- Docente: Francesco Sberlati
- Credits: 9
- Language: Italian
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
- Campus: Bologna
- Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Foreign Languages and Literature (cod. 0979)
Course contents
Origins of the modern play
The course of Italian Literature will focus on the relationship
between literature and drama from XIV to XVI century. The
second unit will analyse two masterpieces of the Renaissance
comedy: Niccolò Machiavelli's Mandragola and Ludovico
Ariosto's Lena. Furthermore students are requested to
achieve an appropriate knowledge on Italian literature from Dante
Alighieri to Torquato Tasso. Within the course students are also
requested to read Dante Alighieri's Inferno, cantos I-X.
Readings/Bibliography
Essential is a careful reading of the following texts:
LITERARY WORKS
NICCOLO' MACHIAVELLI, Mandragola, Rinaldo Rinaldi ed.,
Milano, Rizzoli, 2012; or, as an alternative, Guido Davico Bonino
ed., Milano, BUR, 2013. The text, without notes, is available on
the web site www.letteraturaitaliana.net > Autori >
Machiavelli.
LUDOVICO ARIOSTO, La Lena, Stefano Bianchi ed., Milano,
BUR, 2007. The text, without notes, is available on the web site
www.liberliber.it > Autori > Ariosto
LITERARY CRITICISM
GENNARO BARBARISI - ANNA MARIA CHIABRINI (eds.), Il teatro di Machiavelli, Milano, Cisalpino, 2005 (essays by GIAN MARIO ANSELMI, CLAUDIO VELA, ANNA MARIA CABRINI, GENNARO MARIA BARBUTO, FRANCESCA FEDI), available in pdf format on the web site www.unibo.it > Online Services > Alma Digital Library (almadl.unibo.it)
Students who will not attend lectures are requested to read, in addition, GIORGIO PADOAN, L'avventura della commedia rinascimentale, Padova, Piccin, 1996 (chapters I-V, pages 1-126).
To acquire a competent knowledge of Italian literature history students are requested to read the following books:
ANDREA BATTISTINI (ed.), Letteratura italiana. 1. Dalle origini al Seicento, Bologna, il Mulino, 2014, pp. 79-410;
or, as an alternative
LOREDANA CHINES, GIORGIO FORNI, GIUSEPPE LEDDA, ELISABETTA MENETTI, Dalle origini al Cinquecento, Milano, Bruno Mondadori, 2007, pp. 105-388 (series La letteratura italiana, EZIO RAIMONDI ed.);
ANTONIO PIROMALLI, Storia della letteratura italiana, chapters III-IX, available on the web site www.storiadellaletteratura.it
It is also requested the reading of DANTE ALIGHIERI's
Inferno, cantos I-X. The following updated editions are
recommended: E. PASQUINI - A. QUAGLIO (eds.), Milano, Garzanti,
1988; B. GARAVELLI - L. MAGUGLINI (eds.), Milano, BUR, 2000; T. DI
SALVO (ed.), Bologna, Zanichelli, 2003; A. M. CHIAVACCI LEONARDI
(ed.), Milano, Mondadori, 2007; P. STOPPELLI (ed.), Bologna,
Zanichelli, 2008. Text and commentaries are also available on the
web site dante.dartmouth.edu
Teaching methods
Lectures on courses themes, connected with information about bibliographical references, using pc, web sites, slides, overhead projector.
Assessment methods
The evaluation of the students' competencies and abilities acquired during the course consists of two phases:
a written test leading up to and preparatory to the specific subjects contained in the course programme, and an oral test aimed at ascertaining a general knowledge of all the subjects covered during the course.
The written test responds to criteria relating to orthography, morphology, syntax and semantics, clarity of expression, the ability to summarize.
The oral test consists in an oral interview which has the aim of evaluating the critical and methodological ability of the students. The students will be invited to discuss the tests on the course programme. The student must demonstrate an appropriate knowledge of the bibliography in the course programme. Access to the oral test depends on having passed the written test. The final mark is not a mathematical average of the two tests.
Those students who are able to demonstrate a wide and systematic understanding of the issues covered during the lessons, are able to use these critically and who master the field-specific language of the discipline will be given a mark of excellence.
Those students who demonstrate a mnemonic knowledge of the subject with a more superficial analytical ability and ability to synthesize, a correct command of the language but not always appropriate, will be given a ‘fair' mark.
A superficial knowledge and understanding of the material, a scarce analytical and expressive ability that is not always appropriate will be rewarded with a pass mark or just above a pass mark.
Students who demonstrate gaps in their knowledge of the subject matter, inappropriate language use, lack of familiarity with the literature in the programme bibliography will not be given a pass mark.
Teaching tools
The following is a list of some helpful web sites. Some of them
will be visited during the course.
Office hours
See the website of Francesco Sberlati