Programme

In a famous essay from 1927, Edward Morgan Forster, seeking to provide a vivid portrayal of the dominant narrative genre’s openness to hybridization with other forms of discourse, defined the novel as “a formidable mass, and […] so amorphous.” The genre’s permeability—such that it could incorporate broad swaths of prose, ranging from essays to autobiographies, history, journalism, and theoretical-philosophical works—led, at first, to talk of an emerging phenomenon of the “novelization” of other literary genres (Bakhtin, 1938–41). From the very beginning, however, Forster himself had foreshadowed, in the final pages of his essay, the risk of the genre’s extinction in the gradual transition from a fictional mode of discourse to a self-reflexive and meta-literary one. In recent years, publishing trends seem to confirm Forster’s predictions, as the novel has increasingly and effectively hybridized with autobiography, on the one hand (autofiction), and with historiographical or chronicle-style prose, on the other (non-fiction novel). These phenomena, imported into Italy from abroad—and, in particular, from American and French literature—will be explored throughout the course, beginning with theoretical premises and drawing on a corpus of titles selected as representative of the most recent phase of the novel, not only in Italy.

Prerequisiti

Elements of Literary Theory

Core Documentation

R. Palumbo Mosca, Che cos'è la non fiction, Carocci, 2023
L. Marchese, L'io possibile. L'autofiction come paradosso del romanzo contemporaneo, Transeuropa, 2014

A

A. Franchini, L'abusivo
W. Siti, La natura è innocente
N. Lagioia, La città dei vivi

B
E. Affinati, Campo del sangue
W Siti, Troppi paradisi
T. Ciabatti, La più amata


(two novels of your choice, one per section: any edition

Attendance

La partecipazione all’attività didattica è libera e non verrà registrata dal docente. La frequenza è necessaria ma non obbligatoria.

Type of evaluation

The final examination will be carried out through an individual oral interview.

Programme

In a famous essay from 1927, Edward Morgan Forster, seeking to provide a vivid portrayal of the dominant narrative genre’s openness to hybridization with other forms of discourse, defined the novel as “a formidable mass, and […] so amorphous.” The genre’s permeability—such that it could incorporate broad swaths of prose, ranging from essays to autobiographies, history, journalism, and theoretical-philosophical works—led, at first, to talk of an emerging phenomenon of the “novelization” of other literary genres (Bakhtin, 1938–41). From the very beginning, however, Forster himself had foreshadowed, in the final pages of his essay, the risk of the genre’s extinction in the gradual transition from a fictional mode of discourse to a self-reflexive and meta-literary one. In recent years, publishing trends seem to confirm Forster’s predictions, as the novel has increasingly and effectively hybridized with autobiography, on the one hand (autofiction), and with historiographical or chronicle-style prose, on the other (non-fiction novel). These phenomena, imported into Italy from abroad—and, in particular, from American and French literature—will be explored throughout the course, beginning with theoretical premises and drawing on a corpus of titles selected as representative of the most recent phase of the novel, not only in Italy.

Prerequisiti

Elements of Literary Theory

Core Documentation

R. Palumbo Mosca, Che cos'è la non fiction, Carocci, 2023
L. Marchese, L'io possibile. L'autofiction come paradosso del romanzo contemporaneo, Transeuropa, 2014

A

A. Franchini, L'abusivo
W. Siti, La natura è innocente
N. Lagioia, La città dei vivi

B
E. Affinati, Campo del sangue
W Siti, Troppi paradisi
T. Ciabatti, La più amata


(two novels of your choice, one per section: any edition

Attendance

La partecipazione all’attività didattica è libera e non verrà registrata dal docente. La frequenza è necessaria ma non obbligatoria.

Type of evaluation

The final examination will be carried out through an individual oral interview.