Course Description: A fictional and hyper-textual, real and allegorical journey of the reader around and beyond the canonical critical figures of the authors and the characters of the Italian Literature.  The reading of major representative texts of Medieval and Renaissance Italy will follow the traces of a pattern of traveling, both physical and intellectual, which will reveal unexplored and deep aspects of the Italian Culture and Tradition.  The voyage of the student/reader will start from Dante’s pilgrimage in the world to come, will continue (after the experiences of Petrarch and Boccaccio) through Columbus’ and Vespucci’s explorations of the New World, and will end with the representation of the human being at the center of a new philosophical (Pico della Mirandola), political (Machiavelli), scientific (Leonardo da Vinci) and artistic (Michelangelo) universe.  The course is taught in English*. [*Footnote*  An optional seminar-based session in Italian is offered to the students who can speak Italian]
 

Course Objectives:  The main object of this course is to expose the students to the experience (and the educational experiment) of an allegorical and fantastic, though concrete at the same time, trip throughout the Italian Literature of Middle Ages and Renaissance. The image of a voyage (either real or metaphorical) will lead the students to a better understanding and appreciation of the literary, artistic, political, geographical, philosophical and ethical journey that the Italian (and the European) mind has  taken through the past.
 

Topics:  The thematic structure above described will provide the students with an overview of  the main literary and philosophical imageries and ideas related to the notion of reading as a literary journey and the one of writing as a constructing map of the mind.  The students will be reading texts by Dante Alighieri, Francesco Petrarca, Giovanni Boccaccio, Leon Battista Alberti, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Cristoforo Colombo, Amerigo Vespucci, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Baldassar Castiglione, Niccolò Machiavelli.

        1) Musa, Mark ed., The Portable Dante. New York: Penguin Books, 1995.
        2) Bondanella, Julia Conaway & Musa, Mark ed., The Italian Renaissance   Reader. An Introduction to the Major Italian Writers and Influential Thinkers of the Renaissance. New York: Meridian (Penguin Group), 1987.
        3) Short readings from books put on reserve in the library (the main source will be Atchity, Kenneth J. ed., The Renaissance Reader. New York: HarperPerennial, 1996).
        4)  Photocopied material distributed in class or left on reserve in the library to be photocopied (small course packet).
 

Course Requirements:  The course will be seminar-based (with periodical lecture sessions) and students will consequently be encouraged to participate actively in group discussions.  All the texts will involve the teacher and the students in a continuous activity of reading and interpreting.  The students are expected to have read the pages assigned and to come to class prepared to share their understanding of the pages read and/or share the questions the reading provoked.  From time to time the students will be assigned a specific article to report on during the next class.
 

Grading System:  The final grade will be based upon class participation [30%], a midterm exam [20 %], a final exam [25%] and an essay (8-10 pages) [25%].
 

Attendance Policy: Attendance is required.  The maximum absences allowed are four.  Beyond  four absences the grade may be diminished.
 
 

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