Italian literature and civilization: the Renaissance and the Baroque

Teacher(s)

Cavagna Mattia coordinator; Maeder Costantino;

Language

Italian

Prerequisites

LFIAL1175, LROM1170

The prerequisite(s) for this Teaching Unit (Unité d’enseignement – UE) for the programmes/courses that offer this Teaching Unit are specified at the end of this sheet.

Main themes

The course offers students an interdisciplinary presentation of Italian history and the history of Italian art in the Renaissance and the Baroque. From the linguistic point of view, students will be encouraged to speak and to make presentations.

Aims

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	The course enables students to acquire and strengthen skills  - including at the lexical level - in iconographic and literary analysis. They will be able to develop and give, in Italian, an appreciation of a work of art or literature, focussing on the context in which it was produced.

The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.

Content

Students will become conversant with the literary and artistic masterpieces of the Renaissance and the Baroque, as well as with the central historical events of this period. The following leading writers will be covered: Ludovico Ariosto, Torquato Tasso, Machiavelli, Pietro Metastasio, the theoreticians Ludovico Castelvetro and Cardinal Pietro Bembo. Students will learn about the most significant cultural movements, such as Petrarchism and Mannerism. The flourishing of the theatre and opera will occupy a special place, as well as the arts and architecture. Among the artists students will encounter are  Michelangelo, Leonardo, Vasari, Palladio, Caravaggio and Bernini.
Practical exercises will be devoted to guided reading of selected texts so as to make it easier to read the Renaissance and Baroque texts students will discover at the end of the course.
Tutorial sessions prepare students for the oral presentation: taking the floor, rhetorical conventions, as well as important idiomatic turns of phrase for presentations will all be practiced.

Teaching methods

Formal lectures with presentations.

Evaluation methods

First session :
- Oral presentation + writing record handed in the day of the presentation (1/2)
- Written exam on readings and content of the course and tutorial sessions (1/2)
Second session :
- Oral examination (oral presentation + written record handed in the day of the exam) (1/2)
- Written exam on readings and content of the course and tutorial sessions (1/2)

Other information

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Bibliography

La bibliographie sera présente sur Moodle

Faculty or entity

ROM