori, 1994, vol. III, pp. 1177-1185.

- Id. Viaggio nelle città di de Chirico, in Id., Romanzi e racconti, Milano, Mondadori, 1994, vol. III, pp. 397-406

- Id., L’avventura di un fotografo, in Gli amori difficili, in Id., Romanzi e racconti, Milano, Mondadori, 1992, vol. II, pp. 1096-1109.

- Id., Autobiografia di uno spettatore, in Id., Romanzi e racconti, Milano, Mondadori, 1994, vol. III, pp. 37-58.

Critical Essays:

- M. Rizzarelli, Sguardi dall’opaco. Saggi su Calvino e la “visibilità”, Acireale (CT), Bonanno, 2008.

- D. Scarpa, Italo Calvino, Milano, Bruno Mondadori, 1999.

Modulo B. Adaptations, Intersemiotic Translations and Transmedia Routes from literature to cinema (3 CFU)

Texts (two from the follow list):

- Aristofane, Lisitrata, a cura di G. Paduano, testo greco a fronte, Milano, Rizzoli, 2010.

- M. Satrapi, Persepolis, Milano, Rizzoli-Lizard, 2018.

- P. Highsmith, Carol, trad. it. H. Brini, Milano, Bompiani, 201

- N. Alderman, Disobbedienza, trad. it. M. Baiocchi, Milano, Nottetempo, 2018.

Audiovisual texts (two from the follow list):

- Et maintenant, on va où? (E adesso dove andiamo?, 2011), di Nadine Labaki.

- Persepolis (2007), di Marjane Satrapi.

- Carol (2017), di Todd Haynes.

- Disobedience (2018) di Sebastián Lelio.

Critical Essays:

- L. Hutcheon, Teorie degli adattamenti. I percorsi delle storie fra letteratura, cinema, nuovi media, trad. it. di G.V. Distefano, Roma, Armando, 2011.

- M. Rizzarelli, Amore e guerra. Percorsi intermediali fra letteratura e cinema, Lentini (SR), Duetredue edizioni, 2019.

Texts that are difficult to find will be made available on the Studium platform or in the library.

Where page numbers or chapters are not indicated, the text must be studied in full.

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.