This module continues the in-depth exploration of contemporary literary debate, providing advanced tools for understanding and analyzing complex texts—narrative, theatrical, and filmic—with an increased focus on theoretical-comparative analysis. The course is structured around the analysis of categories such as reception, rewriting, adaptation, and transmediality, integrating both diachronic and synchronic perspectives in relation to other arts. Students will be guided in the autonomous application of the acquired theoretical tools, with particular attention to hypertextual and multimedia texts. The module will enable them to interpret literary phenomena in diverse contexts, developing a critical method capable of reading and analyzing texts from a theoretical-comparative perspective – both diachronic and synchronic – in dialogue with other artistic forms.
teacher profile teaching materials
Both challenge the primacy of the written novel by foregrounding voice, montage, image, seriality, and non-linear modes of listening and reading. Radio drama operates through the dematerialization of the text and the sonic construction of the imaginary, while the graphic novel reconfigures the relationship between word and image, memory and archive.
The course aims to provide students with critical tools for understanding these forms as aesthetic, political, and perceptual devices fully embedded in the cultural history of both the twentieth century and the contemporary moment.
Bachmann, Ingeborg. Der gute Gott von Manhattan (Germania, 1958)
Brecht, Bertolt. Der Ozeanflug (Germania, 1929)
Manganelli, Giorgio. In un luogo imprecisato (Italia, 1975)
Artaud, Antonin. Pour en finir avec le jugement de Dieu (Francia, 1947)
Berio, Luciano, Bruno Maderna e Roberto Leydi. Ritratto di città (Italia, 1954)
Armitage, Simon. The Raft of the Medusa (Regno Unito, 2015)
Welles, Orson. The War of the Worlds (USA, 1938)
Thomas, Dylan. Under Milk Wood (Regno Unito, 1954)
Graphic novels
Eisner, Will. A Contract with God (USA, 1978)
Oesterheld, Héctor G., e Francisco Solano López. El Eternauta (Argentina, 1957–1959)
Zerocalcare. La profezia dell’armadillo (Italia, 2011)
Spiegelman, Art. Maus (USA, 1980–1991)
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis (Iran / Francia, 2000–2003)
Pratt, Hugo. Una ballata del mare salato (Italia / Francia, 1967)
Moore, Alan, e Dave Gibbons. Watchmen (Regno Unito / USA, 1986–1987)
Programme
This course examines two narrative forms often considered marginal — radio drama and the graphic novel — as central sites of experimentation within the media landscape of the twentieth century and beyond.Both challenge the primacy of the written novel by foregrounding voice, montage, image, seriality, and non-linear modes of listening and reading. Radio drama operates through the dematerialization of the text and the sonic construction of the imaginary, while the graphic novel reconfigures the relationship between word and image, memory and archive.
The course aims to provide students with critical tools for understanding these forms as aesthetic, political, and perceptual devices fully embedded in the cultural history of both the twentieth century and the contemporary moment.
Core Documentation
RadiodrammiBachmann, Ingeborg. Der gute Gott von Manhattan (Germania, 1958)
Brecht, Bertolt. Der Ozeanflug (Germania, 1929)
Manganelli, Giorgio. In un luogo imprecisato (Italia, 1975)
Artaud, Antonin. Pour en finir avec le jugement de Dieu (Francia, 1947)
Berio, Luciano, Bruno Maderna e Roberto Leydi. Ritratto di città (Italia, 1954)
Armitage, Simon. The Raft of the Medusa (Regno Unito, 2015)
Welles, Orson. The War of the Worlds (USA, 1938)
Thomas, Dylan. Under Milk Wood (Regno Unito, 1954)
Graphic novels
Eisner, Will. A Contract with God (USA, 1978)
Oesterheld, Héctor G., e Francisco Solano López. El Eternauta (Argentina, 1957–1959)
Zerocalcare. La profezia dell’armadillo (Italia, 2011)
Spiegelman, Art. Maus (USA, 1980–1991)
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis (Iran / Francia, 2000–2003)
Pratt, Hugo. Una ballata del mare salato (Italia / Francia, 1967)
Moore, Alan, e Dave Gibbons. Watchmen (Regno Unito / USA, 1986–1987)
Reference Bibliography
Radio / Radiodramma Menduni, Enrico. Il mondo della radio. Dal transistor ai social network. Bologna: Il Mulino, 2012. Capitoli: I. In sintonia con lo spirito del tempo II. Suoni e immagini III. Dallo spazio pubblico allo spazio privato, personale, mobile, on-demand IV. L’uso elettivo della radio V. La rivincita dell’oralità VI. L’oralità sonora VII. Effetti radiofonici Bonini, Tiziano. Chimica della radio. Storia dei generi dello spettacolo radiofonico. Doppiozero, 2013. Capitoli (in Teams): Attention! La radio ment! Decostruire il mito della Guerra dei Mondi All’ombra del bosco di latte Pericolo! Il primo radiodramma della Storia Suonare Schostakovich sotto assedio. L’estate di Radio Leningrado Crisell, Andrew. Understanding Radio. 2nd ed. London/New York: Routledge, 1994. Capitoli (in Teams): Part One: The Medium Chapter 7: Radio drama Episcopo, Giuseppe. Radiotelling. Forme radiofoniche e arte del racconto. Roma: TAB Edizioni, 2024. Capitoli (in Teams): L’arte elettrica del racconto Il mare dell’epica e le onde della radio Spazio aurale e affabulazione elettrica Graphic Novel Tabachnick, Stephen E., ed. The Cambridge Companion to the Graphic Novel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. Capitoli (in Teams): Randy Duncan e Matthew J. Smith, How the Graphic Novel Works Stephen E. Tabachnick, From Comics to the Graphic Novel: William Hogarth to Will Eisner Stephen Weiner, The Development of the American Graphic Novel: From Will Eisner to the Present Baetens, Jan, e Hugo Frey. The Graphic Novel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Capitoli (in Teams): Will Eisner and the Making of A Contract with God by Michael A. Chaney; Art Spiegelman’s Autobiographical Practice from Maus to MetaMaus by Erin McGlothlin; Alan Moore: The Making of a Graphic Novelist by Christopher Murray Eco, Umberto. Apocalittici e integrati: comunicazioni di massa e teorie della cultura di massa, 219–260. Milano: Bompiani, 1964. Capitolo (in Teams): Il mito di Superman Frezza, Gino. Le carte del fumetto. Strategie e ritratti di un medium generazionale. Napoli: Liguori, 2008. Capitoli: I fumetti da leggere e da scrivere Evoluzione e attualità del graphic novelAttendance
Attendance is strongly recommended. Active participation in lectures and seminars forms an integral part of the course and will be taken into consideration in determining the distinction between attending and non-attending students.Type of evaluation
The course will be taught in Italian. Whenever possible, literary texts should be read in the original language. Assessment will take the form of an oral examination, designed to evaluate the knowledge acquired and the level of critical engagement achieved: in the theoretical and methodological frameworks of comparative literature and intermedial studies; in the topics addressed during the course, with particular attention to radio drama and the graphic novel as narrative forms and as aesthetic, political, and perceptual devices; and in the textual and medial analysis of the works discussed in class.