Italian literature and civilization: the Renaissance and the Baroque

Teacher(s)

Cavagna Mattia (coordinator); Maeder Costantino;

Language

Italian

Prerequisites

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.

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.

Evaluation methods

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the information in this section is particularly likely to change.

First session:

• continuous assessment at the end of the semester on the content of the tutoring
• written exam during the examination session on the contents of the lessons and the exercice sessions
• oral presentation of a research during the lectures

Second session:

• written exam in session on the contents of the lessons, the exercice sessions and the tutoring.
• oral exam (presentation of a research)

Bibliography

La bibliographie sera présente sur Moodle

Faculty or entity

ELAL