This module provides a space for advanced, research-based learning in literary and cultural studies, across languages, regions and periods. It focuses on comparative, and interdisciplinary approaches, including the theoretical study of genres and themes, and on research in the following fields: world literature, 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
«Utopia is an idyllic world described by the hero and considered perfect, in contrast to the world he has left. The dystopia paints a nightmare world, apprehended as such in opposition to a better world known to the hero thanks to his personal experience, thanks to the memories of a bygone age, or thanks to the reading of forbidden books dedicated to a distant past» (Hélène Greven-Borde, Formes modernes du roman utopique en Grande Bretagne (1918- 1960), in «Etudes Anglaises», 1, 1977: 20). The course starts by tracing a genealogy of dystopia in literature and culture, and then looks at theories of adaptation examining a wide variety of examples drawn from the radio, opera, cinema, and television.
Starting with an introduction to "utopia" (Thomas More e Tommaso Campanella), the core syllabus consists of twelve dystopian texts, in the broader meaning: we will read and discuss, among the others, Jack London’s The Scarlet Plague, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, José Saramago’s Ensaio Sobre a Cegueira, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and their adaptations for different media: film, television, opera, radio. We will approach the notions of intertexuality thanks to Alan Moore’s graphic novel V. for Vendetta, and of intermediality through Orson Welles’ The War of the Worlds and Simon Armitage’s radio drama The Raft of Medusa.
In analysing the texts, a variety of critical approaches will be considered, including theory of adaptation, media studies, intermedial studies, and genre theory. The course will also take into consideration the significance of dystopia in relation to social transformations, technological change, totalitarianism, and capitalist modernity.
Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale [1985], London, Vintage Classics 2017 (trad. it. C Pennati, Il racconto dell'ancella, Milano, Mondadori 1988) Series: The Handmaid’s Tale, created by Bruce Miller, Hulu and MGM, USA-Canada 2017–
P.D. James, Children of Men, London, Faber and Faber, 1992 (I figli degli uomini, trad. it. di A, Biavasco e V. Guani, Milano, Mondadori, 1993) Film: Children of Men, directed by Alfonso Cuarón, UK-USA 2006
Stanisław Lem, Solaris (1961), trad. it. di V. Verdiani, Palermo, Sellerio, 2013 Film: Solaris, directed by Andrej Tarkovskij, USSR, 1972.
Jack London, The Scarlet Plague [1912], (trad it. di O. Fatica, La peste scarlatta, Milano, Adelpho, 2009) Radio, The Scarlet Plague, CBS 1954
Cormac McCarthy, The Road, New York, Alfred A. Knopf 2006 (trad. it. di M. Testa, Torino, Einaudi, 2007) Film: The Road, directed by John Hillcoat, USA 2009
Alan Moore and David Lloyd, V. for Vendetta [1982-1989], any available edition (trad. it. V per Vendetta, Milano, Rizzoli 2006) Film: V. for Vendetta, directed by James McTeigue, UK-USA, 2005
Héctor Oesterheld and Francisco Solano López, El Eternauta, Hora Cero, 1957-1959.
Radio teatro: El Eternauta. Vestigios del Futuro, 21 chapters Radio Provincia de Buenos Aires, 2010
George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four [1948], any available edition (trad. it. ogni traduzione accreditata) trasposizioni: [Film] Nineteen Eighty-Four, directed by film Michael Radford, UK 1984 [Opera] Nineteen Eighty-Four, composed and directed by Lorin Maazel, libretto by J. D. McClatchy and Thomas Meehan, premiered in London, May 3 2005, Royal Opera House; [Radio Drama] Nineteen Eighty-Four, dramatised by Jonathan Holloway, directed by Jeremy Mortimer, broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 10th and 17th February 2013
José Saramago, Ensaio sobre a Cegueira, 1995 (trad. it. R. Desti, Torino, Einaudi, 1996) Film: Blindness, directed by Fernando Meirelles, USA 2008
H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds [1898], any available edition (trad. it. ogni traduzione accreditata) Radio: The War of the Worlds, directed by Orson Welles, CBS, USA 1938
Evgenij Ivanovič Zamjatin, Noi (1919), ogni traduzione accreditata; Radio: We, directed by Jim Poyser on BBC Radio 4, april 2004
Programme
Utpia, dystopia and Intermediality: from A (Apocalypse) to Z (Zombies)«Utopia is an idyllic world described by the hero and considered perfect, in contrast to the world he has left. The dystopia paints a nightmare world, apprehended as such in opposition to a better world known to the hero thanks to his personal experience, thanks to the memories of a bygone age, or thanks to the reading of forbidden books dedicated to a distant past» (Hélène Greven-Borde, Formes modernes du roman utopique en Grande Bretagne (1918- 1960), in «Etudes Anglaises», 1, 1977: 20). The course starts by tracing a genealogy of dystopia in literature and culture, and then looks at theories of adaptation examining a wide variety of examples drawn from the radio, opera, cinema, and television.
