Corsi di Studio del Dipartimento di Lingue e Letterature straniere e Culture moderne

Good command of English. Familiarity with methods and tools of literary criticism and analysis (rhetorical tools, genres) and with historical chronology.

Students will accomplish a solid knowledge of literary and cultural issues through themes and women authors studied during the course.

Through lectures, debates and group discussions, they will develop their ability to read, analyze and understand poetical texts. Students will also tackle the question of the ‘canon’ with the opportunity to go beyond it so as to enlarge the traditional view of literature.

Students will study works by Renaissance women authors through lectures and group discussions in order to develop their critical thinking and analytical skills.

Based on proactive participation in classes, preparation of an oral presentation and individual study in the perspective of the final oral exam, students will acquire:

- knowledge of Italian Renaissance and of its varied facets;

- critical tools so as to locate a work within its original historical and cultural context;

- proficiency in autonomously reading literary texts and in identifying their specific features;

- the opportunity to combine philology with gender and queer studies;

- the ability to organize an oral presentation based on a literary text (verbal communication skills) and to prepare a brief lecture according to the academic style (in English).

Renaissance Women Writers: Poets, Lovers, and Divas

After an introduction to the Italian Renaissance and its ‘canon’ in criticism and school teaching, we will examine numerous poetical texts by women authors, including, but not limited to, Veronica Gambara, Vittoria Colonna, Gaspara Stampa, Chiara Matraini, Moderata Fonte, Isabella Andreini, Isabella Morra, Tullia d’Aragona. In addition to their biographies, we will reflect on the relations among them and with the contemporary male authors, and on similarities and differences in terms of language, style and genres. Students will be also exposed to academic writing and essays on the same topics.

In-person classes on Mondays (Aldo Moro S2), Tuesdays (Palazzetto Gorresio, Room 9), and Wednesdays (Aldo Moro S2) from 4 to 6 PM (no  classes from 1 to 8 November).

Group discussions, debates, oral presentation (on a literary text not covered by the instructor) and final oral exam

Office hour to be virtually arranged upon request; slides and presentations shared after class. See also:

- https://en.unito.it/services/students-special-needs-0

- https://en.unito.it/services/students-special-needs/students-specific-learning-disability-sld

- Virginia Cox, Lyric Poetry by Women of the Italian Renaissance, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2013 (anthology of texts)

- Virginia Cox, Women’s Writing in Italy 1400-1650, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2008 (history of literature)

- The Cambridge Companion to The Italian Renaissance, edited by Michael Wyatt, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2014 (broad introduction to the Italian Renaissance)

Books are available in university libraries (https://catalogo-unito.sebina.it/SebinaOpac/.do?locale=eng) and may be purchased either in hard copy or in digital format. The instructor will let students know in advance which books to bring in class.

Students that cannot attend classes in person (less than 60% of lectures):

- will read all the three volumes listed in the bibliography (with all the poetical texts in Cox's anthology);

- will add this volume: Konrad Eisenbichler, The Sword and the Pen: Women, Politics, and Poetry in Sixteenth-Century Siena, University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame 2012 (including the poems);

- and will prepare a 3000-word written essay on one poetical text (instead of the oral presentation in class), with footnotes and list of works cited (MLA style).