Course Name: ITAL 35597 Colloquium: Recent Italian Literature in Translation
Description: This course will focus on the close reading and analysis of selected authors of the modern Italian literary tradition, moving from Camilo Boito's Senso (1882) to Marissa Madieri's Verde acqua (1987). The goal is to examine attempts by Italian authors to exlpre the self through literature. Alongside the struggle to gain self-consciousness, we will also trace the shifts in techniques used by these authors as we move from the nineteenth to the twentieth century. To help us understand such changes, our class will explore mediums, such as art and cinema, including visits to museums in Florence. We will also consider the diverse geographic and regionla linguistic contexts out of whcih these novels emerged, with attention to the place and role of women and gendered roles in these works. Students will read Camilo Boiti's Senso (1883), Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883), Italo Svevo's La coscienza di Zeno (1923), Luigi Pirandello's So It Is (If You Think So) (1917), One, No One, and One Hundred Thousand (1925), Anna Banti's Artemisia (1947), Italo Calvino's The Cloven Viscount (1951) and Cosmicomics (1965), and Marisa Madieri's Acqua Green (1987). For most texts, selections are chose to allow for close analysis of the text, although studnets will select a complete work as the basis for the final written assignment.
Credit Hours: 3
Prerequisites: None
Open to all students.