28862 - Italian Language and Culture (LM)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, students will be able to disccus the relations between language, literature and anthropology, and between linguistic, literary and anthropological knowledge. They will be able to 'see' the linguistic processes involved in reading. They will be trained to perform analytical readings of both critical and literary texts.

Course contents

Language, stage and custom:

an analysis of the relations between the theatrical stage, its underlying linguistic questions, and matters of custom and lifestyle, as they unfolded in some pivotal moments of the 20eth century.

 

 

Prologue :

- the question of language, as discussed by Pier Paolo Pasolini in a famous document, and up to this day;

- the insufferable "toscano da teatro", analysed by Pier Paolo Pasolini in another famous document;

- the first, stammering attempts at finding a "believable" language for the new "teatro di verità".

 

 

1. The Naturalistic movement

- Naturalistic theatre;

- A new language for realistic plays;

- New protagonists on stage: adultery, money and finance.

 

 

Italian bibliography:

Giuseppe Giacosa, Tristi amori (1887), Come le foglie (1900), Il più forte (1904)

Marco Praga, La moglie ideale (1890)

 

The language of melodrama is also changing:

La bohème , libretto by Luigi Illica e Giuseppe Giacosa (first performed at the Teatro Regio in Turin, on the 1st of February 1896)

 

On the background:

The development of modern Italian theatre, from Giacometti to Pirandello.

The "teatro all'antica italiana" and its tradition.

The international scene and Italian performances of French, North European and Russian plays.

The first steps towards a "director's theatre", from France to Russia (Antoine, Stanislavski).

 

Main international references:

Zola, Becque, Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekov (who was not known in Italy, and yet--)

 

 

2. After World War II.

 

Prologue : an age of great translations and revivals.

- Italy has recently discovered American literature and, with and within it, the untranslatable language of spontaneous oral speech, slang, swearwords. In the 1940s American drama starts invading the Italian stage. More translations, and a deep impact on language and manners. The space accorded to sexuality is amplified, and the theme of cruelty is introduced (the cruelty of a destructive world, whose inhabitants are constantly crushing each other). Also, a new kind of theatre emerges, which Pasolini would disparagingly call "chit-chat theatre", that depicts a world where speech and conversation are lethal weapons.

- A second discovery is finally made - in spite of the many obstacles - by the Italian stage: Bertolt Brecht's theatre.

- The traditional Italian bourgeois stage gives a belated welcome to Anton Chekov (who was unto then known only to the elites). Therefore, yet more translations happen.

- At long last, Italy experiences its first proper rediscovery of William Shakespeare.

- The revival of an Italian treasure: Luigi Pirandello.

- The Italian stage also rediscovers its own classics: Carlo Goldoni and (less significantly) Vittorio Alfieri.

- Italian writers return to writing for the stage.

 

 

Bibliography

 

American theatre:

Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947)

Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman (1949)

Michael Gazzo, A Hatful of Rain (1955)

Edward Albee, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1961-1962)

 

Works by Bertolt Brecht:

Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera, 1928)

Leben des Galilei (Life of Galileo, 1938, 1956)

 

Works by Pirandello:

Sei personaggi in cerca di autore (1921)

 

Works by Chekov:

 Три сeстры (Three Sisters, 1901)

Вишнëвый сад (The Cherry Orchard, 1904)

 

Italian theatre after World War II:

Eduardo De Filippo, Napoli milionaria (1945); Sabato, domenica e lunedì (1959)

Vitaliano Brancati, La governante. Commedia in tre atti (1952)

Diego Fabbri, Il seduttore (1951); Processo a Gesù (1955); La bugiarda (1956)

Giovanni Testori, La Maria Brasca (1960); L'Arialda (1962)

Franco Brusati, La fastidiosa (1965-1966)

Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, In memoria di una signora amica (1965); Metti una sera a cena (1967); Persone naturali e strafottenti (1974); Prima del silenzio (1979)

 

 

Scandals and censorship: the cases of Brancati and Testori.

 

 

Director's theatre: great directors and institutions of the postwar period:

Luchino Visconti (1906-1976) - The Morelli-Stoppa acting company, Teatro Eliseo.

Giorgio Strehler (1921-1997) - Piccolo Teatro, Milan.

Giorgio De Lullo (1921-1981) - Compagnia dei Giovani, Teatro Eliseo.

Luca Ronconi (1933)

 

 

Great actors (the great actors of the "all'italiana" tradition meet the "director's theatre"):

Sarah Ferrati

Andreina Pagani e Gino Cervi

Rina Morelli e Paolo Stoppa

Lilla Brignone e Gianni Santuccio

Anna Proclemer e Giorgio Albertazzi

 

 

Great actors (from the new "director's theatre" movement):

Tino Carraro

Marisa Fabbri

Franco Branciaroli

 

 

Conclusions: the theatre "dies", when it could have found its language. The "new Italians" and the future of Italian language.

