MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN LITERATURE I SP

The course is one of the modules offered within the Master’s Degree Programme in Philology, Linguistics and Italian Literature and contributes to the achievement of the learning objectives of the disciplinary area relating to modern and contemporary Italian literature. The course aims to deepen students’ knowledge of significant authors, works, and critical-historiographical issues in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Italian literature, and to develop the methodological tools required for their interpretation, with particular attention to the ability to situate works within their historical and cultural contexts and to analyse them from narratological, rhetorical, and stylistic perspectives.

By the end of the course, students will have acquired in-depth knowledge of the authors, works, and critical issues covered in the syllabus, as well as advanced skills in the analysis of twentieth-century Italian narrative. They will be able to situate the texts within their respective historical and literary contexts and to examine their themes, forms, narrative strategies, and key issues using appropriate methodological tools, with particular attention to narrative, rhetorical, and stylistic procedures.
Students will also be able to organise the course contents into appropriate syntheses, draw comparisons between texts, authors, and interpretative categories, and assess the heuristic scope of the historiographical categories discussed, recognising their assumptions, implications, and limitations. Finally, they will be able to formulate an independent, well-founded, and terminologically appropriate critical judgement, and to engage with the relevant bibliography, selecting and using the appropriate critical tools in an informed manner.

The course presupposes a good knowledge of twentieth-century Italian literary history, as well as a good ability both to read narrative texts critically and to contextualize them, with attention to both their thematic and formal aspects. Adequate proficiency in written and spoken Italian is also required.

Gadda and Calvino in the 1940s

The course takes as its starting point a historiographical problem: the use of the label “Neorealism” as a category for periodising and interpreting mid-twentieth-century Italian narrative. This issue will be addressed through the works of Carlo Emilio Gadda and Italo Calvino, two authors who, within the same span of years, developed profoundly different poetics and narrative solutions. The decade in question saw the publication of L’Adalgisa. Disegni milanesi (1944), the serial publication of Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana in «Letteratura» (1946), the publication of Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno (1947), and the collection Ultimo viene il corvo (1949): this chronological proximity invites a reassessment of the category’s validity and suggests that the 1940s should be considered an internally stratified period, marked by tensions between different narrative forms and models.
From this perspective, the first part of the course will be devoted to the critical debate on Neorealism, also through an analysis of the positions expressed in Gadda’s Un’opinione sul neorealismo and Calvino’s Prefazione to Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno. The second, more extensive part will offer a close reading of the two novels (Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana and Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno) and of one short story from each collection (Quattro figlie ebbe e ciascuna regina, from L’Adalgisa; La stessa cosa del sangue, from Ultimo viene il corvo). This reading, also informed by the critical readings listed in the bibliography, will focus on the narrative strategies and stylistic choices through which these works call into question the idea of a homogeneous literary period.

With the exception of the final optional section (4), all the texts listed below are part of the syllabus and must be read in their entirety.

1) Primary bibliography:
- C.E. Gadda, Quattro figlie ebbe e ciascuna regina, in Id., Adalgisa. Disegni milanesi, edited by C. Vela, Milano, Adelphi, 2012, pp. 87-112 [on Moodle].
- C.E. Gadda, Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana, edited by G. Pinotti, Milano, Adelphi, 2018.
- I. Calvino, Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno, con il racconto inedito Flirt prima di battersi, edited by M. Barenghi, Milano, Mondadori, 2020.
- I. Calvino, La stessa cosa del sangue, in Id., Ultimo viene il corvo, Milano, Mondadori, 2016, pp. 77-83 [on Moodle].

