The “Snow Whites” vs the “Cookie Lyons”.

LT/AR330 - The “Snow Whites” vs the “Cookie Lyons”. Angel-women and
Wicked Witches in the Italian Literature from the Italian Romanticism to the
Present Day and in Contemporary Art Forms
PROF. ELEONORA FORNASARI/Prof. CARMELA PIERINI
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Snow White and the wicked witch are more than the leading characters of a children fairy tale: they are feminine
types that, alongside with others, such as the femme fatale or the disappointed lover, can be traced in the literature
and in different form of arts of every place and time. The course will provide an insight into the major feminine
characters portrayed by the most relevant Italian authors and opera composers of the XIX and XX centuries,
compared to the most popular heroines of contemporary movies and tv series, such as Snow White, Twilight,
Maleficent, The wizard of Oz, Once upon a time, Empire, The vampire diaries. The aim is to depict one of the most
lively periods in the Italian modern literature, whose blossoming is strictly related to the city of Milan, providing at
the same time a method of analysis of the contemporaneity which can be applied other different sectors.
COURSE CONTENTS
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The betrothed, Alessandro Manzoni;
Fosca, Igino Ugo Tarchetti
Il trovatore, Giuseppe Verdi – Salvatore Cammarano;
La fanciulla del West, Guelfo Civinini – Giacomo Puccini;
La Turandot, Giacomo Puccini – Giuseppe Adami
The pleasure, Gabriele D’Annunzio
The Sparrow, She-Wolf, Giovanni Verga
All the videos and the movies discussed during the lessons will be available on Blackboard or at the University
library.
PREREQUISITES
None
METHOD OF TEACHING
Active, learn by doing approach and professional guest speakers.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Attendance is mandatory (more than two unjustified absences will negatively impact the final grade by half-a-point
for each unjustified absence), as well as the punctual reading of the material assigned.
In order to get their credits, students will be required to:
a.
Participate actively to the class activities.
b.
Prepare a group project on a subject to be defined with the teacher and to be presented the day of the
midterm exam. The title of the project will be discussed with the teacher for approval at least two weeks
before the day of the exam. The length of the work will be decided depending on the number of the
participants of each group.
The essays must be handed in punctually and in typewritten form (use 12 point Times Roman or similar
font of the same size and double space). First impressions count; so do spelling, punctuation, grammar and
style.
c.
Before the final exam, prepare a short (30 minutes maximum) group class presentation on one of topics
covered during the second part of the course. No written essay is required for this part.
CREDITS
6 ECTS
GRADING
Attendance and class participation
Group assignments + class presentation
Midterm test
Final oral exam
20 %
25 %
25 %
30 %
of final grade
of final grade
of final grade
of final grade
COURSE READINGS AND MATERIALS
All the readings will be available in a course pack and the lecturer’s slides and videos will be available on
Blackboard.
INSTRUCTOR BIO
Eleonora Fornasari Screenwriter, tv author and journalist, with a teacher’s experience of media courses both for
college and undergraduate students, she is now attending a PhD at the Catholic University of Milan, to combine
her research interests with her professional background, focusing on production of media content for children.
Carmela Pierini holds a Ph.D in Italian Studies (2016) from the University of St. Andrews (Scotland) with a thesis
entitled Writing Intersections: A Study of Anna Banti’s Role as Novelist, Literary Essayist and Editor of the Journal
«Paragone». She collaborates with the Catholic University of Milan as Assistant professor for the courses of Italian for
Communication, History of Literary Criticism and Italian Literature moreover she is member of the scientific secretary
of the International Conference on Hermeneutics of Symbol, Myth and “Modernity of antiquity” in Italian literature
and the Arts from the Renaissance up to the present day and of the Scuola estiva internazionale in Tuscany di Studi
leopardiani, pascoliani e montaliani, both organized by UCSC, and of «Otto/Novecento», peer-reviewed fourmonthly journal of literary criticism.In addition she works as professional freelance editor for EDUCatt and founded
in Milan her own publishing house Officinaventuno.Her research focuses on female writing and literature
intersections with specific attention to éckfrasis, connections between literature and advertising and syncretic
intellectuals, as Vittorio Sereni, Emilio Cecchi, Niccolò Gallo, Sergio Solmi, Elio Vittorini, who were not only writers but
also editors, literary critics, copywriters. She has attended many national and international conferences as well as
CEMS – Centre for European Modernism, SIS – Society for Italian Studies and AAIS – American Association for
Italian Studies.With Sara Carini and Elisa Bolchi she edited the book Letteratura e archivi editoriali: nuovi spunti
d’autore (Aracne, 2014) which aims to link editorial unpublished documents with Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of
champ littéraire. La letteratura del dopoguerra e il neorealismo: «interventi appassionati» is her last article («Il
Giannone», Jenuary-December 2016).
E-MAIL ADDRESS
[email protected]
[email protected]