29027 - Italian Medieval Literature (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student will be familiar with the figures and most significant works of the main authors of medieval Italian literature, in relation to their poetics and their historico-cultural and political framework. The student will be acquainted with the perspectives of medieval Italian literature, its cultural and textual premises, and its span in a literary season that begins in our thirteenth century and feeds into our Humanism. Literary history, cultural history, philology and exegesis will be the methodological keys to address the characteristics of an era that connects the thirteenth-century birth of our literary tradition with the forms and orientations, already projected towards Europe, of our Humanism.

Course contents

The theme of the course is the relationship between Eros and civilization, considered both through some necessary theoretical premises (which, from Freud and Marcuse and Zoja, return to the Middle Ages and theological and courtly treatises on Love), and in the reading and interpretation of some texts specimens (in particular, by Guido Guinizzelli, Guido Cavalcanti, Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Lorenzo the Magnificent).

The theses read and explained in class will be made available to students on "Virtual" by the end of the course.

Readings/Bibliography

For the theoretical premises of the course, some considerations will be carried out starting from the following texts (the chapters that will be commented on will be indicated in class):

S. Freud, Il disagio della civiltà (Italian translation, to be consulted in current editions: Feltrinelli, Bollati Boringhieri...);

H. Marcuse, Eros e civiltà, trans. it., Torino, Einaudi, 1964 (then, ibid., 2001);

  Amours plurielles. Doctrines médiévales du rapport amoreaux de Beranrd de Clairvaux à Boccace, edited by R. Imbach and I. Atucha, Paris, Seuil, 2006 (also in this case, the texts considered will be uploaded to "Virtuale");

E. Fenzi, La canzone d'amore di Guido Cavalcanti e i suoi antichi commenti, Milano, Ledizioni, 2016.

For the "textual" part, the works that will be read (in whole or in the parts that students will find on "Virtuale") will be:

Guido Guinizzelli, Al cor gentil; Guido Cavalcanti, Donna me prega; Dante, Vita Nova and "rime petrose"; Petrarca, RVF 23 and RVF 70; Boccaccio, Decameron, IV and V Days; Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Commento sopra una canzona de Amore (some parts); Lorenzo the Magnificent, Comento sopra alcuni de' suoi sonetti e Canti carnascialeschi.

Attending students, who make use of the notes taken in class, can bring only one author of the "theoretical" part and three of the "textual" part.

Non-attending students must instead bring the complete programme.

 

Teaching methods

The lesson, especially the lessons of the "laurea magistrale", should have a seminar character. For this reason it would be important for students to bring the texts to class and get used to discussing them with the teacher.

Assessment methods

The test consists of an oral exam on the topics covered in class and on the texts in the exam program (with the distinctions provided for attending and non-attending students). There are no written tests or essays.

Teaching tools

The tools to support teaching are and remain mainly texts, to be read and understood in the classroom, in the conversation between teacher and students.

Office hours

See the website of Marco Veglia