CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN LITERATURE FOR PRIMARY AND CHILDHOOD SCHOOL WITH WORKSHOPModule CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN LITERATURE FOR PRIMARY AND CHILDHOOD SCHOOL
Academic Year 2026/2027 - Teacher: GIUSEPPE PALAZZOLOExpected Learning Outcomes
Knowledge and understanding
To know the general outlines of the history of contemporary Italian literature through the study of its most representative texts and authors. To understand, analyse and interpret complex texts (narrative, poetic and argumentative).
Applying knowledge and understanding
To apply the knowledge acquired in order to find one’s bearings within the relevant literary context, among its authors, texts and main issues. To adapt one’s professional skills in contemporary Italian literature to the requirements of the current National Guidelines for the curriculum of pre-primary school and the first cycle of education.
Course Structure
The course comprises 72 hours of teaching, divided into 24 three-hour classes (6 classes for each of the four modules), in addition to the workshop hours.
Classes in Modules A and B (Giuseppe Palazzolo) and in Modules C and D (Milena Giuffrida) alternate the literary-historical framing of the authors and genres on the syllabus with guided textual analysis carried out in class: close reading, structured discussion, and comparative analysis exercises based on grids provided by the lecturers.
The workshop, attendance of which is compulsory, is devoted to the analysis of literary texts: under the guidance of the lecturers/tutors, students independently apply the analytical tools presented in class, working towards a critical report on one of the texts on the syllabus.
Required Prerequisites
Knowledge of the outlines of Italian literary history from its origins to the nineteenth century, and of the essential historical lines of the twentieth century. Adequate competence in the understanding and critical reading of literary texts.
Detailed Course Content
The course, worth 12 CFU in total, is organised into four modules taught by two lecturers: Modules A and B (6 CFU) by Giuseppe Palazzolo, Modules C and D (6 CFU) by Milena Giuffrida. Authors are studied through the analysis of their texts, which allows direct engagement with their poetics, and through the main critical contributions on the works examined.
Module A – The questions of modernity (3 CFU, 18 hrs)
The major questions marking the entry of Italian literature into modernity, through three authors. Manzoni and the historical novel: unrest, conflict and the search for meaning in I promessi sposi. Leopardi and the crisis of certainties: the poetic philosophy of the Canti. Collodi and Le avventure di Pinocchio: emerging children’s literature as a space in which spoken language, civic morality and the education of the future citizen are negotiated, between the fairy-tale tradition and modern narrative invention.
Module B – Bildung in the twentieth century: poetry and novels (3 CFU, 18 hrs)
The theme of formation (Bildung) runs through twentieth-century Italian poetry and narrative along different paths. Pascoli and the poetics of the fanciullino: childhood as a key to knowing the world. Saba and the Canzoniere: the autobiographical construction of an identity through “honest” poetry and inner analysis. Ungaretti and L’Allegria: language pared down to its essentials, poetic rebirth from the experience of war. Calvino and Il barone rampante: the novel of formation reread in a fairy-tale and allegorical key, in Cosimo’s choice to live in the trees as a radical assertion of autonomy and of a different relationship with history and community.
Module C – Childhood, labour and orality in Italian narrative from Verga to Levi (3 CFU, 18 hrs)
Working childhood in Italian verismo and the literary construction of popular speech. Verga: Rosso Malpelo and Jeli il pastore. Luigi Capuana as a writer for young readers: Scurpiddu, set against his dialogue with Verga as documented by the correspondence between the two authors. A twentieth-century outcome: Primo Levi’s La chiave a stella, craft as education and the language of work.
Module D – Once upon a time. Literary fairy tale, illustration, rewriting (3 CFU, 18 hrs)
The status and morphology of the fairy tale within the framework of short narrative forms. Capuana’s C’era una volta…: genesis, dual addressee, authorial irony. The illustrated book as a complex text: word, image, graphic space and paratext; Enrico Mazzanti’s plates compared with contemporary illustrative apparatuses, understood as forms of rewriting. Authorial rewriting: tales migrating across Capuana’s collections, between textual variants and shifting addressee. The rewriting of tradition in Calvino (Fiabe italiane) and the techniques of invention in Rodari (Grammatica della fantasia, Favole al telefono), through to the children’s book as a designed object in Bruno Munari’s illustrated editions.
