Nature and Art as Seen in Italian Literature

This course will examine the image of the ‘garden’ throughout the history of Italian literature (13th - 20th centuries). Beginning with the Middle Ages, our research will examine the stylized garden, representing order, rationality, harmony, decorum, and refined humanity, which constructs the ideal frame of Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron and will continue until “the thorns of the dry twigs” of a “garden” surrounded by a “red hot wall” as noted in Ossi di seppia by Eugenio Montale, an emblem of the modern pain of living. We will examine the evolution not only of the “Italian Garden” but also the budding of the “English Garden”, highlighting the cultural significance of the metamorphosis over time. The analysis of texts and the study of diverse authors, with various meanings correlated with the garden, are strictly related to the dynamics of a specific historical situation embedded in civil, social, and anthropological foundations.

Required Text: G. Tellini, Letteratura italiana. Un metodo di studio, Firenze, le Monnier Università, 2011. Additional reading materials will be provided by the instructor.