Starting with an introduction to "utopia" (Thomas More e Tommaso Campanella), the core syllabus consists of twelve dystopian texts, in the broader meaning: we will read and discuss, among the others, Jack London’s The Scarlet Plague, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, José Saramago’s Ensaio Sobre a Cegueira, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and their adaptations for different media: film, television, opera, radio. We will approach the notions of intertexuality thanks to Alan Moore’s graphic novel V. for Vendetta, and of intermediality through Orson Welles’ The War of the Worlds and Simon Armitage’s radio drama The Raft of Medusa.
In analysing the texts, a variety of critical approaches will be considered, including theory of adaptation, media studies, intermedial studies, and genre theory. The course will also take into consideration the significance of dystopia in relation to social transformations, technological change, totalitarianism, and capitalist modernity.
Core Documentation
The Raft of Medusa, written by Simon Armitage, broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 18th April 2015Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale [1985], London, Vintage Classics 2017 (trad. it. C Pennati, Il racconto dell'ancella, Milano, Mondadori 1988) Series: The Handmaid’s Tale, created by Bruce Miller, Hulu and MGM, USA-Canada 2017–
P.D. James, Children of Men, London, Faber and Faber, 1992 (I figli degli uomini, trad. it. di A, Biavasco e V. Guani, Milano, Mondadori, 1993) Film: Children of Men, directed by Alfonso Cuarón, UK-USA 2006
Stanisław Lem, Solaris (1961), trad. it. di V. Verdiani, Palermo, Sellerio, 2013 Film: Solaris, directed by Andrej Tarkovskij, USSR, 1972.
Jack London, The Scarlet Plague [1912], (trad it. di O. Fatica, La peste scarlatta, Milano, Adelpho, 2009) Radio, The Scarlet Plague, CBS 1954
Cormac McCarthy, The Road, New York, Alfred A. Knopf 2006 (trad. it. di M. Testa, Torino, Einaudi, 2007) Film: The Road, directed by John Hillcoat, USA 2009
Alan Moore and David Lloyd, V. for Vendetta [1982-1989], any available edition (trad. it. V per Vendetta, Milano, Rizzoli 2006) Film: V. for Vendetta, directed by James McTeigue, UK-USA, 2005
Héctor Oesterheld and Francisco Solano López, El Eternauta, Hora Cero, 1957-1959.
