Introduction to Modern and Contemporary Italian Literature and Culture


This course will cover Italian literature from the beginning of the nineteenth to the end of the twentieth century. Major authors will be read against the background of Italian political and cultural history. Beginning with an overview of Italian Romanticism --with particular reference to Foscolo and Leopardi, the course will then focus on the development of the novel, from Manzoni, Nievo and the authors of the United Italy (Verga, Collodi, Deledda, D'Annunzio, Pirandello) to the representative writers of the twentieth century (Svevo, Pavese, Ginzburg, C. Levi, Vittorini, Calvino). Changing attitudes in poetry will be illustrated by a selection of readings ranging from the Decadence (Pascoli, Gozzano, the crepuscolari poets) to "Avanguardia" (Marinetti and Futurism), Dino Campana, the "Ermetici" (Ungaretti, Montale), and the "Transavanguardia".

Course required for new graduate students who do not have a major in Italian.

*Required Text: Gino Tellini, Letteratura italiana. Un metodo di studio, seconda edizione, Milano, Le Monnier, 2014