The Modern Italian Novel

The course explores the extraordinary tradition of the Italian modern novel and its implications with history, gender, social and cultural contexts, linguistic and structure experimentations in different prose narratives. It will focus on the 19th Century up to WWII: from the historical novel such as Alessandro Manzoni’s Promessi Sposi, to Giovanni Verga and Luigi Pirandello, Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio, Camillo Boito and other writers belonging to the Scapigliati, Gabriele D’Annunzio, and the innovative narratives of women writers such as Matilde Serao, Sibilla Aleramo, Grazia Deledda, Alba De Cespedes, Gianna Manzini, Anna Banti, Paola Masino and others. The course will also offer an in depth examination of the intersections between the literary and journalistic writings of the authors in question and larger contexts and domains such as: literature and visual culture; politics and popular culture; literary journalism; Italy’s process of modernization; national identity and the transformation of urban identity and cities; the history of women; North versus South.