Radio teatro: El Eternauta. Vestigios del Futuro, 21 chapters Radio Provincia de Buenos Aires, 2010
George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four [1948], any available edition (trad. it. ogni traduzione accreditata) trasposizioni: [Film] Nineteen Eighty-Four, directed by film Michael Radford, UK 1984 [Opera] Nineteen Eighty-Four, composed and directed by Lorin Maazel, libretto by J. D. McClatchy and Thomas Meehan, premiered in London, May 3 2005, Royal Opera House; [Radio Drama] Nineteen Eighty-Four, dramatised by Jonathan Holloway, directed by Jeremy Mortimer, broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 10th and 17th February 2013
José Saramago, Ensaio sobre a Cegueira, 1995 (trad. it. R. Desti, Torino, Einaudi, 1996) Film: Blindness, directed by Fernando Meirelles, USA 2008
H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds [1898], any available edition (trad. it. ogni traduzione accreditata) Radio: The War of the Worlds, directed by Orson Welles, CBS, USA 1938
Evgenij Ivanovič Zamjatin, Noi (1919), ogni traduzione accreditata; Radio: We, directed by Jim Poyser on BBC Radio 4, april 2004
Reference Bibliography
Linda Hutcheon, A Theory of Adaptation, 2006; trad. it. Teoria degli adattamenti, Roma, Armando 2011: capp. 1; 2. Douwe W. Fokkema, Perfect Worlds, Amsterdam UP, 2011: capp. Intro; 2; 3; 14. (presenti su Jstor) Massimo Fusillo, Passato presente futuro, in Francesco de Cristofaro (a cura di), Letterature comparate [nuova ed.], Roma, Carocci 2020, pp. 13-30. Francesco de Cristofaro (a cura di), Letterature comparate [nuova ed.], Roma, Carocci 2020, two books chapter of your choice between: Il dialogo intertestuale di Chiara Lombardi; Riscritture di Irene Fantappiè; La letteratura e le altre arti di Elisabetta Abignente; La letteratura e i media di Giuseppe Episcopo. Gregory Claeys, Three Variants on the Concept of Dystopia, in Fátima Vieira (ed.), Dystopia(n) Matters, Cambridge Scholars Publisher 2013, pp. 14-18 (presente su Moodle) George Woodcock, Utopias in Negative, in “The Sewanee Review”, Jan. - Mar., 1956, Vol. 64, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 1956), pp. 81-97 (presente su Jstor) Florian Mussgnug, Daydreaming of Apocalypse, in “ia.tv”, 17 March 2023 (iai.tv/articles/daydreaming-of-apocalypse-florian-mussgung-auid-2420) Irina O. Rajewsky, Intermediality, Intertextuality, and Remediation: A Literary Perspective on Intermediality. In «Intermédialités / Intermediality», n. 6, 2005, pp. 43-64. One between the following articles: Walter Benjamin, Il narratore. Considerazioni sull’opera di Nikolaj Leskov, in Id., Opere complete. VI. Scritti 1934- 1937, a cura di R. Tiedemann, H. Schweppenhäuser, E. Ganni, H. Riediger, Torino, Einaudi, 2004, pp.320-345. Walter Benjamin, L ’opera d'arte nell’epoca della sua riproducibilità tecnica, in Id., Opere complete. VI. Scritti 1934-1937, a cura di R. Tiedemann, H. Schweppenhäuser, E. Ganni, H. Riediger, Torino, Einaudi, 2004, pp. 271-203. One between the following texts: Elke Huwiler, Storytelling by sound: a theoretical frame for radio drama analysis, in “The Radio Journal – International Studies in Broadcast and Audio Media”, 2005, 3: 1, pp. 45–59. (presente su Moodle) Tim Crook, The Audio Dramatist’s Critical Vocabulary in Great Britain, in Lars Bernaerts and Jarmila Mildorf (eds.), Audionarratology: Lessons from Radio Drama. Columbus, Ohio: The Ohio State University Press, pp. 19-50. (presente su Moodle) One between the following texts: Jamie Sherry, Paratextual adaptation: Heart of Darkness as Hearts of Darkness via Apocalypse Now, in Deborah Cartmell (ed.), A companion to literature, film, and adaptation, Malden (MA),Wiley-Blackwell 2012, pp. 374-390 Susan Sontag, Film and Theatre, “The Tulane Drama Review”, Autumn, 1966, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 24- 37 (presente su Jstor) Suggested essays: Gregory Claeys, Dystopia: A Natural History. Oxford UP 2017 Francesco Muzzioli, Scritture della catastrofe, Meltemi 2021Attendance
Two lessons per week, each lasting two hoursType of evaluation
The course will be offered in Italian. Students are required to read the literary texts in the original language whenever possible. The exam will consist of an oral test designed to assess the students' skills and depth of understanding in the following areas: theoretical-methodological aspects of comparative literature and intermedia studies, the themes of utopia and dystopia, and textual analysis. Only students who attended the module are eligible to write a 2500-word thesis on an agreed topic, which must be submitted to the lecturer at least one week before the chosen date of evaluation. The thesis may be written in either Italian or English. On the day of the evaluation, the lecturer will discuss the thesis with the student in the language of the student's choice (Italian or English).