Contemporary Italian Fiction

Module code: IT3136

This module explores contemporary Italian fiction, focusing in particular on the interface between literature, place/landscape and photography. We will examine selected fictional texts by leading contemporary authors, such as Italo Calvino and Gianni Celati amongst others. This module will acquaint you with the poetics of these authors, and allow you to discuss the ways in which the selected texts engage in dialogue with the place/landscape and with the visual. You will gain an understanding of the different poetics and styles of the analysed authors and of the debates on postmodernism/contemporary fiction, landscape and photography. You will be asked to reflect on the impact of the visual medium on fiction, on the question of spatial representation, and to engage critically with different texts. You will also learn to apply theoretical parameters to your textual analysis and learn to place texts within their socio-cultural context.

Topics covered

• Contemporary Italian fiction and society
• Postmodernism
• Place/landscape studies
• Photography
• Storytelling and orality
• Experience
• Identity and subjectivity