B016716 - MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN LITERATURE 2

The course focuses on the study of the main avant-garde movements in Italy in the second half of the twentieth century in relation to the political and social context. During the course special prominence will be given to inter-disciplinary literary and artistic experimentations (poetry, music, painting, architecture, theater) with a special interest for the following Italian and international movements: Poesia concreta, Lettrismo, Situazionismo, Poesia visiva.

Critical essays:
La poesia in immagine / L’immagine in poesia. Gruppo 70. Firenze 1963-2013, by T. Spignoli, M. Corsi, F. Fastelli, M.C. Papini, Pasian di Prato, Campanotto, 2014.

Lamberto Pignotti-Stefania Stefanelli, La poesia verbovisiva e sinestetica, Pasian di Prato, Campanotto, 2011. pp. 95-168 (the chapters mentioned in class)

Lucio Vetri, Letteratura e caos. Poetiche della «Neo-avanguardia» italiana degli anni Sessanta, Milano, Mursia, 1992 (the chapters mentioned in class)

Theoretical texts:
Augusto e Haroldo de Campos, Décio Pignatari, Piano-pilota per la poesia concreta, 1953-1958.

Eugen Gomringer, Dal verso alla costellazione, scopo e forma di una nuova poesia [1954], «Modulo», n. 1, 1966

Guy Debord, Rapporto sulla costruzione delle situazioni e sulle condizioni dell’organizzazione e dell’internazionale[1957], Torino, Nautilus, 2007

Lamberto Pignotti, La poesia tecnologica, «Questo e altro». Rivista di letteratura, n. 2, 1962.

Edoardo Sanguineti, Sopra l’avanguardia, «il verri», n. 11, 1963.

Lamberto Pignotti, La suggestione di Gordon Flash, «Marcatrè», n. 11-13, 1965.

Knowledge: the historical and theoretical definition of the new avant-garde movements with reference to the political and social environment; the identification of the aesthetic and formal features of literary and artistic fields by analyzing works and theoretical texts. Skills: the acquisition and/or development of the ability to analyze and interpret literary and artistic phenomena, especially works using multiple codes (verbal and visual) and multiple media (book, painting, audio, video); the acquisition and/or the development of the ability to connect literary movements with the social and political context; the development of the competency to analyze in a comparative manner the international literary and artistic phenomena. Stimuli: the ability to connect the linguistic and literary skills and knowledge acquired during the Cds courses; knowledge of the research activity conducted at the Department and its relationship with the study program offered within Cds.

General overview of the history, literary currents and main authors in the twentieth century in Italy.

Lectures referring to documents, works, texts, critical and theoretical essays analyzed during the course and listed in the bibliography. Active involvement of the students by way of a seminar’s approach.

The course is worth 6 CFU (36 hours of lessons, 18 lectures). Please note that students must take part in at least 2/3 of the lessons (24 hours, that is, 12 lectures). We strongly recommend attending the first introductory class.

The acquired knowledge and competence will be tested during class and at the oral exam.
Seminar: the students – divided into groups – will elaborate on one of the topics presented during the lectures by drafting a presentation to be exposed in class in the final part of the course. The topic will be agreed upon with the professor and selected according to the students’ interests and fields of specialization, so as to develop the ability to compare Italian contemporary literature to foreign languages and literatures proposed by Cds. Each presentation will be graded (insufficient, sufficient, good, very good, excellent) and the result will be taken into account in the final evaluation, that is, the oral exam.
Oral exam: the examination focuses on three specific areas: the knowledge of new avant-garde movements and their political and social context (including the relative critical essays listed in the bibliography); the analysis of the works, the cultural activities and theoretical texts of the selected authors and movements (including the relative critical and theoretical essays listed in the bibliography, and with the aid of the works and material uploaded to the e-learning platform); the discussion on the presentation realized and exposed during the course. It is mandatory to show proficiency in all three areas to pass the exam.

The course focuses on the study of the main avant-garde movements in Italy in the second half of the twentieth century in relation to the political and social context and the development of an underground culture contrasting the establishment and political institutions of the time. In this sense, the course is connected with the Progetto di Ricerca d’Ateneo Alle due sponde della cortina di ferro: le culture del dissenso e la definizione dell’identità europea nel secondo Novecento tra Italia, Francia e URSS (1956-1991), conducted by T. Spignoli and C. Pieralli at the Department of Languages, literature and Intercultural Studies. During the course special prominence will be given to inter-disciplinary literary and artistic experimentations, that is, those combining different genres and media (poetry, music, painting, architecture, theater) with a special interest for the following Italian and international movements: Poesia concreta, Lettrismo, Situazionismo, Poesia visiva. During class the students will be offered a seminar especially aimed at connecting such experiments to the international artistic and literary context, referring to the cultural fields and foreign literatures that are the students’ subject matter. As a result, the students will be asked to actively partecipate in the drafting of a group presentation (on the topics of the course to be arranged with the professor) to be exposed during class.



BIBLIOGRAPHY

Critical essays:
La poesia in immagine / L’immagine in poesia. Gruppo 70. Firenze 1963-2013, by T. Spignoli, M. Corsi, F. Fastelli, M.C. Papini, Pasian di Prato, Campanotto, 2014.

Lamberto Pignotti-Stefania Stefanelli, La poesia verbovisiva e sinestetica, Pasian di Prato, Campanotto, 2011. pp. 95-168 (the chapters mentioned in class)

Lucio Vetri, Letteratura e caos. Poetiche della «Neo-avanguardia» italiana degli anni Sessanta, Milano, Mursia, 1992 (the chapters mentioned in class)

Theoretical texts:

Augusto e Haroldo de Campos, Décio Pignatari, Piano-pilota per la poesia concreta, 1953-1958.

Eugen Gomringer, Dal verso alla costellazione, scopo e forma di una nuova poesia [1954], «Modulo», n. 1, 1966

Guy Debord, Rapporto sulla costruzione delle situazioni e sulle condizioni dell’organizzazione e dell’internazionale[1957], Torino, Nautilus, 2007

Lamberto Pignotti, La poesia tecnologica, «Questo e altro». Rivista di letteratura, n. 2, 1962.

Edoardo Sanguineti, Sopra l’avanguardia, «il verri», n. 11, 1963.

Lamberto Pignotti, La suggestione di Gordon Flash, «Marcatrè», n. 11-13, 1965.