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.
Working and reworking the literary text is one of the characterising modules of the programme. It aims at consolidating the students’ ability to analyse and interpret literary texts in order to understand the ongoing changes in the Anglo-American canon. Classes focus on text analysis and the study of the ideological processes underlying both the dissemination and critical success of a literary work or genre. The module also allows students to further enhance their linguistic and communicative skills as well as their methodological competence in order to attain full critical awareness and autonomy.
At the end of the module students will be able to: communicate at an advanced level the disciplinary content; apply their knowledge and competence to the analysis of intertextual dynamics and translation processes.
Requirements: Students must have already taken North American literatures and visual cultures.
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.
Working and reworking the literary text is one of the characterising modules of the programme. It aims at consolidating the students’ ability to analyse and interpret literary texts in order to understand the ongoing changes in the Anglo-American canon. Classes focus on text analysis and the study of the ideological processes underlying both the dissemination and critical success of a literary work or genre. The module also allows students to further enhance their linguistic and communicative skills as well as their methodological competence in order to attain full critical awareness and autonomy.
At the end of the module students will be able to: communicate at an advanced level the disciplinary content; apply their knowledge and competence to the analysis of intertextual dynamics and translation processes.
Requirements: Students must have already taken North American literatures and visual cultures.
teacher profile teaching materials
With intermediality at large providing the theoretical backbone of the course, the syllabus will focus on the works of Steven Paul Scher, Werner Wolf, and Emily Petermann. In addition to these sources, students will draw on pre-existing criticism as further guidance on the above novels’ engagement with sound and musicality.
This selection of novels allows for a preliminary yet sufficiently comprehensive study of how jazz, rock and classical music serve as a heteromedial and resourcefully composite toolbox for American Literature to draw upon. Students will thus be encouraged to consider literature not only as a recording device lending its textual voice to sound, but also as discourse that aspires to evoke a full-fledged musical experience in the minds (and ears) of the reader.
• Toni Morrison, Jazz, London: Vintage, 2004 [1992]
• Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad (any edition; 2010)
• Richard Powers, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2014
Programme
This year’s Working and Reworking the Literary Text addresses the intermedial relationship between music and literary fiction, exploring how contemporary American novels incorporate sound both at the level of form and content. Through close readings of Jazz by Toni Morrison (1992), A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (2010), and Orfeo by Richard Powers (2014), students will analyze the strategies through which authors effectively translate musical structures, devices and meaning into narrative form.With intermediality at large providing the theoretical backbone of the course, the syllabus will focus on the works of Steven Paul Scher, Werner Wolf, and Emily Petermann. In addition to these sources, students will draw on pre-existing criticism as further guidance on the above novels’ engagement with sound and musicality.
This selection of novels allows for a preliminary yet sufficiently comprehensive study of how jazz, rock and classical music serve as a heteromedial and resourcefully composite toolbox for American Literature to draw upon. Students will thus be encouraged to consider literature not only as a recording device lending its textual voice to sound, but also as discourse that aspires to evoke a full-fledged musical experience in the minds (and ears) of the reader.
Core Documentation
PRIMARY SOURCES• Toni Morrison, Jazz, London: Vintage, 2004 [1992]
• Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad (any edition; 2010)
• Richard Powers, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2014
Reference Bibliography
SECONDARY SOURCES (theory and criticism) All criticism and theory materials will be available digitally and details will be shared in class • Steven Paul Scher, “Notes toward a Theory of Verbal Music” • Werner Wolf, The Musicalization of Fiction (selected chapters) • Emily Petermann, “Theorizing the Musical Novel,” “Elements of Sound in Jazz Novels” • Irina Rajewski, “Intermediality, Intertextuality, and Remediation: A Literary Perspective on Intermediality” • Stefano Franceschini, “‘Between the Key of Hope and the Atonal Slash of Nothingness’: Musical Meaning in Richard Powers’ Orfeo” More specific criticism on Jazz and A Visit from the Goon Squad will be provided in class.Attendance
Regular class attendance is strongly encouraged.Type of evaluation
Oral examination.