THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2022/2023

Timetable information in the Course Catalogue may be subject to change.

University Homepage
DRPS Homepage
DRPS Search
DRPS Contact
DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures : European Languages and Cultures - Italian

Undergraduate Course: Cleaning Up the 'Mess': Gadda' as test (hard test) for theory (any theory) (ELCI10012)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Literatures, Languages and Cultures CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryIn his best-selling Roman thriller That Awful Mess on Via Merulana (1957), Carlo Emilio Gadda (1893-1973), Italy's James Joyce, constructs his ideal reader as one fully committed to observing the messy process that goes on in the mind as we map the world. Focusing on one of the classics of European Modernism, the course systematically opens it up for investigation through a variety of methodological approaches, kickstarting from premises in Cognitive Science and Narratology, and working its way through modernist subjectivity, Fascism and the World Wars, and Rome in the 1920s as the universal of Biopower. A wider than usual range of learning tools (maps, diagrams, special editions, and a wealth of Edinburgh-based online resources) supplements the course. Language: English.
Course description The course is organised in 11 2-hour units of work: three Lectures, two Laboratories, three Seminars, one plenary Film Screening, one Billboard, and one Revision Round Table. Lectures provide broad overview of topic. We discuss one lead viewing in Labs. Students present individually and/or in group as part of Seminars. Essay plans are discussed with the tutor individually as students propose their own essay titles. Students also present work-in-progress for their final essay in a Billboard. Revision is organised as a Round Table co-lead by students. This delivery format makes Cleaning up the "Mess" a highly valuable learning experience in which students contribute from a variety of roles for maximum training rewards.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Additional Costs none
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesNone
High Demand Course? Yes
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Demonstrate knowledge of a range of sources as well as a good understanding of the conceptual frameworks needed to analyse them.
  2. Consolidate knowledge and skills, employ relevant terminology, develop work methods appropriate to subject studied.
  3. Form coherent arguments which engage effectively with sources and their contexts, and present material clearly in both oral and written form.
  4. Demonstrate communication, presentation and interaction skills across a range of learning circumstances.
  5. Exercise autonomy and initiative, taking responsibility for their own work and respecting that of others.
Reading List
ESSENTIAL READINGS
BOUCHARD, Norma. 2000. Céline, Gadda, Beckett. Experimental Writings of the 1930s. Gainesville: Florida University Press, pp. 82-112.

DIACONESCU BLUMENFELD, Rodica. 1999. Born Illiterate. Gender and Representation in Gadda's "Quer pasticciaccio". Market Harborough: Troubador.

DOMBROSKI, Robert S. 1999. Creative Entanglements. Gadda and the Baroque. Toronto: Toronto University Press.

FALKOFF, Rebecca. 2015. Carlo Emilio Gadda's Professional Alchemy. How to Make Bread from Air and Literature from Science. In Romance Studies, 33, 3-4, pp. 232-244.

FERRARI, Chiara. 2013. The Rhetoric of Violence and Sacrifice in Fascist Italy. Mussolini, Gadda, Vittorini. Toronto: Toronto University Press.

GODIOLI, Alberto. 2015. Laughter from Realism to Modernism: Misfits and Humorists in Pirandello, Svevo, Palazzeschi, and Gadda, Oxford: Legenda.

MILESCHI, Christophe. 2007. Gadda contre Gadda. L'écriture comme champ de bataille. Grenoble: ELLUG.

PEDRIALI, Federica G. 2020. Gadda in Theory. In M. Carmello and F.G. Pedriali (eds), Nuove prospettive su Gadda. Madrid: Complutense Editions, pp. 21-36.
- (ed.). 2013. Gadda Goes to War. Translational Provocations around an Emergency. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

SANTOVETTI, Olivia. 2007. Digression. A Narrative Strategy in the Italian Novel. Bern: Lang.

SBRAGIA, Albert. 2004. "Toga Caput Obvolvit" .The Ideal of Rome in Gadda. In The Edinburgh Journal of Gadda Studies, 4, EJGS 4/2004.
- 1996. Gadda and the Modern Macaronic. Gainesville: Florida University Press.

WEHLING-GIORGI, Katrin. 2014. Gadda and Beckett. Storytelling, Subjectivity and Fracture. Oxford: Legenda.

RECOMMENDED READINGS
DUGGAN, Christopher. 2013. Fascist Voices. An Intimate History of Mussolini¿s Italy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

GUNDLE, Stephen, DUGGAN, Christopher, PIERI, Giuliana (eds). 2013. The Cult of the Duce.
Mussolini and the Italians. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

HILMAN, David, MAUDE, Ulrika (eds). 2015. The Cambridge Companion to the Body in Literature, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

KIVY, Peter. 2009. The Performance of Reading. An Essay in the Philosophy of Literature. New York: John Wiley and Sons.

LAMARQUE, Peter. 2009. The Philosophy of Literature. New York: J. Wiley & Sons.

LANDY, Joshua. 2012. How to Do Things with Fictions. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

LEVENSON, Michael. 2011. The Cambridge Companion to Modernism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

LUZZATTO, Sergio. 2006. The Body of the Duce. Mussolini¿s Corpse and the Fortunes of Italy. New York: Metropolitan Books.

MANN, Michael. 2004. Fascists. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

MARSHIK, Celia (ed.). 2014. The Cambridge Companion to Modernist Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

MENDELSUND, Peter. 2014. What We See When We Read. New York: Vintage Books.

PAINTER W. Borden. 2005. Mussolini¿s Rome. Rebuilding the Eternal City. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

SCHNAPP, Jeffrey. 2000. A Primer of Italian Fascism. University of Nebraska Press.

SCHWENGER, Peter. 1999. Fantasm and Fiction. On Textual Envisioning. Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 1-25.

SOLOMONS, Gabriel (ed.). 2014. World Film Locations: Rome. Series: Exploring the City on Screen. Intellect Books.

SPACKMAN, Barbara. 1996. Fascist Virilities. Rhetoric, Ideology, and Social Fantasy in Italy. Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press.


Additional Information
Course URL http://www.gadda.ed.ac.uk
Graduate Attributes and Skills Students will develop graduate skills across two main clusters of ability:

a) communication, presentation and interaction skills;
b) personal and intellectual autonomy and effectiveness.
Additional Class Delivery Information Lectures and Seminars 20hrs
Film Screening with Laboratory to follow 2hrs
KeywordsDELC Gadda,Gadda,Italy,Modernism,Fascism,Rome,Detective Fiction,Intersemiotic Adaptations
Contacts
Course organiserProf Federica Pedriali
Tel: (0131 6)50 3642
Email: F.Pedriali@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMs Marleen March
Tel: (0131 6)50 6949
Email: Marleen.March@ed.ac.uk
Navigation
Help & Information
Home
Introduction
Glossary
Search DPTs and Courses
Regulations
Regulations
Degree Programmes
Introduction
Browse DPTs
Courses
Introduction
Humanities and Social Science
Science and Engineering
Medicine and Veterinary Medicine
Other Information
Combined Course Timetable
Prospectuses
Important Information