密桃视频

Topic 1: Race, Migration, Autobiography: Nadeesha Uyangoda and Vittorio Longhi

Topic 2: Medieval Selves: Dante and Petrarch

Topic 3: Family, Memory, History: Primo Levi and Natalia Ginzburg

Topic 4: Painting the Self: Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, Artemisia Gentileschi听

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Topic 1:听Race, Migration, Autobiography: Nadeesha Uyangoda and Vittorio Longhi

Postcolonial novels have often taken autobiographical form. Since the 1990s, with the rise of migrant literature in Italian, many migrant writers drew on their lives and the history of their families, in the attempt to recover their own individual and collective stories. These have included important women writers 鈥� Igiaba Scego, Ubah Cristina Ali Farah, and Gabriella Ghermandi 鈥� who have played a pivotal role in addressing Italy鈥檚 colonial legacy through literature. For this topic, after an introduction on postcolonial and migrant literature, we will focus on two recent works of postcolonial autobiographical writing: by Vittorio Longhi, an Italian-Eritrean writer and journalist whose book relates the history of his mixed race family; and by Nadeesha Uyangoda, whose book recounts what it meant to grow up in Italy as the only 鈥渂lack person in the room鈥�. 听 Key readings: Vittorio Longhi, Il colore del nome: storia della mia famiglia: cent'anni di razzismo coloniale e identit脿 negate (Milan: Solferino, 2021) Nadeesha Uyangoda, L'unica persona nera nella stanza (Rome: 66thand2nd, 2021)

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Topic 2:听Medieval Selves: Dante and Petrarch

This topic will look at two of the major figures of Italian medieval literature and the ways in which each uses poetry as a means of self-representation. Both the Vita nuova and the Canzoniere tell tales of love for a very particular woman, the death of that woman, and the poet鈥檚 subsequent search for direction in her absence. But above all, both texts virtually invent an idea of authorship and poetic writing that is influential to this day. Core texts:

• Dante, Vita Nuova (or nova). Students should if possible buy Vita Nova, trans. by Andrew Frisardi (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2012) or the edition published by University of Notre Dame Press, with facing English translation by Dino S. Cervigni and Edward Vasta [well stocked in 密桃视频 libraries]. Otherwise any other edition with a facing-page English translation will do. A handy searchable edition (using Barbi's critical edition and Mark Musa鈥檚 English translation) is available online in dual-text format via the . The main critical editions of Dante鈥檚 works and prominent English translation are also available on 听(N.B. there are two chapter numbering systems in common use for the Vita nova: English editions usually adopt the one provided by Michele Barbi).
• Petrarch, Canzoniere (Rerum vulgarium fragmenta). Students should if possible buy the edition published by Indiana University Press, ed. and trans. by Mark Musa. Otherwise any other edition with facing page English translation will do. Read as much of the Canzoniere as you can. Lectures, supervisions, and exams will focus on the following poems: 1鈥�12, 16, 23, 35, 45, 50, 60鈥�62, 70, 74, 77鈥�78, 81鈥�82, 90, 92, 125鈥�127, 134, 211, 264, 267-68, 286-87, 302, 310, 312, 327, 364, 366.

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Topic 3:听Family, Memory, History:听Primo Levi and Natalia Ginzburg

Natalia Ginzburg (1916-91) and Primo Levi (1919-87) were from the same generation, both from Turin, both with Jewish backgrounds. In different ways, their lives were both caught up in the extreme turmoil of Fascism, the war and the Holocaust and they both听 experimented with unusual autobiographical modes of writing to reflect on that history and to situate themselves in worlds of听 family, work and memory. Together they provide fascinating insights into the forms of autobiography in the modern period. This topic looks at two key works by Levi and Ginzburg, separately and in comparison.

Core Texts:

• Natalia Ginzburg, Lessico famigliare (1963)

• Primo Levi,听Il听sistema听periodico听(1975)

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Topic 4:听Medieval Selves: Dante and Petrarch

This topic will look at two of the major figures of Italian medieval literature and the ways in which each uses poetry as a means of self-representation. Both the Vita nuova and the Canzoniere tell tales of love for a very particular woman, the death of that woman, and the poet鈥檚 subsequent search for direction in her absence. But above all, both texts virtually invent an idea of authorship and poetic writing that is influential to this day. Core texts:

• Dante, Vita Nuova (or nova). Students should if possible buy Vita Nova, trans. by Andrew Frisardi (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2012) or the edition published by University of Notre Dame Press, with facing English translation by Dino S. Cervigni and Edward Vasta [well stocked in 密桃视频 libraries]. Otherwise any other edition with a facing-page English translation will do. A handy searchable edition (using Barbi's critical edition and Mark Musa鈥檚 English translation) is available online in dual-text format via the . The main critical editions of Dante鈥檚 works and prominent English translation are also available on 听(N.B. there are two chapter numbering systems in common use for the Vita nova: English editions usually adopt the one provided by Michele Barbi).
• Petrarch, Canzoniere (Rerum vulgarium fragmenta). Students should if possible buy the edition published by Indiana University Press, ed. and trans. by Mark Musa. Otherwise any other edition with facing page English translation will do. Read as much of the Canzoniere as you can. Lectures, supervisions, and exams will focus on the following poems: 1鈥�12, 16, 23, 35, 45, 50, 60鈥�62, 70, 74, 77鈥�78, 81鈥�82, 90, 92, 125鈥�127, 134, 211, 264, 267-68, 286-87, 302, 310, 312, 327, 364, 366.

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