The Italian Modernist Novel

ITA1737H – SPRING 2020
Department of Italian Studies
University of Toronto

This course aims to introduce students to late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Italian narrative, approached through the critical and historiographic category of “modernism.” A product of Anglo-American literary history, “modernism” has been recently introduced into the Italian critical debate as a means to reconsider modern Italian narrative in a broader European perspective, and beyond other traditional categories such as “decadentism.” We will begin by considering the modernist novel in relation to the two main trends of the late nineteenth century, verismo and symbolism, represented by Verga and D’Annunzio. We will then read works by authors considered central to Italian modernism: Pirandello, Tozzi and Svevo. In the final section of the course, we will discuss the relationship between modernism and the avant-garde, with works by Marinetti and Palazzeschi.

Instructors: Prof. Luca Somigli and Dr. Andrea G.G. Parasiliti