20710478 - Text and Performance

Graduates in Languages and Literatures for Teaching and Translation obtain advanced knowledge and understanding in all the subject areas of their training in order to
1) consolidate and develop their competence in European and American Studies, with particular attention to their literature of specialisation;
2) deepen their knowledge of the two foreign languages chosen, achieving a heightened competence in the language of specialization and an advancement in the second language;
3) reach enhanced awareness of the linguistic features of their language of specialisation, both from a diachronic and a synchronic perspective;
4) reach an adequate knowledge of the most advanced methodologies for the analysis of literary texts;
5) handle confidently the theoretical-practical tools for teaching and for translation.

Text and performance is one of the characterising modules of the programme. It allows students to strengthen their linguistic and communicative skills and their ability to interpret literary phenomena; it also enhances their competence in teaching literature and fosters their capacity for autonomous and accurate critical evaluation.
At the end of the module students will be able to: employ advanced theoretical skills in the field of literary translation as well as in the analysis of the interrelationships between literary language and other expressive forms, also from an intermedial perspective; communicate at an advanced level the disciplinary content.

Requirements: Students must have already taken Literature and Forms.

Canali

teacher profile | teaching materials

Programme

From Shakespeare's lyrical tragedy to the great tragical period

The course is aimed at analysing two phases of the tragical genre of Shakespearean theatre and, more specifically, the relationship between text and performance in two plays: Romeo and Juliet and Othello. After a survey on the evolution of the genre, the focal points of the course will be : Shakespeare's intermedial writing, translation for theatre or reading as adaptation practice and the application of Shakespearean language as an educational model for secondary schools.

Core Documentation

Primary sources
William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, edited by Hannah August, Francis X. Conor, and Emma Smith, The New Oxford Shakespeare, 2024
William Shakespeare, Othello, edited by Michael Neill, Oxford Shakespeare, 2008

Film adaptations
Romeo + Juliet (Baz Luhrman, 1996)
Omkara (Vishal Bhardwaj, 2006)

Criticism
Maddalena Pennacchia, "Intermedial Products for Digital Natives", Intermédialités, Numéro 30-31, 2018
Maddalena Pennacchia, "Othello fiorisce a Bollywood", in Postcolonial Shakespeare, a cura di M. d'Amico e S. Corso, Edizioni Storia e Letteratura, 2009
more critical texts will be suggested during the course

Reference Bibliography

Addittional critical material will be suggested and provided throughout the course

Attendance

in classroom (strongly recommended)

Type of evaluation

The examination is oral but there will be in-progress tests (optional); a written paper of 1500 words is to be agreed with the teacher for those who have not taken the in-progress tests

teacher profile | teaching materials

Programme

Title: "From the written page to performance media: remediations and transmediations of the literary text".
Description: The course focuses on the written text’s performance, regeneration and proliferation through different modalities and across multiple media. The literary cases considered, William Shakespeare’s "Romeo and Juliet", and Margaret Atwood’s "The Handmaids Tale", will be analysed in relation to their most significant transcodifications for radio, film, television and social media.


Core Documentation

William Shakespeare, "Romeo and Juliet" (c. 1604), any edition.
"William Shakespeare’s Romeo+Juliet", film directed by Baz Luhrmann (1996).
"Upstart Crow", TV series created by Ben Elton (Season1/Episode 1, 2016).
Margaret Atwood, "The Handmaid’s Tale", Vintage, 1996 (c1985).
"The Handmaid’s Tale", TV series created by Bruce Miller (Season 1, 2017).

Recordings, films, graphic novels, and TV series' episodes will be available on the Moodle.

Reference Bibliography

Bibliography for international students: Rippl Gabriele, "Introduction" to "Handbook of Intermediality: Literature - Image - Sound - Music", edited by Gabriele Rippl, De Gruyter, Inc., 2015, pp. 1-31; Thon Jean-Noel, "Narratives across Media and the Outlines of a Media-conscious Narratology", in "Handbook of Intermediality: Literature - Image - Sound - Music", edited by Gabriele Rippl, De Gruyter, Inc., 2015, pp. 439-456; Straumann, Barbara, “Adaptation – Remediation – Transmediality” [on Baz Luhrmann’s film Romeo+Juliet], in Handbook of Intermediality: Literature - Image - Sound - Music, edited by Gabriele Rippl, De Gruyter, 2015, pp. 249-267. Winckler Reto, "Shakespearean Sitcom: Ustart Crow, Shakespeare's Plays, and the Problem of Literature on Television", in Reto Winckler and Víctor Huertas-Martín (eds), "Television Series as Literature", Palgrave MacMillan, pp. 313-331; Dvorak Marta, "Subverting Utopia. Ambiguity in The Handmaid's Tale", Rennes, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 1999, pp. 73-86; Roche David, "Shallow Focus Composition and the Poetics of Blur in The Handmaid's Tale (Hulu 2017-)", in "Adapting Margaret Atwood", edited by Shannon Wells-Lassagne and Fiona McMahon, Palgrave, pp. 127-141.

Type of delivery of the course

The course will be taught in English.

Attendance

Attendance is optional, but strongly recommended.

Type of evaluation

The examination is oral, but comprises a writing exercise.