Italian society, culture and literature I

The course is divided into two units:
a) Italian society and culture 1
b) Italian literature 1

Italian society and culture 1:
Historical overview of the Italian peninsula and its consequences in present-day Italy: the pre-Roman period; establishment and development of the Roman Empire; other cultures in Italian territory; the Middle Ages and the Papal State; formation of city states and struggles to dominate the territory; struggles between papal and imperial powers; the most important Italian ruling families (de Medici, della Scala, Visconti, etc.); Italian naval forces; the Venetian Republic; Spanish, French, and Austrian authorities; Risorgimento; establishment of the Italian state; the fascist period; the world wars; establishment of the republic.

Italian literature 1:
Early stages of the development of Italian from Latin, the first text in Italian; the birth of Italian literature and the Sicilian poetic school; influences of troubadour lyrics; the oldest poetry from various parts of the peninsula; Dolce stil novo: Dante and his contemporaries; Petrarch; Boccaccio; the influence of the language of the three most important pre-Renaissance authors on the future development of the Italian language and literature; the Renaissance and the issue of choosing a literary language; expansion of written Italian and supplanting of Latin.

Petronio, G. (1970). L’attivita letteraria in Italia. Palermo: Palumbo. COBISS.SI-ID – 15561058
Balboni, Paolo E. e Cardona, Mario (2005). Storia e Testi di Letteratura Italiana per Stranieri. Nuova edizione riveduta e corretta. Perugia: Guerra. COBISS.SI-ID – 32868706
For their home reading students have to select at least 7 works from the reading list provided by the lecturer.