Textbook Information
Textbooks and bibliography common to the whole course
• G. Langella, La modernità letteraria. Manuale di letteratura italiana moderna e contemporanea, 2nd ed., Pearson, 2026.
• P. Boero, C. De Luca, La letteratura per l’infanzia, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2009.
The syllabus also includes the anthologies of essays and texts (Leopardi, Pascoli, Saba, Ungaretti for Modules A and B), the reproductions of illustrated editions, the extracts from the Verga-Capuana correspondence and the analytical grids for the illustrated book (for Modules C and D), all provided in class and on Studium.
Texts
Modules A and B
1. A. Manzoni, I promessi sposi, any edition (recommended: Mondadori 2006; Bur 2014).
2. G. Leopardi, Canti, any edition; a selection of ten poems indicated in class.
3. C. Collodi, Le avventure di Pinocchio, any edition (recommended: Einaudi 2014; Bur 2022).
4. I. Calvino, Il barone rampante, Mondadori.
Modules C and D
5. L. Capuana, Scurpiddu, any edition.
6. L. Capuana, C’era una volta… Fiabe, any edition: a selection of ten tales indicated in class.
7. G. Verga, Vita dei campi, any edition (recommended: Verga, Tutte le novelle, Mondadori 2017 or Einaudi 2015): Rosso Malpelo, Jeli il pastore, Fantasticheria.
8. P. Levi, La chiave a stella, Einaudi, 2026.
9. I. Calvino, Fiabe italiane, any edition (recommended: Mondadori 2026): the 1956 Introduction and a selection of tales indicated in class.
10. G. Rodari, Grammatica della fantasia, Einaudi.
11. G. Rodari, Favole al telefono, Einaudi: a selection of ten tales indicated in class.
Critical bibliography
12. R. Sardo, «Opera d’arte e di diletto educativo». La narrativa per ragazzi di Luigi Capuana, Leonforte, Euno, 2026.
13. A. Faeti, Guardare le figure. Gli illustratori italiani dei libri per l’infanzia, Roma, Donzelli, 2011.
14. M. Campagnaro, Le terre della fantasia. Leggere la letteratura per l’infanzia e l’adolescenza, Roma, Donzelli, 2014.
15. V. Ja. Propp, Morfologia della fiaba, Torino, Einaudi, 1966.
16. Le forme brevi della narrativa, ed. by E. Menetti, Roma, Carocci, 2019, chs. 1, 4, 5.
Course Planning
| Subjects | Text References | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction to the module A: Italian literary modernity, historical and cultural context. Manzoni and the historical novel | Langella, 1 |
| 2 | Manzoni, I promessi sposi: characters, language, interpretive questions raised by the ending | 1 |
| 3 | Leopardi, Canti: The Theory of Pleasure, Nature | 2 |
| 4 | Leopardi, Canti: lettura e commento della selezione di dieci poesie | 2 |
| 5 | Collodi, Le avventure di Pinocchio: between fairy tale and novel of formation; language and narrative invention | 3 |
| 6 | Collodi, Le avventure di Pinocchio: structure, characters, critical fortune and reception | 3 |
| 7 | Introduction to the module B: early twentieth-century lyric poetry and the novel of formation in the later twentieth century | Langella |
| 8 | Pascoli: the poetics of the fanciullino | anthology |
| 9 | Saba: the Canzoniere, “honest” poetry | anthology |
| 10 | Ungaretti: poetry as fragment, L’Allegria | anthology |
| 11 | Calvino, Il barone rampante: the choice of the fable, the novel of formation in the later twentieth century | 4 |
| 12 | Calvino, Il barone rampante: structure, style, themes | 4 |
| 13 | Introduction to the module C: childhood becomes a literary subject. Children’s publishing and the language question in post-unification Italy | 12, Boero-De Luca |
| 14 | Verga, Rosso Malpelo: the working child, childhood without redemption. Impersonality and free indirect discourse | 7 |
| 15 | Verga, Jeli il pastore: apprenticeship, animals, exclusion. Capuana and his young readership: the dialogue with Verga | 7, 12 |
| 16 | Scurpiddu: the working child, the Sicilian rural landscape, the observation of the animal world | 5 |
| 17 | Scurpiddu: language, orality, the construction of speech; structure and ending. Two outcomes compared, Malpelo and Scurpiddu | 5, 7, 12 |
| 18 | Levi, La chiave a stella: craft as education and the language of work | 8 |
| 19 | The status and morphology of the fairy tale: fairy tale, fable, short story; narrative functions and short forms | 15, 16, Boero-De Luca |
| 20 | Capuana as a writer of fairy tales: C’era una volta… – genesis, dual addressee, authorial irony. Close reading of Capuana’s tales | 6, 12 |
| 21 | The illustrated book as a text: word, image, graphic space, paratext. Enrico Mazzanti’s plates | 6, 13, 14 |
| 22 | Illustration as rewriting: historical and contemporary apparatuses compared; the picturebook as a rereading of the fairy tale | 13, 14 |
| 23 | Authorial rewriting: tales migrating across Capuana’s collections. Calvino, Fiabe italiane: translation, reassembly and rewriting of tradition | 6, 9, 12 |
| 24 | Rodari: Grammatica della fantasia and the techniques of invention; Favole al telefono, brevity, orality, parody of the fairy tale; Bruno Munari’s illustrated editions | 10, 11, 13, 16 |
Learning Assessment
Learning Assessment Procedures
Learning assessment consists of three parts.