Readings/Bibliography

Historical linguistics references:

 

(Notice: the students fill find in the online shared folder Chiara Oliva's thesis, providing general and bibliographic references that will be useful throughout the course)

 

Coletti, Vittorio; Italiano d'autore: saggi di lingua e letteratura del Novecento, Genova : Marietti 1989

Coletti, Vittorio (ed.); L'italiano dalla nazione allo Stato, Firenze : Le Lettere, 2011

Coletti, Vittorio, Storia dell'italiano letterario: dalle origini al Novecento, Torino : G. Einaudi, 2000

Testa, Enrico, L'italiano nascosto: una storia linguistica e culturale, Torino : Einaudi, 2014

Bruni, Francesco, L'italiano letterario nella storia, Bologna : Il mulino, 2007

Tesi, Riccardo, Un'immensa molteplicità di lingue e stili: studi sulla fine dell'italiano letterario nella tradizione, Firenze : Cesati, 2009

 

 

Prologue:

Parlangèli, Oronzo (ed.), La nuova questione della lingua, Brescia : Paideia, 1979

Pasolini, Pier Paolo, Manifesto per un nuovo teatro, "Nuovi argomenti", n.s., 9, January-March 1968

 

 

1. Naturalism:

Silvia Morgana, Il terribile strumento della nostra lingua e la narrativa naturalistica.

Fabrizio Frasnedi, Il naturalismo a teatro.

 

Both texts are included in Positivismo Naturalismo Verismo, questioni teoriche e analisi critiche, Iermano, Toni (ed.), Vecchiarelli. They will both be uploaded and available in the online shared folder.

 

Fabrizio Frasnedi, Toghe, lacrime e verità; l'Arena del Sole e il suo pubblico, in Colomba, Sergio (ed.), La fabbrica di Amleto, Bologna : FuoriThema, 1999, pp. 61-113 (this essay will also be uploaded to the online shared folder)

 

Tinterri, Alessandro (ed.), Il teatro italiano dal naturalismo a Pirandello, Bologna : Il mulino, 1990

Zola, Emile, Le naturalisme au théâtre (Il naturalismo a teatro : le teorie, Bologna : Libricooper, 1983)

Giovanelli, Paola Daniela, La società teatrale in Italia fra Otto e Novecento, Roma : Bulzoni, 1984

Alonge, Roberto (ed.), Giacosa e le seduzioni della scena: fra teatro e opera lirica, Bari : Edizioni di Pagina, 2008

Alonge, Roberto (ed.), Materiali per Giacosa, Genova : Costa & Nolan, 1998

 

 

2. After World War II:

Two contributions on italian way of life:

*Vola colomba : vita quotidiana degli negli anni del dopoguerra: 1945-1 960 / Gian Franco Venè. - 2. ed. - Milano : Mondadori, 1991 (1962). - 296 p. : ill. ; 2 2 cm.

 Fausto Coppi : l'échapée belle : Italie 1945-1960 / Dominique Jameux. - Paris : Denoë, [2003!. - 248 p., [4! p. di tav. : ill. ; 21 cm.

Alonge, Roberto, Teatro e società nel Novecento, Milano : Principato, 1974

Puppa, Paolo, Teatro e spettacolo nel secondo Novecento, Bari : Laterza, 2004

Puppa, Paolo (ed.), Lingua e lingue nel teatro italiano, Roma : Bulzoni, 2007

Alonge, Roberto, Il teatro dei registi: scopritori di enigmi e poeti della scena, Roma : GLF editori Laterza, 2006

Artioli, Umberto (ed.), Il teatro di regia: genesi ed evoluzione, 1870-1950, Roma : Carocci, 2004

Longhi, Claudio, Marisa Fabbri: lungo viaggio attraverso il teatro di regia, Firenze : Le lettere, 2010

 

 

Students will be required to perform a personal research on the directors and actors that have been selected, with the professor's assistance and support.

Teaching methods

Lessons will be held in the computer room, where the texts will be displayed on screen, and visual documents will be projected. Essays and documents will be made available in the online shared folder. Additional projections of visual documents will be scheduled out of the usual timetable.

Assessment methods

12 cfu:

Students may choose between presenting a written text, or undergoing a traditional oral exam: in both cases, they are allowed to propose an individual research that will encompass one or more of the subjects treated during the course. If they choose the oral exam, they must provide an outline that summarizes the main points of their research. The autonomy and creativity with which they will articulate the individual research is a crucial component of the examination itself.

 

6 cfu:

The same as above; only the extent of the individual research will be proportionate to the number of credits.

 

Non-attending students :

12 cfu:

Students will choose at least two Italian plays and one international play for each of the two sections in which the course is divided, and a related monograph as well. They will also choose at least one essay from the historical linguistics reading list, for each of the two sections.

 

6 cfu:

Students will choose only one of the two sections that constitute the course. They will read at least two Italian plays and one international play, one of the critical essays on theatre that have been proposed, and one essay on historical linguistics.

Teaching tools

Lessons will be held in the computer room. The texts will be displayed on screen, and the students will have the possibility of writing short commentaries during or immediately after the lesson.

Office hours

See the website of Fabrizio Frasnedi