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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures : European Languages and Cultures - Italian

Undergraduate Course: Natalia Ginzburg: Home-made (ELCI10028)

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) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryNovelist, playwright, translator, editor, essayist, journalist and pamphleteer: between her birth in 1916 and her death in 1991, Natalia Ginzburg was known by four different surnames; married twice; had five children; lived in different regions in Italy; was persecuted as a Jew during the war and became a Catholic after it; took up, and later renounced, membership of the Communist party and became a Member of Parliament. Ginzburg, the daughter of a prestigious scientist and the mother of Italy¿s most famous living historian, always sat in the front seat of history - despite her self-deprecating attitude - whether in the antifascist milieu in which she grew up or in her editorial role at Einaudi. This course will investigate how her original and unique literary contribution is at the heart of Italian cultural history of the twentieth century and can only now begin to achieve the recognition it deserves. The course is devoted to Natalia Ginzburg's intellectual contribution from 1940 to 1991, with special reference to some of the many literary avenues that she pursued: our choice includes three novels, two novellas, one short story, various essays and three plays. Ginzburg's unique prose writing provides an introduction to other areas of knowledge, from Italian society to French and English literature and Holocaust Studies. In a mixture of lectures and seminars, our approach to her work will focus mainly on textual analysis and her use of narrative techniques, but also on literary genres, literary movements, cultural changes and their historical context.
Course description Fictional and biographical writing, trauma, meory and loss, history and microhistory, changes within the structure of the Italian family, religion, feminism, theatre.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Additional Costs None
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered
Learning Outcomes
To equip students for indepth monographic study of major literary texts while testing a number of theoretical approaches.
Reading List
N. Ginzburg, La strada che va in citta' 1942 (in Cinque romanzi brevi, 2005).
'La madre' (in Cinque romanzi brevi, 2005).
Le piccole virtu' (1961)
Le voci della sera (1962)
Lessico famigliare (1963)
Mai devi domandarmi (1970)
Caro Michele (!973)
Famiglia and Borghesia (1977)
Paese di mare +La porta sbagliata + Dialogo (in Tutto il teatro, 2005)
Non possiamo saperlo (2001)
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Not entered
Special Arrangements none
KeywordsDELC Natalia Ginzburg
Contacts
Course organiserDr Claudia Nocentini
Tel: (0131 6)50 3645
Email: C.Nocentini@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Fiona Jack
Tel: (0131 6)50 3635
Email: f.jack@ed.ac.uk
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