1. A written mid-term test on Module D, optional. The test consists of multiple-choice and open-ended questions on the contents and texts of the module. Passing the test exempts the student from the corresponding part of the final oral examination; the result contributes to the overall mark.
2. A final workshop assignment, written and compulsory. It consists of a critical report on one of the texts on the syllabus, written according to the template provided on Studium and using the analytical tools practised during the workshop hours, attendance of which is compulsory. The report is assessed on the relevance of the analysis, close adherence to the text, formal accuracy and the ability to justify interpretive choices.
3. A final oral examination on the whole syllabus; if the mid-term test has been passed, the contents of Module D will not be examined.
Assessment takes into account: a) knowledge and understanding; b) application of knowledge and understanding; c) making judgements; d) communication skills; e) learning skills. The mark, expressed out of thirty, also takes into account command of the contents and skills acquired, linguistic accuracy and lexical precision, critical reworking, commitment to independent study and the candidate’s argumentative ability.
The final mark is awarded according to the following bands:
• Fail: the student lacks minimum knowledge of the texts on the syllabus and is unable to analyse a text independently or to use disciplinary terminology.
• 18–21: minimal, largely mnemonic knowledge of the texts; elementary analysis; sufficiently clear delivery but limited command of language.
• 22–25: fair knowledge, limited to the main topics; correct but not always autonomous analysis; occasional connections; clear delivery.
• 26–28: good knowledge of the texts; autonomous and well-argued analysis; relevant connections across the modules; appropriate language.
• 29–30 cum laude: thorough first-hand knowledge of the texts; original and critically grounded analysis; full command of the critical bibliography; complete command of language.
To ensure equal opportunities and in compliance with current laws, interested students may request a personal interview in order to plan any compensatory and/or dispensatory measures based on educational objectives and specific needs. Students can also contact the CInAP (Centro per l’integrazione Attiva e Partecipata – Servizi per le Disabilità e/o i DSA) referring teacher within their department (https://www.cinap.unict.it/content/referenti).
Examples of frequently asked questions and / or exercises
Modules A and B
1. Outline the key points of Pascoli’s poetics of the fanciullino.
2. Which tendencies of the author’s historical moment are critically reworked or serve as inspiration in Leopardi’s Canti?
3. What interpretive questions does the ending of I promessi sposi pose to the reader?
4. Which elements of the fairy-tale tradition and which narrative innovations characterise Collodi’s Le avventure di Pinocchio?
5. How does Calvino’s Il barone rampante rework the model of the novel of formation?
Modules C and D
1. How do the childhoods of Rosso Malpelo and Scurpiddu differ, and what does this difference reveal about the two poetics?
2. What role does the animal world play in the apprenticeship of the protagonists of the texts on the syllabus?
3. What relations are established in C’era una volta… between fantastic invention and verista poetics?
4. Analyse the text-image relationship in an illustrated edition of your choice, applying the grid presented in class.
5. In what sense can the illustration of a fairy tale be considered a form of rewriting?
6. Which rewriting techniques does Rodari describe in Grammatica della fantasia, and how do they apply to a tale on the syllabus?