Programma

Raccontare la catastrofe nell’era della letteratura mondiale

L-FIL-LET/14 CRITICA LETTERARIA E LETTERATURE COMPARATE
Marzo – Maggio 2019

Il corso esplora storie di catastrofe globale e sopravvivenza in un mondo ferito, dal primo Ottocento alla contemporaneità. La nostra indagine si colloca all’intersezione di tre campi di studio di grande interesse: la letteratura comparata, i global studies e l’ecocritica. Utilizzando la nozione di planetarietà – specificamente in rapporto alla categoria di letteratura mondiale – analizzeremo il modo in cui il pensiero apocalittico gioca un ruolo cruciale nel plasmare le idee moderne e contemporanee di Terra come sfera culturale unitaria e habitat condiviso. Useremo quattro ampie categorie storiografiche: Romanticismo, Fin-de-Siècle, Guerra Fredda e Contemporaneo. Esploreremo ciascuno di tali contesti con l’ausilio sia di testi teorici sulla letteratura mondiale che di esempi letterari che narrano l’apocalisse. Il sogno utopico della globalizzazione e della planetarietà troverà di volta in volta un contrappunto nelle fantasie sinistre di distruzione globale.

Il corso sarà insegnato in inglese. I testi letterari dovranno essere letti nella lingua originale, se possibile. L’esame finale consisterà in una tesina scritta di 2000 parole circa, da consegnare al docente almeno una settimana prima dell’appello prescelto. La tesina potrà essere redatta sia in italiano che in inglese. Il giorno dell’appello il docente discuterà con lo/a studente/essa la tesina finale (in italiano o in inglese a scelta dello/a studente/essa).

Gli studenti dovranno procurarsi i testi forniti di asterisco. Gli altri testi saranno forniti dal docente.



1. World Images : Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Mary Shelley

*Mary Shelley, The Last Man [1826], ed. by Morton D. Paley (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), or any other available edition.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe “Conversations with Eckermann on Weltliteratur” (1827), trans. John Oxenford (1850), in David Damrosch (ed.), World Literature in Theory (Oxford: Blackwell 2014), pp. 15-21.

John Pizer, “The Emergence of Weltliteratur: Goethe and the Romantic School” [2006], in David Damrosch (ed.), World Literature in Theory (Oxford: Blackwell 2014), pp. 22-34.

Barbara Johnson, “The Last Man” in Audrey Fisch, Anne K. Mellor and Esther Schorr (eds), The Other Mary Shelley: Beyond Frankenstein, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), pp. 258-67.


2. Beyond Empire: H.G. Wells and Rabindranath Tagore

*H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds [1898], ed. by A. Sawyer (London: Penguin, 2005), or any other available edition.

Rabindranath Tagore, “World Literature” (1907), in David Damrosch (ed.), World Literature in Theory (Oxford, Blackwell 2014), pp. 47-57.

Patrick Parrinder, “The Fall of Empires” in Shadows of the Future: H.G. Wells, Science Fiction and Prophecy (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1995), pp. 65-79.

Bhavya Tiwari, “Rabindranath Tagore’s comparative world literature”, in Theo d’haen, David Damrosch and Djelal Kadir (eds), The Routledge Companion to World Literature (London and New York: Routledge, 2012), pp. 41-48.


3. Notes from a Vulnerable Planet: James Lovelock, Günter Grass, Paolo Volponi

Excerpts from James Lovelock, Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth [1979] (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), or any other available edition.
EITHER: *Paolo Volponi, Il pianeta irritabile (Torino: Einaudi, 1978)
OR: *Günter Grass, Die Rättin (München: Luchterhand Literaturverlag, 1986), English translation by Ralph Manheim [1987] Italian translation by Bruna R. Bianchi [1987] or any other available translation.
Florian Mussgnug, “Species at War? The Animal and the Anthropocene” in Kevin Inston and Florian Mussgnug (eds), Rethinking the Animal-Human Relation, Special Issue, Paragraph, 42-1, 2019.

4. Contemporary Perspectives: Mourning a Broken Planet

*Cormac McCarthy, The Road (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006).

Ursula K. Heise, Imagining Extinction: The Cultural Meaning of Endangered Species (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016), chapters 1 and 6.

EITHER: *Mauro Corona, La fine del mondo storto (Milano: Mondadori, 2010).

OR: *Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake [2003] (London: Virago Press, 2004).

Michael Cronin, The Expanding World: Towards a Politics of Microspection (London: Zero Books, 2012).

Florian Mussgnug, “Planetary Figurations: Intensive Genre in World Literature”, Modern Languages Open, 1 (1), 2018.


Letture preparatorie consigliate

Ben Hutchinson, Comparative Literature: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018).

Deborah Danowski and Eduardo Viveiros de Edoardo, The Ends of the World (Cambridge: Polity, 2016).

John R. Hall, Apocalypse: From Antiquity to the Empire of Modernity (Cambridge: Polity, 2009).

Testi Adottati

PART ONE: World Images: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Mary Shelley

*Mary Shelley, The Last Man [1826], ed. by Morton D. Paley (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), or any other available edition.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe “Conversations with Eckermann on Weltliteratur” (1827), trans. John Oxenford (1850), in David Damrosch (ed.), World Literature in Theory (Oxford: Blackwell 2014), pp. 15-21.

John Pizer, “The Emergence of Weltliteratur: Goethe and the Romantic School” [2006], in David Damrosch (ed.), World Literature in Theory (Oxford: Blackwell 2014), pp. 22-34.

Barbara Johnson, “The Last Man” in Audrey Fisch, Anne K. Mellor and Esther Schorr (eds), The Other Mary Shelley: Beyond Frankenstein, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), pp. 258-67.


