Università Roma Tre

Criticism and the Invention of Genres'.

One of the tasks of criticism has always been to group texts under genre labels, so as to be able to "grasp literary relationships that would not have been noticed in the absence of a context in which to place them" (N. Frye). Beyond the traditionally recognised canonical genres, critics, also driven by the logic of the publishing market, tend to identify new classifications and coin new names. This has been the case, in Italian fiction over the last 40 years, with the so-called 'cannibals', the New Italian Realisms, the New Italian Epic, the neo-historical novel, nonfiction autofiction, etc. How are such operations produced in the practice of literary criticism, whether militant or academic? What is the relationship between the new textual classes and canonical genres? Which and how many textual characteristics contribute to the identification of a new 'genre'? Through a number of case studies, the course will propose practical and historically attested examples of the phenomenon in the context of contemporary Italian literature.

F. Pappalardo, Teorie dei generi letterari

Other readings will be provided during the course