This module focuses on comparative and interdisciplinary approaches to modern and contemporary Italian literature, including the study of genres, forms, and themes. It provides a space for advanced, research-based learning in literary and cultural studies. The following fields, in particular, will be explored: modern and contemporay Italian literature in the wider context of world literature, transnational cultural exchanges and lines of influence, scholarly approaches in the environmental humanities, literary and cultural theory, material and visual cultures, reception studies, intermediality. Students will be guided towards independent scholarly inquiry, dialogue, and creative-critical practice.
teacher profile teaching materials
This course considers Italian literary narratives of emergency, global catastrophe and survival in a damaged world, from the 1970s to the present. We will explore how dystopian speculation plays a key role in contemporary conceptions of human and more-than-human vulnerability, shaping pervasive stories and social practices. Pursuing debates in world literature, political philosophy, and the environmental humanities, the course is designed for students who are interested in the following questions:
· How have modern and contemporary Italian writers imagined dystopian and catastrophic futures, since 1970?
· What lines of influence connect late twentieth-century Italian dystopian fiction to the works and concerns of a more recent generation of novelists?
· In an age of global connectedness, does it still make sense to assume that the cultural and political force of literature is located in specific discursive, national and geopolitical contexts (e.g. the “Italian canon”)?
Superstudio, ‘Le Dodici Città Ideali’, Casabella, 361, 1972, pp. 45-55.
Mario Soldati, Lo smeraldo (Mondadori, 1974).
Guido Morselli, Dissipatio H.G. (Adelphi, 1977).
Carlo Cassola, Il superstite (Rizzoli, 1978).
Paolo Volponi, Il pianeta irritabile (Einaudi, 1978).
Simona Vinci, Rovina (Einaudi, 2007).
Paolo Zanotti, Bambini bonsai (Ponte alle Grazie, 2010).
Maria Rosa Cutrufelli, L’isola delle madri (Mondadori, 2020).
Programme
Environmental Dystopia in Italy: 1970-2020This course considers Italian literary narratives of emergency, global catastrophe and survival in a damaged world, from the 1970s to the present. We will explore how dystopian speculation plays a key role in contemporary conceptions of human and more-than-human vulnerability, shaping pervasive stories and social practices. Pursuing debates in world literature, political philosophy, and the environmental humanities, the course is designed for students who are interested in the following questions:
· How have modern and contemporary Italian writers imagined dystopian and catastrophic futures, since 1970?
· What lines of influence connect late twentieth-century Italian dystopian fiction to the works and concerns of a more recent generation of novelists?
· In an age of global connectedness, does it still make sense to assume that the cultural and political force of literature is located in specific discursive, national and geopolitical contexts (e.g. the “Italian canon”)?
Core Documentation
PRIMARY TEXTSSuperstudio, ‘Le Dodici Città Ideali’, Casabella, 361, 1972, pp. 45-55.
Mario Soldati, Lo smeraldo (Mondadori, 1974).
Guido Morselli, Dissipatio H.G. (Adelphi, 1977).
Carlo Cassola, Il superstite (Rizzoli, 1978).
Paolo Volponi, Il pianeta irritabile (Einaudi, 1978).
Simona Vinci, Rovina (Einaudi, 2007).
Paolo Zanotti, Bambini bonsai (Ponte alle Grazie, 2010).
Maria Rosa Cutrufelli, L’isola delle madri (Mondadori, 2020).
Reference Bibliography
Students are encouraged to read at least one of the following texts in preparation for the course. All other secondary material will be made available by the course tutor. Deborah Danowski and Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, The Ends of the World, translated by Rodrigo Nunes, Cambridge, Polity Press, 2017. Ann E. Kaplan, Climate Trauma: Foreseeing the Future in Dystopian Film and Fiction, New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 2016. Pieter Vermeulen, Literature and the Anthropocene, London, Routledge, 2020.Type of delivery of the course
The course will be taught in English. Students must be able to read primary literature in Italian.Type of evaluation
Assessment will consist of a compulsory coursework essay (2.500 words), which must be submitted to the course tutor at least one week prior to the oral examination. This essay may be written in English or in Italian. The oral examination will focus on the coursework essay, and may take place in English or in Italian, depending on the student’s preference.