M. Landi
The course aims to study the relationships between literature and illness (physical and psychological) through the main example of two authors: Maupassant and Verlaine. The exemple of other authors (Nerval, Flaubert, Rimbaud, Zola)
M. Lombardi
The course concentrates on the relationships existing between theatre, illness and medicine (XVII – XVIII centuries)
M. Landi
G. de Maupassant,
"Le Horla"
Verlaine, "Mes hôpitaux" (Fayard, 2003).
Other texts:
Nerval, "Aurélia" (Gallimard, "Folio")
Flaubert, "Mme Bovary" (Gallimard, "Folio")
-Zola, "Le docteur Pascal" (Gallimard, "Folio")
-Zola, "Le Roman expérimental" (Gallimard, "Folio")
- Rimbaud, "Lettres d'Afrique", Paris, Vertige, 2005.
Critical bibliography:
The critical bibliography will be indicated at the beginning of the course.
M. Lombardi
Brosse, Les songes des hommes éveillés, a cura di G. Forestier, Paris, Nizet, 1984 (c/o Biblioteca Umanistica); Stratonice ou le malade d’amour (su Gallica).
Other texts: antologia di brani scelti distribuita dal docente: tra cui Hardy, Corneille, Molière, Racine, trattatistica medica seicentesca, l’Encyclopédie (voci relative), Fabre d'Eglantine, Sade.
Critical bibliography: M. Ciavolella, La Malattia d’amore dall’Antichità al Medioevo, Roma, Bulzoni, 1976; P. Dandrey, Sganarelle e la médecine ou De la mélancolie érotique, Paris, Kliencksieck, 1998; M. Lombardi, Casi clinici e terapie sceniche nel Seicento, in M. G. Profeti (a cura di), Follia Follie, Firenze, Alinea, 2006, pp. 207-239; Cervantes e le malattie dell’anima, in “Theatralia”, V, 2003, pp. 143-151; I Memorabilia in scena: il caso di Antioco e Stratonica, in D. Dalla Valle et alii (a cura di), Da un genere all’altro, Atti del Convegno, Roma, Aracne, 2012, pp. 245-260.
Learning Objectives
M. Landi
- To know the Eighteenth Century French Literature in its close relationship with medical science.
- Education to self-respect in suffering condition, recognize in writing a form of positive elaboration of suffering
- Extend individual situations to social processes
M. Lombardi
To analyse seventeenth and eighteenth century theatre texts and the relationship existing with the medical theories.
Literature as cultural and political phenomenon. The importance of self-consciousness as a way of knowing the human nature.
To study the history of theatre in relationship with the disciplines of education and medicine.
Prerequisites
M. Landi
Competence in French language as it is recognized by the exam of Lingua francese 2, and widely sufficient for text comprehension, in literature or critical essays. A part of the course could be conducted in French
M. Lombardi
Good knowledge of French language
Teaching Methods
M. Landi e M. Lombardi
Frontal lesson with discussion
Further information
The course will be subdivided into two parts, following a chronological criterium: Prof. Lombardi will be treating sixteenth and seventeenth century literature; Prof. Landi eighteenth century, with references to the following literary period. The three course texts for Prof. Landi will be available at the Librairie Française, Piazza Ognissanti, Florence. The course texts for M. Lombardi will be available at the "Biblioteca Umanistica", "Biblioteca Institut Français Florence" and Gallica (www.gallica.bnf.fr)
Type of Assessment
M. Landi
Oral exam with evaluation of the following items:
- cultural knowledge (40/100)
-argumentation ability (40/100)
- original approach to the subject (20/100)
The exam will be divided into two parts:
Knowledge and personal elaboration of the critical text at students choice
- Knowledge and personal elaboration of the subjects concerned by the course.
M. Lombardi
Oral exam with evaluation of the lexical and cultural knowledge, with particular regard to the European context (40/100); argumentation ability (40/100); original approach to the subject (20/100). The exam will be divided into three parts:
1) Critical and historical presentation of one of the subject concerned by the course (students can helps themselves using Powerpoint);
2) Critical knowledge of the texts
3) Knowledge and personal elaboration of the various subjects.
Course program
M. Landi
The choice of the above-mentioned authors (principal and complementary) and relative works aims to focus on different typologies of pathology in the Eighteenth century French literature, when science has extended its influence on literature, determining some stilistic and thematic choices. In particular, with the "Idéologues", the problem of illness extends from the individual being to collectivity, offering a new interpretation to the social processes. The first case, concerning Maupassant's "Horla", will allow us to focus on the Hoffmann's heritage, concerning as much the real situation of schizophrenia, as the reaction of the ill subject by irony, thanks to the split personality represented in the literary discourse. The second case, is Verlaine's diary of its illness in different hospitals, which represents, in an impressive personal writing, a very important document on French social life fin de siècle. In this context we will consider descriptive modality of "realism", anticipating Zola's naturalism and experimental Claude Bernard's medical studies.
M. Lombardi
The subject of “religious illness” and “the plague of love” will be studied through the two plays of Brosse, that will be analysed in their historical and cultural context, in an European perspective (for istance the works of Saracini in Italy, Burton in England) and in a multidisciplinary way (literature, painting, theatre, cinema). The course moves from the “plague of love” or the “erotic melancholy” to the imaginary disease in Moliere’s plays and to the “mystical madness” in Racine’s works. The critical texts proposed (Ciavolella, Dandrey, Lombardi, and the others) focus on the therapeutic power of theatre.