Corso di laurea in Lettere

Final aim:

The student will be able to make a weighted reading of the texts and phenomena object of teaching, applying to each of them the appropriate critical methodology, framing them historically and in his belonging to a genre, studying sources and fortune, and presenting the results of the study in proper shape, both oral and written.

 Intermediate aims:

-learning the essential guidelines for an initial examination of the theatrical phenomenon in the History of Western Theater;

-being able to make comparisons between periods, theories and techniques relating to the history of the performing arts, with an emphasis on the contemporary scene, in order to encourage more awareness in a critical approach to the theatre studies;

-acquireing the skills needed for reading and analysis of the play, from the point of view of the survey on the script and the dramatic and scenic play;

-acquireing historical perspective in theatrical and performative reading of the text, having traveled and practiced the character and history of the genre, intertextuality, the exegesis of the sources and models, poetics.

The expected results agree with the objectives of the course. At the end of the program, the student will be able to:

-acquainted with the essential guidelines for an initial examination of the theatrical phenomenon in the History of Western Theater;

-make comparisons between periods, theories and techniques relating to the history of the performing arts, with an emphasis on the contemporary scene, in order to encourage more awareness in a critical approach to the theatre studies;

-possesses the skills to read and analyze the play, from the point of view of the survey on the script and the dramatic and scenic play;

-possesses historical perspective in theatrical and performative reading of the text, having traveled and practiced the character and history of the genre, intertextuality, the exegesis of the sources and models, poetics.

The program provides an articulation in two parts.

The first part (22 hours) will cover the study of the features of matter, with particular attention to the relationship between written sources (plays, books of theory of the theater, the actors' memories) and unwritten sources (iconography, performances) in order to rebuild it history of the phenomena in the time frame that goes from classical to contemporary:

• The invention of the drama in Greece and the Aristotle’s Poetics

• Actor, Hystrio, orator: the transformation of the theatre’s idea from Greeks to Romans

• Medieval Theatricality: between passion play and Jester

• Catholic Church condemnation to the theatre

• The renaissance of the scene: erudita comedy and commedia dell'Arte

• Baroque theatre

• The theatrical reform and the debate on the actor emotions

• Nature and representation, masks and faces: actor psychology studies and acting studies

• Realism, physical actions and puppets: the revolution of the theatre with the advent of “stage direction”

• The “stage director” role and the horizon of ritual and feast: compasision between two twentieth-century phenomena

• The scene of the last Twentieth-century and the fathers of contemporary esperimental theatre

• Experience of performing art and “lab theatre”.

The second part, monographs (14 hours), intends to apply the knowledge and skills acquired during the first part of a case study, which this year will cover the theatre of the sixteenth century and in particular the popular comedy, written and “improvvisa”, with some contemporary stagings of these comedies. The title of this part is Deception, disguise and transvestism. We're investigating, as well as textual and iconographic documents on the Commedia dell'Arte (which will be analyzed in class), three comedies:

• Mandragola by Niccolò Machiavelli
• Moscheta by Ruzante
• Gl’Ingannati by Accademia degli Intronati di Siena (with a short focus on William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night)

Moreover, two of the recent stagings of just mentioned works by Machiavelli and Intronati and a lecture-show by Dario Fo on Ruzante’s theatre will be viewed and analyzed in class:

• Mandragola di Ugo Chiti
• Gl’ingannati (e la Dodicesima Notte) di Carlo Cecchi
• Dario Fo e Franca Rame ripropongono e recitano Ruzzante

1) Roberto Alonge, Franco Perrelli, Storia del teatro e dello spettacolo, Utet, Torino 2012 [pp. 430].

2) Anna Maria Testaverde, Introduzione a I canovacci della Commedia dell’Arte, Einaudi, Torino 2007, pp. XVII-LXXI.

3) Eva Marinai, Il comico nel teatro delle origini, Titivillus, Corazzano (Pisa), 2003, pp. 107-117, only chapter: “Decostruzione e rovesciamento”, with the paragraphs: “Travestimento e travestitismo”; “L’imitazione del defunto”; “Fermare il tempo, rovesciare il mondo".

4) One choice between these three comedies:

a. Niccolò Machiavelli, Mandragola, a cura di Guido Davico Bonino, Einaudi, Torino 2014 [pp. 100];

b. Angelo Beolco (Ruzante), Moscheta, a cura di Ludovico Zorzi, Einaudi, Torino 1963 [pp. 135];

c. Accademia degli Intronati di Siena, Gl’Ingannati, a cura di Marzia Pieri, Titivillus, Corazzano (Pisa) 2009 [pp. 170].

5) One choise between these three stagings (DVD are at the Laboratorio Audiovisivo):

a. Mandragola di Ugo Chiti;

b. Dario Fo e Franca Rame ripropongono e recitano Ruzante;

c. Gl’ingannati di Carlo Cecchi.

6) One choice between these three critical texts:

a. Eva Marinai, La principessa e l’asino. Lucrezia e la Fortuna del tragicomico machiavelliano, in «Comunicazioni Sociali. Journal of Media, Performing Arts and Cultural Studies», in corso di pubblicazione (il riferimento bibliografico preciso sarà fornito appena possibile) [pp. 10 circa]

b. Eva Marinai, Il canto come rifondazione del mito. Dai Canzonieri a Medea: ricerca e inventio in Dario Fo e Pier Paolo Pasolini in Lisa El Ghaoui, Federica Tummillo (a cura di), Le tradizioni popolari nelle opere di Dario Fo e Pier Paolo Pasolini,  Serra, Pisa-Roma 2013, pp. 57-68;

c. Eva Marinai, “Scenari”europei del Rinascimento italiano: Dagl’inganni di Nicuola (già Lelia) a Viola ne La dodicesima notte, in A.a. V.v., I Novellieri italiani e la loro presenza nella cultura europea del Rinascimento e del Barocco, in corso di pubblicazione (il riferimento bibliografico preciso sarà fornito appena possibile) [pp. 10 circa]

For non-attending students and to those who were in need of integration of credit, adding:

1) Eva Marinai, Gobbi, Dritti e la satira molesta. Copioni di voci, immagini di scena (1951-1967), ETS, Pisa 2007, solo fino a p. 287.

2) Eva Marinai, Igor Vazzaz, Il riso nell’occhio. Sguardi e ipotesi di studio sul corpo-testo comico contemporaneo, in «Biblioteca Teatrale», Parte seconda, n. 107-108, luglio-dicembre 2013, Bulzoni, Roma 2014, pp. 95-108.

English text being updated