2) For an introduction to the period, the authors, and the literary works discussed:
- C. Savettieri, Oltre il neorealismo: Fenoglio, Gadda e Morante, in B. Manetti, M. Tortora (eds.), Letteratura italiana contemporanea. Prosa e poesia dal Novecento a oggi, Roma, Carocci, 2022, p. 110 [Introduction] and pp. 113-117 [section Trame, voci, romanzesco: Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana e La cognizione del dolore di Carlo Emilio Gadda] [on Moodle].
- C.E. Gadda, Un’opinione sul neorealismo, in Id., I viaggi la morte, in Id., Saggi giornali favole e altri scritti, I, edited by L. Orlando, C. Martignoni, D. Isella, Milano, Garzanti, 1991, pp. 629-630 [also available online: https://www.gadda.ed.ac.uk/Pages/resources/essays/opinioneneorealismo.php ].
- C. Vela, L’Adalgisa. Disegni milanesi, in P. Italia (ed.), Gadda, Roma, Carocci, 2024, pp. 97-116.
- V. Baldi, C. Savettieri, Commento e guida alla lettura dell’Adalgisa: Quattro figlie ebbe e ciascuna regina, in «Il Gaddus», 1, 2023, pp. 101-106 [on Moodle].
- I. Calvino, Prefazione al Sentiero dei nidi di ragno [1964], now in Id., Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno, con il racconto inedito Flirt prima di battersi, edited by M. Barenghi, Milano, Mondadori, 2020, pp. V-XXIII.
- G. Pampaloni, Il secondo libro di Italo Calvino [1949], ora Postfazione a Ultimo viene il corvo, Milano, Mondadori, 2016, pp. 229-230 [on Moodle].

3) Critical readings:
- M. Barenghi, Parole per Pin. Emergenze nel lessico del primo libro di Calvino, in «Strumenti critici», 1, 2021, pp. 95-106.
- L. Mazzocchi, «Quasicché a propria volta l’autore si tuffi». Voce narrante e satira nell’Adalgisa, in V. Baldi, C. Savettieri (eds.), Carlo Emilio Gadda. Un seminario, Milano, Mimesis, 2022, pp. 135-158.
- C. Savettieri, Il Pasticciaccio e la logica simmetrica, in «Allegoria», 81, XXXII, 2020, pp. 28-60 [also available online: https://allegoriaonline.it/1253-cristina-savettieri-il-pasticciaccio-e-la-logica-simmetrica ].
- Lecture notes.

4) An optional reading, useful for understanding how Gadda’s narrative works, is:
- C. Benedetti, Carlo Emilio Gadda e la gioia del narrare, in P. Amalfitano (ed.), Le emozioni nel romanzo. Dal comico al patetico, Roma, Bulzoni, 2004, pp. 191-207 [also available online: https://www.gadda.ed.ac.uk/Pages/resources/archive/romanzo/benedettigioia.php ].

Assessment will take the form of an oral examination aimed at verifying knowledge of the works included in the syllabus, understanding of the historiographical debate on periodisation, the ability to engage critically with the relevant bibliography, and the ability to propose an autonomous, well-argued, and terminologically appropriate interpretation of the texts.

oral

The instructor is responsible for ensuring the authenticity and originality of all examinations and coursework. In cases of suspected academic misconduct, an additional on-site assessment may be required during the exams, which may differ from the standard format.

In grading the examination, account will be taken of the student’s knowledge of the course contents, their ability to understand and situate literary texts within their historical and cultural contexts, their autonomy and awareness in analysing and commenting on the texts, as well as the clarity of their exposition and the appropriate use of critical and rhetorical terminology.
Scores between 18 and 22 will be awarded in the case of sufficient knowledge of the course contents, a correct but basic understanding of the texts, and a still limited degree of autonomy and awareness in analysing and commenting on them, accompanied by sufficient clarity of exposition.
Scores between 23 and 26 will be awarded in the case of fair knowledge of the course contents, a good ability to understand, contextualise and analyse literary texts, and an adequate degree of autonomy and awareness in commenting on them, with generally clear exposition and a broadly appropriate use of specific terminology.
Scores between 27 and 30 will be awarded in the case of good or very good knowledge of the course contents, strong autonomy and awareness in reorganising the topics and commenting on the texts, and very good clarity of exposition, supported by a confident use of critical and rhetorical terminology. Honours may be awarded in cases of excellent achievement in all these respects.

Lectures will be devoted to the discussion of historical-literary and theoretical issues relating to the periodisation of the twentieth century, as well as to the close analysis of the works included in the syllabus. Teaching may be supported by PowerPoint presentations and other supplementary materials, which will be made available on Moodle where appropriate.

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development