20711860 - Forme e generi della letteratura del XXI secolo

The course offers a critical exploration of 21st-century literature, examining its forms and strategies of generic hybridization: the blurring of boundaries between fiction, factuality, and discursivity, the role of subjectivity in writing, and the relationship between literature, visual arts, and the historical present. Rather than focusing on a single genre, it looks at the transversal dynamics that are redefining the literary and artistic field of the extreme contemporary. The course will be conducted in a seminar format, with students actively participating in discussions, aiming to develop skills in analyzing hybrid narratives, refining the tools of literary criticism, and deepening their understanding of the generic, narratological, and theoretical categories through which we interpret literature.

Curriculum

teacher profile | teaching materials

Programme

The course explores narratives of the Anthropocene and the ways in which the extreme contemporary takes the manifold crisis — environmental, political, authorial — as both horizon and form. Particular attention will be paid to the imaginary of the near chaos (Bréan, Bridet, 2024) and to the ways it migrates across novel, essay, series and film. We will discuss the ambiguous status of surrender and divergence, and how these poles redefine the forms and genres of the contemporary. Students will be asked to investigate specific cases and to produce critical readings.


Core Documentation

Students will be provided with a reader of extracts and a selection of twenty-first-century texts and audiovisual works, including selected chapters, passages and sequences from the following programme:
Provisional programme — to be updated in September

• Michel Houellebecq, Annihilation (Anéantir, 2022), trans. from the French by Shaun Whiteside, 2024.
• J. M. Coetzee, Elizabeth Costello: Eight Lessons (2003)
• Jens Liljestrand, Även om allt tar slut (2021; lit. “Even If Everything Ends”) — Swedish; English edition to be confirmed.
• Lars von Trier, Melancholia (film, 130 min, 2011).
• Sam Esmail, Leave the World Behind (film, 142 min, 2023).

teacher profile | teaching materials

Mutuazione: 20711860 Forme e generi della letteratura del XXI secolo in Italianistica LM-14 AUBRY MARINE JULIETTE

Programme

The course explores narratives of the Anthropocene and the ways in which the extreme contemporary takes the manifold crisis — environmental, political, authorial — as both horizon and form. Particular attention will be paid to the imaginary of the near chaos (Bréan, Bridet, 2024) and to the ways it migrates across novel, essay, series and film. We will discuss the ambiguous status of surrender and divergence, and how these poles redefine the forms and genres of the contemporary. Students will be asked to investigate specific cases and to produce critical readings.


Core Documentation

Students will be provided with a reader of extracts and a selection of twenty-first-century texts and audiovisual works, including selected chapters, passages and sequences from the following programme:
Provisional programme — to be updated in September

• Michel Houellebecq, Annihilation (Anéantir, 2022), trans. from the French by Shaun Whiteside, 2024.
• J. M. Coetzee, Elizabeth Costello: Eight Lessons (2003)
• Jens Liljestrand, Även om allt tar slut (2021; lit. “Even If Everything Ends”) — Swedish; English edition to be confirmed.
• Lars von Trier, Melancholia (film, 130 min, 2011).
• Sam Esmail, Leave the World Behind (film, 142 min, 2023).