This course studies the images of Dante and Petrarch that have been developed in modern and contemporary Italian poetry. Our point of departure will be Amedeo Quondam’s recent book on Petrarca, l'italiano dimenticato (2004) that traces a critical history of Dante and Petrarch as cultural icons of the formation of Italian identity in Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries.

In Eighteenth and Nineteenth century emerges an inclination to oppose Dante to Petrarch; this tendency continues in different ways in Twentieth-century Italian poetry. As for Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Italian literature we will read selected works from Vittorio Alfieri, Ugo Foscolo, GiacomoLeopardi and Francesco de Sanctis.

We will then move to Twentieth century and to the new millennium where – especially after the 2004 celebration of Francis Petrarch’s seventh hundred birthdate,– a new cultural awareness sets aside any oppositional approach and tends to appreciate the value and specificity of both Dante’s and Petrarch’s legacy in Italian, European and World literature. Our readings will include poetic and prose works by Giuseppe Ungaretti, Eugenio Montale, Andrea Zanzotto, Mario Luzi, Amelia Rosselli and Giorgio Caproni.

Syllabus