Programme

Reality of the world and literary imagination: from Marco Polo's Million to Calvino's Invisible Cities. The course includes the complete and commented reading of Marco Polo's Milione and the work that revived its imaginary and exotic dimension in the twentieth century, Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. In addition to in-depth studies on the two authors and their literary language, the circumstances and contexts of the two works will be examined, the structure and stylistic peculiarities of the Milione, its weight in the literary tradition linked to explorations, travels and relationships with other realities, and the profound influence of Marco Polo's account on Calvino's work dedicated to fantastic cities. The final part of the course will be dedicated to the creation of critical and educational paths based on the two works considered.

Core Documentation

Texts:
Marco Polo, Il milione, a cura di Marcello Ciccuto; saggio introduttivo di Giorgio Manganelli; con le miniature a colori del codice Bodleian 264 di Oxford, Milano, BUR, 2020.
Italo Calvino, Le città invisibili, Milano, Mondadori, 2022 (Oscar classici).
Bibliography:
Laura Di Nicola, Un’idea di Calvino. Letture critiche e ricerche sul campo, Roma, Carocci, 2024.
Gherardo Ortalli, Dall’Europa a scoprire l’Oriente. Da Gengis Khan a Marco Polo, Roma, Viella, 2021.
The following articles will be made available on the Teams channel of the course unit.
Andrea Battistini, Le città visibili e invisibili di Italo Calvino, «Esperienze letterarie», 2001, pp. 21-37.
Marcello Ciccuto, L'immagine dello spazio nelle "Città invisibili" di Italo Calvino, «Italianistica», 2002, pp. 77-84.
Cesare Segre, "Le citta invisibili" di Calvino e la vertigine epistemica, « Strumenti critici», 2004, pp. 43-53.
Those who do not attend the course will add:
Marco Polo. Storia e mito di un viaggio e di un libro, a cura di Samuela Simion, Eugenio Burgio, Roma, Carocci, 2024.
Any further bibliography will be indicated on the Teams channel of the course

Attendance

Attendance is mandatory. Attendance will be tracked. To be considered attending, students must be present at least two thirds of the lessons. Non-attending students are required to read additional readings as specified in the Texts section.

Type of evaluation

Students will take a computer-based written exam on the moodle platform (in person). The exam includes a series of sequential multiple choice / short / choice questions and other open-ended questions. The time available is one hour. For multiple choice or multiple choice questions, 1 point is awarded for each correct answer, 0 for an answer not given, -0.25 for each incorrect answer. For open-ended questions the scoring range goes from 0 to 6 points. The exam is constructed in such a way as to be able to verify the level of effective understanding of the concepts, the ability to re-elaborate critical literature, the skills acquired in the critical reading of the proposed texts, the level and quality of knowledge of the topics and the ability to critically analyze texts and bibliography.