LETTERATURA E CULTURA VISUALE

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.

- 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 exemplary case of Marilyn in the perspective of contemporary theories on stardom and celebrities.

The course is divided into two modules (each one of 18 hours): through the first one (A), dedicated to the analysis of the interplay between literature and visual culture and essays, the students will acquaint themselves with the rich variety of the main paradigms of visual studies, whilst acquiring the theoretical, methodological and analytical tools, which will then be applied to the case studies proposed. Students will have to choose four examples and discuss their analysis in a seminarial form. The second part (B) of the course is dedicated to the analysis of the myth of Marilyn developed in literary production. Specifically, the following topics will be highlighted: how the Star told “her story” (M. Monroe, My Story); how her image interplayed with the storytelling of her myth (A. Miller, The Misfits); which traces have settled in our imagination through novel inspired by the star’s biography (J.C. Oates, Blonde).

Face to face time and laboratory dimension will alternate and the steady, active participation of the students in the lessons will be encouraged.

1. Literature and Visual culture. Images, gazes, devices (3 CFU)
2. Divagrafie: the myth of Marilyn (3 CFU)

A. Literature and Visual culture. Images, gazes, devices (3 ECTS)

Texts:

a.1 (1 from the follow list)

- H. de Balzac, Il capolavoro sconosciuto, Passigli, 2001.

- P.P. Pasolini, La ricchezza, in Id., Tutte le poesie, a cura e con uno scritto di W. Siti, vol. I, Mondadori, Milano. 2003

- A. Ernaux, Gli anni (2008), trad. it. di L. Flabbi, L’orma, Roma, 2015.

- Ombre, a cura di Laurence Block, Torino, Einaudi, 2017.

a. 2 (1 from the follow list)

- V. Woolf, Orlando, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2012.

- E. Vittorini, Conversazione in Sicilia, edition illustrated with photographs by L. Crocenzi, Milano, Rizzoli, 2007.

- O. Pamuk, Il museo dell’innocenza, Torino, Einaudi, 2014.

a. 3 (1 from the follow list)

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

- P. Highsmith, Carol, trad. it. H. Brini, Milano, Bompiani, 2011.

- L.M. Alcott, Piccole donne, Torino, Einaudi, 2019.

Movies (1 from the follow list):

La donna che canta (2010), di Denis Villeneuve

Carol (2017), di Todd Haynes.

Piccole donne (2019), di Greta Gerwig.

Critical Essays:

- M. Cometa, Letteratura e arti figurative: un catalogo, “Contemporanea”, 3, 2005, pp. 15-29.

- M. Rizzarelli, Letteratura e cultura visuale, in G. Carrara, L. Neri (a cura di), Teoria della letteratura, Roma, Carocci, 2021, cap. 14.

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

- G. Carrara, Storie a vista. Retoriche e poetiche del fototesto, Milano-Udine, Mimesis, 2020.

B. Divagrafie: the myth of Marilyn (3 ECTS)

Texts (2 from the follow list):

- M. Monroe, La mia storia, Roma, Donzelli, 2010.

- A. Miller, Gli spostati, Roma, Nutrimenti, 2021.

- J.C. Oates, Blonde, Milano, Bompiani, 2016.

Critical Essays:

- E. Morin, Le star, Torino, Cue press, 2021.

- F. Scotto Lavina, La diva spostata: l’immagine dell’ultima Marilyn in The Misfits, in Miti d’oggi. L’immagine di Marilyn, a cura di G. Carluccio, M. Pierini, “La Valle dell’Eden”, nn. 28-29, 2014-2015, pp. 111-114.

- G. Alonge, Hollywood Misfits. Marilyn Monroe e Ben Hecht, ivi, pp. 121-136.

- M. Pierini, Lettere d’amore alle star: qualche nota su Joyce Carol Oates, Marilyn Monroe e Marlon Brando, in Fotogrammi a parole, a cura di C. Allasia, M. Pierini, F. Prono, C. Tavella, “Sinestesie”, XX, 2020, pp. 165-179.

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.