COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

The teaching falls within the educational activities of the Degree in Literature and is intended to provide students with basic analytical tools in the field of Comparative Literatures, from ancient times to the present day.
Objectives of the course are: to favor the learning of the main critical, theoretical and narratological methodologies, in order to apply them to the analysis of both literary and extra-literary texts. In this course, in particular, we will focus on the second part of the XVIIIth century (Italy, France, Germany, England) and on those two macro cultural phenomena that are Enlightenment and Romanticism.

1.Knowledge and understanding
- Knowing critical and theoretical thinking, knowing how to grasp the different stages of its development, both problematic and diachronic.
- Understand in what and why the status of literature differs from other verbal and non-verbal arts.
2. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding.
- Use the terminology of the discipline correctly. Know how to apply the acquired knowledge to understand the peculiarities of the literary text compared to the other linguistic and non-linguistic codes.
3. Judgment skills.
- Know how to formulate and argue what has been coherently learned, while demonstrating that it has been acquired an autonomous attitude with respect to the issues transmitted.
4. Communication skills
Develop an approach both explanatory and interpretive, interacting with the recipient, either real or virtual, to achieve a personal evaluation, that could also be alternative, attentive to the pragmatics of communication.

Knowledge of some primary notions of historiography, criticism and theory, with particular regard to the literary field.

The course examines the most salient moments of the European culture of the second part of the 18th century in Italy, France, Germany, and England, with particular regard to the most significant issues, currents and figures. We will take into consideration the ideas and the literary works of the two most important cultural movements of the time: Enlightenment and Romanticism, with a particular focus on their relationships with the birth of the new bourgeois conscience.

Mandatory texts:

- Vincenzo Ferrone, "Il mondo dell'Illuminismo. Storia di una rivoluzione culturale", Torino, Einaudi, 2019
- Paolo D'Angelo, "L'estetica del romanticismo", Bologna, Il Mulino, 1997

Then, students will have to pick one text from the section "France and Italy" and one from the section "England and Germany":

1) France and Italy:

- Montesquieu, "Saggio sul gusto"

- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, "Giulia o la nuova Eloisa"

- Dennis Diderot, "Il nipote di Rameau"

- Pierre de Laclos, "Le relazioni pericolose"

- Sade, "La filosofia nel boudoir"

- Carlo Goldoni, "Il teatro comico"

- Giuseppe Parini, "Dialogo sopra la nobiltà" e Vittorio Alfieri, "Della tirannide"

- Cesare Beccaria, "Ricerche intorno alla natura dello stile"

- Vincenzo Cuoco, "Saggio storico sulla rivoluzione napoletana del 1799"

2) England and Germany:

- Samuel Johnson, "Introduzione a Shakespeare"

- James Macpherson, "Canti di Ossian"

- Samuel Richardson, "Pamela"

- Lawrence Sterne, "Vita e opionioni di Tristam Shandy, gentiluomo"

- William Hogarth, "L'analisi della bellezza"

- Horace Walpole, "Saggio sul giardino moderno"

- Edmund Burke, "Riflessioni sulla rivoluzione in Francia"

- Immanuel Kant, "Che cos'è l'Illuminismo?"

- Johann Joachim Winckelmann, "Pensieri sull'imitazione"

- Friedrich Schlegel, "Dialogo sulla poesia" e Fredrich Schiller, "Saggio sulla poesia ingenua e sentimentale"

- Johann Gottfried Herder, "Saggio sul gusto" e "Saggio sull'origine del linguaggio"

- Johann Wolfgang Goethe, "I dolori del giovane Werther"

- Johann Wolfgang Goethe, "Gli anni di apprendistato di Wilhelm Meister"

- Jean Paul Richter, "Tre scritti sul nichilismo"




Further readings:

- Fernand Braudel, "La dinamica del capitalismo" (1977), Bologna, Il Mulino, 2021
- Ian Watt, "Le origini del romanzo borghese" (1957), Milano, Bompiani, 2017
- Elio Franzin, "L'estetica del Settecento", Bologna, Il Mulino, 1995

The assessment of learning takes place through an oral test, during which the student must demonstrate knowledge of the topics developed during the course and proving to know how to expose them in a formal way.

oral

Grade Qualitative Description
18/30 Barely sufficient: minimal knowledge, incomplete answers, minor conceptual errors.
19–20/30 Sufficient: general understanding, weak but acceptable presentation.
21–22/30 Fair: adequate knowledge, correct but superficial answers.
23–24/30 Fair–Good: mostly accurate content, clear understanding, minor terminology issues.
25–26/30 Good: solid command of material, clear and coherent explanations.
27–28/30 Very Good: comprehensive knowledge, fluent and precise exposition, analytical ability.
29/30 Almost Excellent: strong preparation, critical analysis, excellent delivery.
30/30 Excellent: complete mastery, flawless and rigorous answers.
30 with honors Outstanding with honors: performance exceeding expectations, includes original insights.

Seminar and Frontal Lessons

Frequency is recommended