METHODOLOGIES OF GERMAN LITERATURE RESEARCH

This course aims at giving to students new tools from the recent methologies of research on German literature and culture in order to deepen students’ critical approach to literary texts.

The first part of the course will develop an introduction to the recent epistemic innovations in different fields of the humanities and will focus on some interdisciplinary aspects of research. The course will provide new methodologies of research deriving from the intersections between cognitive sciences and literary studies. Some possible applications of these methodologies will be presented during the lessons. The course will identify topics from literary studies which can be analyse from an exsperimental point of view, such us consciousness, mind, imagination, dream, etc. Students will be asked to use the new learned strategies by elaborating individual or group projects on the topics above mentioned and on their representations in literary texts. Part of the final exam will be to apply and develop new interpretations of literary texts through short essays and presentations.

The course will provide lecture notes and scientific articles to students in order to start their own independent research.

A Neuroaesthetic (one volume out of the following)

F. Cappelletto, Neuroestetica, Bari, Laterza, 2009.

S. Zeki, Splendori e miserie del cervello, Milano, Codice, 2009.

S. Zeki, Con gli occhi del cervello, Roma, Di Renzo, 2008.

B Cognitive poetics (one volume out of the followings)

Stefano Calabrese, Leggere la mente, Bologna, Archetipolibri, 2012.

Marco Bernini, Mario Caracciolo, Letteratura e scienze cognitive, Roma, Carocci, 2013.

Stefano Calabrese, La suspence, Roma, Carocci, 2016.

C Methodological application – Individual or group work on one of the following texts

J. W. Goethe, Ifigenia in Tauride, Venezia, Marsilio, 2010.

H. v. Kleist, Penthesilea, Venezia, Marsilio, 2008.

H. v. Hofmannsthal, Elettra, Garzanti, Milano, 1981.

D Bibliographical research on the web and shared evaluation of the texts.