Expand+ITAL20160 Reading Italian Literature

Academic Year 2021/2022

For a real encounter with the Italian culture, students need to be enabled to engage with the original texts. This module is designed to facilitate such a direct engagement, by means ...

Hide-ITAL20160 Reading Italian Literature

Academic Year 2021/2022

For a real encounter with the Italian culture, students need to be enabled to engage with the original texts. This module is designed to facilitate such a direct engagement, by means of a structured path of guided reading. A selection of literary texts is used, carefully chosen to develop linguistic skills and cultural awareness. Classes are conceived as interactive, with explanations and students working through texts individually and in group. Class explanations, supplemented by autonomous student research, provide the information needed for a proper understanding of the texts in their historical context. Language supervision in class is designed to resolve the most obvious language difficulties and in this way free up time for focussing on the core vocabulary and grammatical structures emerging in the texts. By regularly attending and working, in class and at home, students will find the comprehension gradually easier: when comprehension is easier, one can read more and better; this develops a higher language competence, which in turn makes comprehension easier, completing the cycle.

Learning Outcomes:

On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:

- place selected literary works in their historical context;

- comprehend the content of Italian literary texts of low-medium difficulty;

- apply improved reading techniques, an effective use of the dictionary, and strategies for developing the passive vocabulary;

- evidence their understanding of read passages by answering questions of linguistic and cultural / literary nature.

Indicative Module Content:
The module introduces excerpts from 4 texts taken from 19th- and 20th-century Italian literature: Pirandello's play 'Il berretto a sonagli' and his short story 'la carriola', Manzoni's novel 'I promessi sposi', and De Roberto's story 'La paura'. Excerpts are of 5-10 pages for prose works, a longer for the play. Class work involves reading parts of the texts with a view to developing reading abilities: vocabulary is developed, but even without getting all the words, the structures are highlighted so that students can learn how to come to grips with complex structures, getting the gist without being bogged down by the need to translate everything.