29030 - Italian Twentieth-Century Poetry (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of this class, students 1. are expected to achieve theoretical skills to connect Italian Twentieth-Century poetry to the overall European history of thought and ideas; 2. get their ability to use a methodology of analysis throughout modern and contemporary poetry, with the help of their acquired competence in rhetoric, stylistics, linguistics and a general attitude to intertextual and interdisciplinary comparisons.

Course contents

Main topic: Two textualities. Songwriting and Poetry in Italy (1958-1981).

This course lasts 60 hours, and amounts to 12 credits. For graduate students in Visual Arts and Classical Philology, as well as for other students interested in taking this class for 6 credits the final examination will consist on the presentation and oral discussion of a short paper (25-30000 bytes) composed upon a specific topic related to those treated throughout the course. That topic, together with the related bibliographical references, should be established according with the teacher's advices.

This course is aimed at the study of historical, typological and textual relationships between songwriting and poetry in the late 20th century, trying to point out differencese among the hermeneutical tools of approach to these kinds of text, their aesthetic and cultural values and their reception.

This course assumes a minimum of knowledge upon Twentieth-Century Italian literature, acquired throughout the BA curriculum.

Lectures start on Monday, 26th September, 2016, and go further with the following schedule:

Monday, 5-7 pm, Tibiletti Room, Via Zamboni 38;

Tuesday, 5-7 pm, Tibiletti Room, Via Zamboni 38;

Wednesday, 5-7 pm, Room II, Via Zamboni 38.

Readings/Bibliography

Throughout the course, a number of samples will be analytically listened from a repertoire of songs including the following sources:

Sergio Liberovici, Michele L. Straniero et al., Cantacronache 1-4 [1958-1962]; Laura Betti, Giro a vuoto [1960]; Luigi Tenco, Luigi Tenco [1965]; Fabrizio de André, Volume III [1968] and Crêuza de mä [1984]; Lucio Battisti, Il mio canto libero [1972] and Anima latina [1974]; Francesco Guccini, Radici [1972], Via Paolo Fabbri 43 [1976] and Parnassius Guccinii [1993]; Lucio Dalla, Il giorno aveva cinque teste [1973], Anidride solforosa[1975] and Lucio Dalla [1979]; Franco Battiato, L'era del cinghiale bianco [1979] and La voce del padrone [1981].

A set of poems will be selected and discussed in parallel, including these sources:

Edoardo Sanguineti, Laborintus [1956], Postkarten [1978] and Corollario [1997]; Franco Fortini, Poesia e errore [1957] and Paesaggio con serpente [1984]; Giorgio Caproni, Il seme del piangere [1959], Il muro della terra [1973] and Il conte di Kevenhüller [1986]; Pier Paolo Pasolini, Poesia in forma di rosa [1964]; Vittorio Sereni, Gli strumenti umani [1965]; Patrizia Vicinelli, a. à. A [1967].

The following texts will be considered as bibliographical sources:

- Gianni Borgna, Storia della canzone italiana, Rome-Bari: Laterza, 1985 [chapters XIII-XX, 259-430];

- Rossana Dalmonte (ed. by), Analisi e canzoni, Trento: Università degli Studi di Trento, 1996 [the following excerpts: Rossana Dalmonte, Metodi di analisi per la canzone, 11-24; Umberto Fiori, "In un supremo anelito". L'idea di poesia nella canzone italiana, 145-160; Franco Fabbri, Forme e modelli delle canzoni dei Beatles, 169-196; Marco Russo, La prassi dell'arrangiamento nelle canzoni: esempi e osservazioni, 197-220];

- Stefano Colangelo, Come si legge una poesia, Rome: Carocci, 2003;

- Stefano La Via, Poesia per musica e musica per poesia. Dai trovatori a Paolo Conte, Rome: Carocci, 2006 [3. Poesia per musica per poesia. Generi, forme e tipologie d'interazione, 135-220];

- Franco Fabbri, Around the Clock. Una breve storia della popular music, Torino: Utet, 2008 [the following excerpts: Capitolo 19. Cantacronache, cantautori, il Nuovo Canzoniere Italiano, 94-100; Capitolo 22. L'Italia del boom e del bitt, 112-118; Capitolo 23. L'"estate dell'amore", 119-123; Capitolo 25. Canzone politica e canzone d'autore, intorno al '68, 129-136];

