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2010/11 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

ITAL3253 Language and Identity in Twentieth-Century Italian Novels

20 creditsClass Size: 20

Module manager: Gigliola Sulis
Email: g.sulis@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable

Year running 2010/11

Pre-requisite qualifications

Level 2 Italian or equivalent

This module is approved as an Elective

Module summary

The module aims to guide the students through a reading of the Italian literary tradition in terms of tension between centralism and polycentrism, local and national identity, monolingualism and multilingualism.The main focus will be on the narrative prose of the 20th century, when, with the development of a spoken national Italian, new conditions and new problems came at the front.Therefore, the literary language will be the starting point for discussion, on the basis of Gramsci's consideration that 'every time the question of the language surfaces, in one way or another, it means that a series of other problems are coming to the fore: the formation and enlargement of the governing class, the need to establish more intimate and secure relationships between the governing groups and the national-popular mass, in other words to reorganize the cultural hegemony' (Quaderni dal carcere, 29-3).

Objectives

On completion of the module, students will demonstrate:
a. knowledge of the linguistic, poetic, political, and social issues raised in the novels;
b. understanding of how the individual authors articulated those issues in their own way;
c. awareness of the linguistic varieties in modern Italian and their use in literary contexts;
d. ability of analysing the set texts in terms of structure, language, style.

Skills outcomes
On completion of this module, students should be able to:
- read, analyse and understand multilingual texts in the historical, cultural and linguistic context of the 20th century Italy
- gather, evaluate and use information from secondary sources;
- express, in written and oral contexts, clearly constructed, soundly based arguments, making effective use both of critical sources and independent judgement
- use IT effectively, both as a means of communication and as an aid to learning;
- take personal responsibility for their own learning.

Syllabus

In the first two weeks, we will assess the historical, theoretical, and critical background to the Italian literary tradition; then we will concentrate on three landmarks of the twentieth-century multilingual experimentations: Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana (19461, 1957) by Carlo Emilio Gadda, Ragazzi di vita (1955) by Pier Paolo Pasolini, and the recent Il cane di terracotta (1996) by Andrea Camilleri.
For each novel, we will focus on
- the author's linguistic theories compared with the intellectual and political debate on the 'questione della lingua'
- the difficult construction of the Italian literary language and its relation with the linguistic varieties of the time
- a linguistic / stylistic / structural analysis of the book
- issues of realism vs. expressionism
- the implicit representation of national (vs. local) identity and the process of Italian unification
Weekly seminars, introduced by students' presentations, will be devoted to close reading, analysis, and comment of selected passages of the set texts, or of examples of critical discourse on multilingualism.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Lecture	1	2.00	2.00
Seminar	9	2.00	18.00
Private study hours			180.00
Total Contact hours			20.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			200.00

Private study

Private study, reading of texts, preparation for general class discussion (150 hours)
Preparation for seminar presentation (5 hours)
Researching/writing essay (25 hours)

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Progress will be monitored through feedback given on the presentation and essay.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	2,500 words	45.00
Oral Presentation	10 minutes	10.00
Essay	2,500 words	45.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 13/04/2011

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