Seminar # 1 January 8:

Learning objectives

This unit will present a general introduction to the notion of Petrarchism. At the end of this unit students should be able to: a) Discuss some of the current definitions of Petrarchism; b) Identify its major features; c) Appreciate the difference between Petrarch’s and Petrarchist’s poems. We will address the following topics and questions:

1. What is Petrarchisms? What are its origins and major features?
2. Why some critics define Petrarchism as "literary disease"?
2. Why some critics identify Petrarchism with a kind of poetry lacking sincerity?
3. What is the difference between a normative and a non-normative definition of Petrarchism?
4. What do critics mean by “Petrarchan system”?
5. Is there any difference between Petrarch’s poetry and the poetry written by the Petrarchists?

Lecture

This will be a Power Point presentation to provide a general introduction to Petrarchism. The instructor will give a general overview of the course and in specific of the reading material for the first learning unit. He will introduce the questions at the core of the unit without providing exhaustive answers. Student will answer these questions in the wiki after reading the course material. See instructions below.

Assignments:

Readings:

- Petrarch, Canzoniere, 1. This is the opening poem of Petrarch collection.
- Matteo Maria Boiardo, Amorum Libri, 1. This is the opening poem of the collection of one of the most important Petrarchists of the Quattrocento: Boiardo.

- Berdan, J.M., "A definition of Petrarchismo," in Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 24 (1909): 699-710. This article defines Petrarchism as lack of sincerity.

- Forster, L.W., "European Petrarchism as Training in Poetic Diction," Italian Studies 18 (1963): 19-32. Re-printed in Id. The icy Fire - Five Studies in European Petrarchism, Cambridge, 1969. This article explores the idea of a “Petrarchan system.”

-Wilkins, E.H., "A General Survey of Renaissance Petrarchism," Comparative Literature, 2 (1950): 327-342. This article provides a broad non normative definition of Petrarchism.

Project:

Explore some of the feautures of the Petrarch Project. Log into the Petrarch Project and read the poems of Petrarch and Boiardo included in the syllabus for this week.

Electronic forum:

The forum for week one is articulated in four parts, the first is focused on Petrarch opening poem and should be concluded by Tuesday at noon, the second on a poem by Boiardo and should be concluded by Thursday at noon. Part one and two are based on a group diachronic discussion in the Forum section of the Blackboard. Each member of the group will contribute to the discussion with one personal entry of at least 200 words and one answer to someone’ else post of at least 50 words for each part.

Finally the third part of the forum is based on the summary of the discussion on the two poems and on the other reading material for this week. One member of the group should write the summary of the group discussion in the Wiki associated to the class. The summary should be about 250 words and posted in the wiki by Friday at noon. Part four: each member of the group has to add a paragraph of about 200 words to the summary written by the group leader. These individual posts to be added to the summary should further discuss the summary of the group discussion the the light of the reading material for this week. These individual posts in the Wiki should be completed by Sunday at midnight.

Students engagement inventory and rubric