- Paolo Talanca, Cantautori novissimi. Canzone d'autore per il terzo millennio, Foggia: Bastogi, 2008 [the following excerpts: Capitolo Terzo. Vinicio Capossela, 104-111; Capitolo Quinto. Carmen Consoli, 121-128; Capitolo Settimo. Samuele Bersani, 138-146];

- Centro Studi Fabrizio de André (ed. by), Il suono e l'inchiostro. Cantautori, saggisti, poeti a confronto, Milan: Chiarelettere, 2009 [the following excerpts: Gianni Borgna, Le radici culturali di Fabrizio De André, 70-80; Franco Fabbri, De André il progressivo, 81-104; Marianna Marrucci, Il "mosaicista De André. Sulla genesi e la composizione dei testi di un cantautore, 104-122; Paolo Zublena, "Max, non si spiega". Figure dell'opacità semantica in Paolo Conte, 122-148; Paolo Giovannetti, Il verso di canzone: una neometrica dal basso?, 151-159; Stefano Colangelo, "Diavolo rosso": l'immagine e l'epopea, 160-170; Stefano Dal Bianco, Sereni-Tenco: un confronto impossibile, 214-220];

- Wolf Biermann, Otto lezioni. Per un'estetica della canzone e della poesia, Genoa: Il canneto, 2010 [Seconda lezione. Nella caverna dell'animo, 63-97];

- Marco Santoro, Effetto Tenco. Genealogia della canzone d'autore, Bologna: Il Mulino, 2010;

- Edoardo Tabasso - Marco Bracci, Da Modugno a X Factor. Musica e società italiana dal dopoguerra a oggi, Rome: Carocci, 2010 [chapters 5-8, 85-162];

- Paolo Somigli, La canzone in Italia. Strumenti per l'indagine e prospettive di ricerca, Rome: Aracne, 2010 [the following excerpts: Capitolo I. La musica di consumo: punti critici e strumenti per l'indagine, 13-42; Capitolo IV. Giochi con le forme, giochi con la storia. I voli imprevedibili di Franco Battiato, 91-108];

- Niva Lorenzini - Stefano Colangelo, Poesia e Storia, Milan: Pearson Bruno Mondadori, 2013 [3. Storia (1936-1973), 111-192; 4. Linguaggio (1956-1969), 195-240];

- Marco Aime - Emiliano Visconti (ed. by), Je so' pazzo. Pop e dialetto nella canzone d'autore italiana da Jannacci a Pino Daniele, Turin: Edt, 2014 [5. La rinascita del dialetto, 91-126];

- Andrea Ciccarelli - Mary Migliozzi - Marianna Orsi (ed. by), Musica pop e testi in Italia dal 1960 a oggi, Ravenna: Longo, 2015 [Sebastiano Ferrari, "Il giorno aveva cinque teste" di Roberto Roversi e Lucio Dalla: poesia, sperimentalismo e impegno nella canzone popular italiana, 61-64].

Further explanations on these and other resources will be provided throughout the course. Copies will be partially made available to students on time with a view to the exam; any other information will be available on a dedicated mailing list.

Teaching methods

Traditional lectures with a strong interaction between students and teacher.

Assessment methods

The final exam consists of an oral appointment, which aims to verify some methodological, personally developed skills. It focuses on the main theoretical matters approached throughout the class, and verifies the knowledge of the poems and essays that have been the subject of a common consideration throughout the class. Students could be invited to read and comment some single poems or samples using an original approach from a critically well-based point of view.

A positive or excellent score (27 to 30/30, even with distinction) corresponds to a full mastering of technical, theoretical, historical and typological sources, to the ability to make connections among single parts of the course contents, and to show awareness of textual features with an appropriate language; an average score (23 to 26/30) goes to students who keep showing some lacks in one or more topics or analytical proofs, or are able to use no more than mechanically their ability of interpretation of a sample of poem or an excerpt from a song; a pass or low score (18 to 22/30) to students who show severe lacks in one or more topics or exercises, or result to be not enough accurate while they are using notions and approaching samples. A negative score is assigned to students who are absolutely not able to use the general notions of interpretation, in a single text sample as well as in general.

Please sign up at the AlmaEsami web site (https://almaesami.unibo.it). The registration time ends two days before the oral examination.

Teaching tools

Excerpts from texts and criticism in digital scans and photocopied transcripts.

Office hours

See the website of Stefano Colangelo