COMPARATIVE LITERATURE M - Z

The Course aims to transfer to new students – as clearly as possible - the main Concepts of Literary Debate, through different and culturally basic samples of Literary Criticism and Literary Texts. At the end of any part of the Course the student who has attended to the majority of classes (attendance is strongly recommended) will be able to analyse complex literary texts and to practice textual analysis.

The whole Course is a reading and writing Lab; it is divided in 3 modules (about 18, 24, 30 hours) in order to help the freshmen. It is constructed as a gradual curve of reading, comparative analysis, text breakdown (attendance is strongly recommended). From the first module, in which theoretical, critical and analytical tools are offered, to the second in which an example of their application is shown, we come to the third in which it will be the students themselves to choose two texts and to present an analysis of them. Face to face time and laboratory dimension will alternate, and a constant active participation of the students in the lessons will be encouraged.

The Course is divided into three modules. The first focuses on the great issues of contemporary literary debate. The second and the third modules are dedicated to the application of the categories of reception, rewriting, adaptation, transmediality, character and gender. The second module offers two examples of rewriting of the myth of Oedipus: Edipo re (1967) of Pier Paolo Pasolini, in the double form of the screenplay and the film; Incendies (2003) of Waidj Mouawad from which Denis Villeneuve has drawn the film of the same name. The third is dedicated to the analysis of the construction of the protagonists of some classical novels and to their possible reading in the key offered by gender studies.

Modulo A: The Keywords of Literary Theory (3 CFU).

Texts:

F. Brioschi, C. Di Girolamo, M. Fusillo, Introduzione alla letteratura, Carocci, Roma.

U. Eco, Su alcune funzioni della letteratura, in Sulla letteratura, Milano, Bompiani, 2003, pp. 7-22.

G. Steiner, Che cosa è la letteratura comparata?, in Nessuna passione spenta. Saggi 1978- 1996, Milano, Garzanti, 1996, pp. 86-103.

I. Calvino, Perché leggere i classici (pp. 1816-24, vol. II), Tradurre è il vero modo di leggere un testo (pp. 1825-31, vol. II), L’italiano, una lingua tra le altre lingue (pp. 146-153, vol. I) e L’antilingua (pp. 154-159, vol. I), in Saggi, Milano, Mondadori, 1995.

P. Levi, Dello scrivere oscuro e Tradurre ed essere tradotti, in L’altrui mestiere, Opere, Torino, Einaudi, pp. 676-681, e 730-34.

M. Bachtin, Epos e romanzo, in Estetica e romanzo, Torino, Einaudi, 1997, pp. 445-482.

Modulo B: Transmedial Adventure of a Mith: Oedipus between Literature and Cinema (4 CFU)

Texts:

- Sofocle, Edipo re (ed. a scelta);

- P.P. Pasolini, Edipo re, Milano, Garzanti, 2013.

- W. Mouawad, Incendi, trad. it. di C. Gozzi, Corazzano (Pisa), Titivillus, 2009.

Movies:

- P.P. Pasolini, Edipo re, Italia, 1967;

- D. Villeneuve, La donna che canta (Incendies), Canada, 2010.

Critical essays:

- M. Bettini, G. Guidorizzi, Il mito di Edipo. Immagini e racconti dalla Grecia ad oggi, Milano, Mondadori, 2005, pp. 33-40 e 83-212.

- M. Fusillo, La Grecia secondo Pasolini. Mito e cinema, Roma, Carocci, 2007, (chapter 1).

- M. Rizzarelli, «Un Coteau planté dans la gorge». Quel che resta di Edipo negli ‘Incendi’ di Wajdi Mouawad e Denis Villeneuve, «Arabeschi», n. 13, gen-giu 2019, < http://www.arabeschi.it/un-couteau-plantc-dans-la-gorge-quel-che-resta-di-edipo-negliincendi-wajdi-mouawad-e-denis-villeneuve/>

Modulo C: The Female Character (5 CFU)

Critical essays:

- A. Stara, L’avventura del personaggio, Firenze, Le Monnier, 2004.

or as an alternative L. Neri, Identità e finzione. Per una teoria del personaggio, Ledizioni, 2012.

- B. Sarasini, R. Mazzanti, S. Neonato, L’invenzione delle personagge, Guidonia Montecelio (Roma), Jacobelli, 2016, pp. 7-65.

Texts (two novels of your choise):

- L-M. Alcott, Piccole donne, trad.it. S. Stacchini, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2018.

- G. Flaubert, Madame Bovary, trad. it M.L. Spaziani, Milano, Mondadori, 2015.

- E. Morante, Aracoeli, Torino, Einaudi, 2015.

- V. Nabokov, Lolita, trad. it. di G. Arborio Mella, Milano, Adelphi, 2012.

- G. Sapienza, L’arte della gioia, Torino, Einaudi, 2008.

- L. Tolstoj, Anna Karenina, trad. it. di L. Ginzburg, Milano, Rizzoli, 2012.

- V. Woolf, La signora Dalloway, trad. it. di N. Fusini, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2013.

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.