COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

The teaching is part of the main subjects of the Master's Degree in Philology and Italian Literature, modern-contemporary curriculum, alternative to other teachings included in the same SSD: Literary Theory and Methodology of Literary Criticism. The student is required to support 12 credits on the 18 of these three courses. The aim is to provide the student with the ability to move critically in a wide panorama, between the literatures of different languages, to examine a relevant theoretical problem.

Objectives of the course are: to develop the ability to understand a theoretical problem of literature and apply it to texts belonging to literatures of different linguistic origins; to know how to make comparisons, in relation to the different literary traditions; understand and articulate the complexity of a theoretical problem, linking the particular case with the general question; know how to apply different critical methodologies to the texts in question.

1. Knowledge and understanding:
- In-depth knowledge of the main methodologies of critical approach to the text, also in relation to works from different cultural contexts and traditions;
- Knowledge of the main methods by which comparative literature can operate connections between texts of different origins;
- Developed awareness of the plurality of critical approaches to the text, especially in the presence of a general theoretical problem applied to specific cases;
- Knowledge of the theoretical problem of post-memory between history and literature.
2. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding:
- Ability to read and understand a text, in its historical-critical context, applying the most appropriate hermeneutical methodologies;
- Ability to build connections between texts of different origins and traditions;
- Ability to bring back a general theoretical problem to a single narrative text with its specificities;
- Ability to frame the theoretical problem of post-memory in the historical and literary context of the present tense;
3. Judgment skills:
- Ability to interpret the present and the memory, analyzing and interpreting literary texts.
4. Communication skills:
- Knowing how to communicate, in academic and informative contexts, the conclusions of an analysis on one or more texts in the contemporary historical context;
5. Learning ability:
- To understand the informations but also the methodologies proposed and apply them to the studied texts;
- Knowing how to learn by testing yourself and discussing their positions in a seminar form.

There is no prerequisite, but it is desirable that the student is a passionate reader and is interested in the problems of the present world. These prerequisites, not mandatory but only desirable, can be achieved either through domestic application or through the exams of Contemporary Italian Literature or Contemporary History.

The course deals with the so-called post-memory literature, which is a series of recent texts that dealt with the theme of Nazism and the Holocaust in a period in which witnesses are less and less. Starting from some of the cornerstones of the literature of memory, such as Primo Levi or Georges Perec, we will come to more recent works, belonging to literatures of various nationalities, but also to cinema and visual arts, to verify how the theoretical problem of post-memory is addressed in important narrative works. It will be central to the development of the course to verify how the general problem is declined in different ways by the authors and how different works help to focus on the general problem. Comparisons will be made between past and present and between author and author.

Required text:

- P. Levi, I sommersi e i salvati, Torino, Einaudi, 1987 e successive edizioni.
- J. Littell, Il secco e l'umido, Torino, Einaudi, 2008.
- A. Cinquegrani, Il sacrificio di Bess. Sei immagini su nazismo e contemporaneità, Milano-Udine, Mimesis, 2018.

The student is also required to read or see two of the following works:
LITERATURE:
P. Levi, Storie naturali, Torino, Einaudi, qualsiasi edizione
G. Perec, W o il ricordo d'infanzia, Torino, Einaudi, qualsiasi edizione
J. Littell, Le benevole, Torino, Einaudi, 2008
P. Roth, Il complotto contro l'America, Torino, Einaudi, 2004
R. Bolano, Il Terzo Reich, Milano, Adelphi, 2010
R. Bolano, Stella distante, edizione Sellerio o Adelphi
J. Cercas, Soldati di Salamina, Milano, Guanda, 2001 o successive
J. Cercas, L'impostore, Milano, Guanda, 2014 o successive
O Guez, La scomparsa di Josef Mengele, Neri Pozza, 2018

CINEMA
L. Cavani, Il portiere di notte
L. Von Trier, Antichrist
Q. Tarantino, Bastardi senza gloria
S. Lonitsa, Austerlitz
G. Del Toro, La forma dell'acqua

Optional in-depth texts:
- Pop Shoah. Immaginari del genocidio ebraico, a cura di F. R. Recchia Luciani e C. Vercelli, Genova, Il Melangolo, 2016
- M. Hirsch, The Generation of Postmemory. Writing and Visual Culture after the Holocaust, Columbia UP, 2012

The exam is structured in two parts:
1. Paper: the student must prepare a paper of about 20,000 characters, in which he will offer a critical comparative theoretical contribution, on the two works chosen in the list provided, in which he will show the skills achieved, especially in linking the individual works with the problem general. Therefore, a specific critical bibliography is not required on the individual works chosen, but the one provided for the course is sufficient.
2. Oral interview: two parts are foreseen. In the first the student will expose the critical positions sustained in the essay, to demonstrate the exhibition skills. In the second one will demonstrate the knowledge of the texts adopted. This second part will consist of 3 questions, one on each of the texts.

Marks attribution: one mark will be assigned to the paper. The first part of the oral interview may move the mark by +/- 1 point. The second part of the interview may move the vote by +/- 3 points. The student is however required to schieve sufficiency in all three parts, in the case of insufficiency in one of the three, the student will be rejected.

NON ATTENDING STUDENTS:
Non-attending students will add the text Pop Shoah, already included in the bibliography of optional texts. The exam will have the same modality as the students attending.

15 hours frontal lessons and 15 hours seminar lessons.

During the seminar hours the students will make a classroom report on one of the selected books or films, on which they will discuss together on the basis of the themes opened in the previous lectures.

Italian

oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "International cooperation" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development