IT3FL: Fantastic Literature in Italy 1860s-1980s

Module Provider:

Italian

Number of credits:

20 [10 ECTS credits]

Level:

H (Honours)

Terms in which taught:

Autumn and Spring

Module Convenor:

Dr D La Penna

Pre-requisites:

Part 2 Italian, or by arrangement

Co-requisites:

Modules excluded:

Current from:

2005/6

Aims:
The course aims to provide the student with a wide range of critical tools for the stylistic, rhetorical, narratological and thematic analysis of the literary text in which the 'fantastic mode' is employed. Furthermore, the course aims to set the development of Fantastic literature in Italy from the late nineteenth century onwards in its historical and cultural context: the fantastic mode/genre would be identified as in contrast to the dominant realist mode, and the significance of the presence of strong foreign influences (German, French and British) examined in relation to contemporary attempts, in the newly-unified nation, to construct a national culture.

Assessable learning outcomes:
By the end of the unit it is expected that students will be able to:

Additional outcomes:
The unit also aims to encourage students to:

Outline content:
The course will focus on key theoretical texts which tackle the problematic definition of the fantastic. Starting from a close reading of Sigmund Freud's essay 'The Uncanny' (1919) and a narratological analysis of Hoffmann's short story 'The Sandman', the course will proceed to discuss Todorov's and Jackson's theories of the fantastic. In the remainder of the course, literary texts will be analysed in the light of the theories previously exposed and studied. During the Autumn Term, the course will concentrate on a selection of short stories by Camillo and Arrigo Boito, Igino Tarchetti, Salvatore Di Giacomo, and Luigi Capuana, published in the second half of the nineteenth century in Italy. In the Spring Term, the close reading of Anna Maria Ortese's L'iguana (1965), and of a small selection of short stories by Tommaso Landolfi and of theoretical essays by Italo Calvino will allow the student to appreciate the twentieth-century development of fantastic literature in Italy. The portrayal of women in specified literary texts would be also analysed, paying attention to issues of gender, to concepts such as the construction of the Other, the fragmented Ego, the relationship between the Ego and the body, and notions of madness, hysteria, and the world of dream.

Brief description of teaching and learning methods:
A combination of lectures and seminars: preparatory reading will be required for the seminars and students will be asked to produce short seminar presentations in addition to their two assessed essays.

Contact hours:

Assessment:

Coursework
Students will write two essays, each of 2,000-3,000 words. The average of the two marks will form the student's assessment mark, subject to scrutiny by a second internal examiner and by the external examiner where relevant.

Relative percentage of coursework : 50%

Examinations
One 2-hr examination which will count for 50% of the assessment for that unit.

Requirements for a pass
A mark of 40% overall

Reassessment arrangements
Students who fail the module will be re-examined in September. Coursework will be carried forward if it bears a mark of 40% or more. Otherwise it must be submitted by 1 September.