28862 - Italian Language and Culture (LM)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, students will be able to discuss the relation between language, literature and anthropology, as well as the interdependence between linguistic, literary and anthropological knowledge. Students will learn to “see” the behaviour of language in the reading process. They will be able to read literary works and essays with greater awareness and understanding.

Course contents

Secularism, wisdom and "forma del vivere": linguistic and cultural perspectives.

From Renaissance humanism to the Age of Enlightment, preceded by a prologue on the biblical and classical origins of the “good life” culture.

 

A. The prologue.

1. A biblical example of “secular” wisdom: the Book of Qohelet (and some references to the Book of Job).

2. Ancient philosophy as the answer to the question “which way of life should we choose”: the Hellenistic and Roman philosophical landscapes.

 

B. The modern pathway.

1. Michel de Montaigne and modern Epicureanism.

2. The "forma del vivere" from Renaissance humanism to the Cortegiano.

3. The “gallant” culture.

4. The culture of conversation.

5. The Age of Enlightment's wisdom.

 

C. "Contessa, perdono": A theatre of wisdom and forgiveness.

Goldoni, Diderot, Da Ponte-Mozart, Rossini.

 

Readings/Bibliography

 

A. The Prologue.

1. Works:

From the Bible: Qohelet (with some references to the Book of Job)

Tito Lucrezio Caro, De rerum natura. Excerpts from the Ist and IInd Book.

2. Essays:

Hadot, Pierre, Che cos'è la filosofia antica, Torino, Einaudi, 2010.

De Benedetti, Paolo; Caramore, Gabriella (ed.), Qohelet, un commento. Brescia, Morcelliana, “uomini e profeti, 04”, 2004.

Agamben, Giorgio, Altissima povertà. Regole monastiche e forme di vita, Venezia, Neri Pozza, 2011.
Calati, Benedetto, Sapienza monastica. Saggi di storia, spiritualità e problemi monastici, Roma, Centro Studi Sant'Anselmo, 1994. (si veda soprattutto la parte terza).
Calati Benedetto, Esperienza di Dio. Libertà spirituale. Introduzione alla regola di San Benedetto, Servitium, 2002.

 

B. The modern pathway.

Works:

Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, Essais (at least three "essais", in the original text or in translation).

Baldesar Castiglione, Il libro del cortegiano, ed. Barberis (Einaudi, 1998) or Quondam (Garzanti, 1991).

Jean Racine, Andromaque or Bajazet.

Molière (Jean Baptiste Poquelin), Le bourgeois gentilhomme.

In the background: W. Shakespeare, The Tempest.

Essays:

Quondam, Amedeo, La conversazione: un modello italiano, Roma, Donzelli, 2007.

Quondam, Amedeo, Forma del vivere: l'etica del gentiluomo e i moralisti italiani, Bologna : Il mulino, 2010.

Fumaroli, Marc, Le genre des genres littéraires français : la conversation. - Oxford : Clarendon press, 1992.

Fumaroli, Marc, Il salotto, l'accademia, la lingua : tre istituzioni letterarie, Milano, Adelphi, 2001. 

Viala, Alain, La France galante, P.U.F., 2008.

Scalfari, Eugenio, Per l'alto mare aperto. La modernità e il pensiero danzante, Torino, Einaudi, 2010.

 

C. A theatre of wisdom and forgiveness.

 

Denis Diderot, Le fils naturel.

Carlo Goldoni, La bottega del caffé.

Beaumarchais (Pierre Augustin Caron), Le mariage de Figaro.

Lorenzo da Ponte - W.A. Mozart, Le nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte.

Jacopo Ferretti - Gioacchino Rossini, La Cenerentola, ovvero la bontà in trionfo.

 

 

 

The 12 CFU option requires:

Mandatory reading of Il libro del cortegiano, in addition to the reading of three works and two essays, that can be chosen from the above list or discussed and arranged with Prof. Frasnedi.

 

A 6 CFU option is also possible, and it requires:

Reading the first two books of the Cortegiano, in addition to two works and one essay chosen from the above list.

Teaching methods

Lectures, seminars, Socratic dialogues, experimental workshops. Texts will be presented through collective reading or by the screening of professional performances.

Assessment methods

Students who have attended the course can choose between two options:

 

Writing a 20,000 characters paper, or else taking an oral exam which will follow a written outline that has to be presented to Prof. Frasnedi beforehand. Students can choose between a “creative approach”, i. e. a personal attempt to relate on the subject and contents of the course from one's own point of view; otherwise a more traditional approach can be adopted, which will result in a theorical understanding and study of the course's subject, following the above bibliographic indications.

Students who have attended will be mainly tested on their capacity of elaborating an in-depth examination of the subject, by applying their own initiative and creativity to the indications received through the course. To this purpose, the above bibliography must be taken as a mere point of departure for one's own research and examination.

 

Students who have not attended the course will take a more traditional oral exam, based on the course details and indications; they can also choose to be tested on any other course proposed in the previous academic years.

 

 

Teaching tools

Specific bibliographies will be provided, either on Prof. Frasnedi's website or directly to students who will chose to write a short paper.

Readings, listenings, screenings will take place in the seminars, and will be followed by analysis and discussion.

Diachronic semantic analysis of the course's keywords will also be provided.

The course's texts will be presented through reading workshops and seminars.

Office hours

See the website of Fabrizio Frasnedi