PART TWO: Beyond Empire: H.G. Wells and Rabindranath Tagore

*H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds [1898], ed. by A. Sawyer (London: Penguin, 2005), or any other available edition.

Rabindranath Tagore, “World Literature” (1907), in David Damrosch (ed.), World Literature in Theory (Oxford, Blackwell 2014), pp. 47-57.

Patrick Parrinder, “The Fall of Empires” in Shadows of the Future: H.G. Wells, Science Fiction and Prophecy (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1995), pp. 65-79.

Bhavya Tiwari, “Rabindranath Tagore’s comparative world literature”, in Theo d’haen, David Damrosch and Djelal Kadir (eds), The Routledge Companion to World Literature (London and New York: Routledge, 2012), pp. 41-48.


PART THREE: Notes from a Vulnerable Planet: James Lovelock, Günter Grass, Paolo Volponi

Excerpts from James Lovelock, Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth [1979] (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), or any other available edition.
EITHER: *Paolo Volponi, Il pianeta irritabile (Torino: Einaudi, 1978)
OR: *Günter Grass, Die Rättin (München: Luchterhand Literaturverlag, 1986), English translation by Ralph Manheim [1987] Italian translation by Bruna R. Bianchi [1987] or any other available translation.
Florian Mussgnug, “Species at War? The Animal and the Anthropocene” in Kevin Inston and Florian Mussgnug (eds), Rethinking the Animal-Human Relation, Special Issue, Paragraph, 42-1, 2019.

PART FOUR: Contemporary Perspectives: Mourning a Broken Planet

*Cormac McCarthy, The Road (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006).

Ursula K. Heise, Imagining Extinction: The Cultural Meaning of Endangered Species (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016), chapters 1 and 6.

EITHER: *Mauro Corona, La fine del mondo storto (Milano: Mondadori, 2010).

OR: *Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake [2003] (London: Virago Press, 2004).

Michael Cronin, The Expanding World: Towards a Politics of Microspection (London: Zero Books, 2012).

Florian Mussgnug, “Planetary Figurations: Intensive Genre in World Literature”, Modern Languages Open, 1 (1), 2018.


Suggested preparatory reading

Ben Hutchinson, Comparative Literature: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018).

Deborah Danowski and Eduardo Viveiros de Edoardo, The Ends of the World (Cambridge: Polity, 2016).

John R. Hall, Apocalypse: From Antiquity to the Empire of Modernity (Cambridge: Polity, 2009).

Bibliografia Di Riferimento

PART ONE: World Images: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Mary Shelley *Mary Shelley, The Last Man [1826], ed. by Morton D. Paley (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), or any other available edition. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe “Conversations with Eckermann on Weltliteratur” (1827), trans. John Oxenford (1850), in David Damrosch (ed.), World Literature in Theory (Oxford: Blackwell 2014), pp. 15-21. John Pizer, “The Emergence of Weltliteratur: Goethe and the Romantic School” [2006], in David Damrosch (ed.), World Literature in Theory (Oxford: Blackwell 2014), pp. 22-34. Barbara Johnson, “The Last Man” in Audrey Fisch, Anne K. Mellor and Esther Schorr (eds), The Other Mary Shelley: Beyond Frankenstein, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), pp. 258-67. PART TWO: Beyond Empire: H.G. Wells and Rabindranath Tagore *H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds [1898], ed. by A. Sawyer (London: Penguin, 2005), or any other available edition. Rabindranath Tagore, “World Literature” (1907), in David Damrosch (ed.), World Literature in Theory (Oxford, Blackwell 2014), pp. 47-57. Patrick Parrinder, “The Fall of Empires” in Shadows of the Future: H.G. Wells, Science Fiction and Prophecy (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1995), pp. 65-79. Bhavya Tiwari, “Rabindranath Tagore’s comparative world literature”, in Theo d’haen, David Damrosch and Djelal Kadir (eds), The Routledge Companion to World Literature (London and New York: Routledge, 2012), pp. 41-48. PART THREE: Notes from a Vulnerable Planet: James Lovelock, Günter Grass, Paolo Volponi Excerpts from James Lovelock, Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth [1979] (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), or any other available edition. EITHER: *Paolo Volponi, Il pianeta irritabile (Torino: Einaudi, 1978) OR: *Günter Grass, Die Rättin (München: Luchterhand Literaturverlag, 1986), English translation by Ralph Manheim [1987] Italian translation by Bruna R. Bianchi [1987] or any other available translation. Florian Mussgnug, “Species at War? The Animal and the Anthropocene” in Kevin Inston and Florian Mussgnug (eds), Rethinking the Animal-Human Relation, Special Issue, Paragraph, 42-1, 2019. PART FOUR: Contemporary Perspectives: Mourning a Broken Planet *Cormac McCarthy, The Road (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006). Ursula K. Heise, Imagining Extinction: The Cultural Meaning of Endangered Species (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016), chapters 1 and 6. EITHER: *Mauro Corona, La fine del mondo storto (Milano: Mondadori, 2010). OR: *Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake [2003] (London: Virago Press, 2004). Michael Cronin, The Expanding World: Towards a Politics of Microspection (London: Zero Books, 2012). Florian Mussgnug, “Planetary Figurations: Intensive Genre in World Literature”, Modern Languages Open, 1 (1), 2018. Suggested preparatory reading Ben Hutchinson, Comparative Literature: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018). Deborah Danowski and Eduardo Viveiros de Edoardo, The Ends of the World (Cambridge: Polity, 2016). John R. Hall, Apocalypse: From Antiquity to the Empire of Modernity (Cambridge: Polity, 2009).

Modalità Erogazione

Sono previste lezioni frontali.

Modalità Valutazione

orale