ITL 390L (36795): Eco and Calvino: Fiction, Theory, and Criticism

Fall 2010, TTH 2-3:30 in Garrison 0.120

Professor Guy P. Raffa, French and Italian

Homer Rainey Hall 3.104A; 471-6390; guyr@uts.cc.utexas.edu

 

         The responses of Umberto Eco and Italo Calvino to the interrelations of author, reader, and text, and the future of literature and literary studies show that in a cultural moment favorable toward multi-disciplinarity at least two general directions coexist: an encounter with multiple discourses of knowledge in order to mark more clearly their boundaries, and a belief that new epistemological configurations arise from the interplay--and even contamination--of different lines of inquiry.  We shall explore the important contribution of these two Italian writers to contemporary literary and intellectual debate by examining selected creative, critical, and theoretical texts.  Not satisfied only to show how their theory and fiction "reflect" one another, we shall also attend to the ideological assumptions and implications of Eco's and Calvino's works. 

 

         In addition to the texts in the bookstores, there will be a number of works on reserve or on Blackboard, including secondary sources essential for your research paper of substantial proportions (15-25 pp. with full documentation). This paper will account for 60% of your grade, with the remaining 40% evenly divided between class participation and two short response essays (2-4 pp.) on assigned works of criticism. For each class 2-3 students will serve as catalysts by selecting passages and identifying issues for discussion of the fiction. They must post their passages / issues to the class blog (on Blackboard) by 10 pm on the day before class.

 

Prerequisite: Graduate standing is required.

Languages: Italian Studies students are required to read the primary texts in Italian; class discussion and written assignments are in English.

 

Required Texts

 

Calvino: Lezioni americane (Mondadori, ISBN = 9788804485995), Tutte le cosmicomiche (Mondadori,  ISBN = 9788804520467), Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore (Mondadori, ISBN =  9788804482000), Il visconte dimezzato (Mondadori, ISBN = 9788804370871), Le città invisibili (Mondadori, ISBN = 978880442554 or 8804422547)

 

Eco: Il nome della rosa (Bompiani, ISBN = 9788845246340), L'isola del giorno prima (Bompiani, ISBN = 9788845246449), Interpretation and Overinterpretation (Cambridge, ISBN = 9780521425544), Six Walks in the Fictional Woods (Harvard, ISBN = 9780674810518)

 

 

ITL390L: Calvino and Eco: Fiction, Theory, and Criticism

 

8/26: Introduction to course; Calvino, "Why Read the Classics?"; Eco, "Holy War: Mac vs. DOS" (Handouts)

 

8/31: Calvino, Lezioni americane, pp. 7-62 (through "Rapidità); Eco, Six Walks in the Fictional Woods, pp. 1-47 (through "The Woods of Loisy")

 

9/2: Lezioni americane, pp. 65-135; Six Walks, pp. 49-140

 

9/7: Calvino, Il visconte dimezzato, chapters 1-5 (pp. 4-44); Eco, "Two Models of Interpretation" (Limits of Interpretation)

 

9/9: Calvino, Visconte, chapters 6-10 (pp. 45-91); Eco, "Intentio Lectoris" (Limits)

 

9/14: Calvino, Cosmicomiche, 9-91 ("La distanza dalla luna" through "Quanto scommettiamo"); Lucente, Beautiful Fables, pp. 276-87

 

9/16: Cosmicomiche, 92-149 ("I Dinosauri" through "La spirale"); Calvino, "Two Interviews on Science and Literature"

 

9/21: Cosmicomiche 155-231 ("La molle Luna" through "Morte")

 

9/23: Cosmicomiche 235-84 ("T con zero" through "Il conte di Montecristo")

 

9/28: Calvino, Città invisibili (I to VI [pp. 1-100]); Calvino, "Cybernetics and Ghosts"

 

9/30: Città invisibili (VII to IX [pp. 103-64); Harris, "Italo Calvino: The Code, the Clinamen and Cities"

 

10/5: Il nome della rosa (through primo giorno, pp. 11-105); "Abduction in Uqbar" (Limits)

 

10/7: Rosa (secondo giorno, pp. 109-82)

 

10/12: Rosa (terzo giorno, pp. 184-259); Eco, "Interpretation and History" (in Interpretation and Overinterpretation, pp. 23-43)

 

10/14: Rosa (quarto giorno, pp. 263-335); Eco, "Overinterpretation" (in Interpretation and Overinterpretation, pp. 45-66)

 

10/19: Rosa (through "terza" of sesto giorno, pp. 339-438); Eco, "Between Author and Text" (in Interpretation and Overinterpretation, pp. 67-88)

 

10/21: Rosa (through ultimo foglio, pp. 439-503); Stephens, "Ec[h]o in Fabula"

 

10/26: Rosa ("Postille," pp. 507-33); Colletti, "Medievalizing Theory"

 

10/28: Calvino, Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore (I-II, pp. 1-46)

 

11/2: Se una notte (III-V, pp. 47-132); Calvino, "Whom Do We Write For"

 

11/4: Se una notte (VI-VII, pp. 133-96); Eco, Introduction to The Role of the Reader

 

11/9: Se una notte (VIII-XII, pp. 197-305); De Lauretis, "Calvino and the Amazons: Reading the (Post) Modern Text"

 

11/11: Eco, L'isola del giorno prima, pp. 5-66

 

11/16: L'isola, pp. 67-165; Calvino, "Literature as Projection of Desire"

 

11/18: L'isola, 166-212

 

11/23: L'isola, 213-316; Jonathan Culler, "In Defense of Overinterpretation" (in Interpretation and Overinterpretation, pp. 109-23)

 

 

THANKSGIVING BREAK

 

 

11/30: L'isola, 317-473; Bouchard, "Umberto Eco's L'isola del giorno prima: Postmodern Theory and Fictional Praxis"

 

12/2: Brief research presentations

 

 

FINAL PAPERS DUE ON TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7