UCL - Pragmatico- linguistic analysis of Italian literary texts

[ROM2857]

[15h] 5 credits

This course is taught in the 1st & 2d semester.

This two-yearly course is taught in 2009-2010, 2011-2012,...

Teacher(s): Christophe Georis(supplée Costantino Maeder), Costantino Maeder

Language: I

Level: Second

Aims
Main themes
Content and teaching methods
Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Aims

a) be able to recognize the phenomena presented in class within texts ;
b) be able to formulate textual interpretations that take into account the analysed elements ;
c) to have read a series of literary and dramatic texts ;
d) to be able to analyse critically a text as seen in class ;
e/ to be able to give a critical analysis of a text using the means detailed in the lectures.

Main themes

The pragmatic approaches of language, as put forward by Austin, Searle or Grice, offer strategies of interpretation of texts and complex works (mixed media like the opera or the theatre), which are both fundamental and revealing. The course will present the most important notions, as well as some more recent research (Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson, Lo Cascio, Cosenza), and will apply them in a critical fashion to different literary and dramatic texts.

Content and teaching methods

Having studied the core components, we will show how a linguistic and pragmatic approach allows an original analysis of a literary text. Students will be asked to present a piece of work on a text still to be defined. They will have to
- choose a certain number of concepts from those studied in the course or mentioned in the bibliography;
- to apply them to the chosen work;
- to assess their relevance and their effectiveness in the analysis;
- to present this piece of work during a work session (if the number of students so allows).

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Reading list :
Stephen C. Levinson, La pragmatica, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1993.
Claudia Bianchi, Pragmatica del linguaggio, Bari, Laterza, 2003.
H. Paul Grice, 'Logic and Conversation', in: Syntax and Semantics. Vol. 3. Speech Acts', edited by P. Cole e J. Morgan, New York, Academic Press, 1975, pp. 41-58.
Idem, 'Further Notes on Logic and Conversation, in: 'Syntax and Semantics. Vol. 9.
Giovanna Cosenza, La pragmatica di Paul Grice. Intenzioni, significato, comunicazione, Milano, Bompiani, 2002
Carla Bazzanella, Linguistica e pragmatica del linguaggio. Un'introduzione, Roma-Bari, 2005.
Dan Sperber et Deirdre Wilson, La pertinence. Communication et cognition, Paris, Minuit, 1989.
Martine Bracorps, Introduction à la pragmatique, Bruxelles, De Boeck, 2006.

Literary works :
Luigi Pirandello, Sei personnaggi in cerca d'autore.
Lorenzo Da Ponte, Don Giovanni, Le Nozze di Figaro.
Antonio Tabucchi, Sostiene Pereira.
Arrigo Boito, Falstaff, Otello.
Giovanni Verga, I malavoglia.
Giambattista Guarini, Il Pastor Fido.

Pre requisites :
- to be familiar with the main event in the history of Italian literature.
- to be able to express oneself orally in Italian.
- to be able to write a text in Italian.
- to be familiar with the main ideas of narratology and of textual analysis.

Assessment
Oral and written :
a. Written : Analysis of literary or dramatic texts according to the pragamtic-linguistic approach chosen previously.
b. Oral :
- critical rendering of the content of the lecture.
- discussion of the written work.