The aim of the course is 1) to provide students with a lexical extension, developing their understanding and reading skills in areas of historical-cultural and geographical-political interest; 2) to mediate cultural aspects of the German-speaking world through the reading in German (but we translate them together) of some texts exploring metropolitan cultures and landscape's aesthetics.

interest in the German cultures and in a topographical approach to culture.

The course aims to introduce the German-speaking cultures through a journey, temporal and spatial, which has as its stops some of the iconic city and landscapes. Thus will be explored, through readings of literary, philosophical texts, streets and squares of metropolitan cities as mediums: Berlin (before and after the wall and the fall of the wall), Munich (during and after Nazism), Vienna (especially that of the late twentieth century), Salzburg (not only for Mozart), Weimar, Zurich, Prague (when it was part of the Habsburg Empire, Austro-Hungarian), or even Italian cities seen through the eyes of the foreigner (Rome, Naples). A second path will be dedicated to the aesthetics of the landscape through the reading of passages dedicated to the naturalistic "topos". The course proposes, therefore, a cross-step path that on the one hand wants to offer a base of knowledge of the German language, and on the other hand wants to offer the student the ability to master the basic techniques of topographic narration (reportages), and then export them in the communication strategies chosen by him as a field of privileged interest.
The course, which will be held in Italian (and if possible with interaction in German), includes 56 hours of face-to-face lessons, fed by language exercises. Films will be used in the course and multimedia and didactic material will be provided.

During the oral exam the knowledge of the course contents will be verified. The examination will take into account not only the knowledge of the contents, but also the familiarity with the readings proposed during the lessons and with the multimedia materials made available on the computer platform.

(2 texts of your choice in the following list):
1) BERLINO
E. Agazzi, Piccolo manuale di viabilità letteraria, Unicopli, Milano 2009
G.P. Piretto, Vagabondare a Berlino. Itinerari eccentrici tra presente e passato, Raffaello Cortina, Milano 2020
W. Benjamin, Immagini di città, Einaudi + E. Bloch, Berlino in Geographica (in fotocopie)
J. Roth, A passeggio per Berlino, Passigli editore, Firenze 2012
F. Hessel, Berlino segreta, Elliot 2013
A. Döblin, Alexanderplatz, edizione a scelta

2) VIENNA

M. Cacciari, Allo Steinhof, Adelphi
Janik- Toulmin, La Vienna di Wittgenstein, Garzanti
M. Freschi, La Vienna di fine secolo, Editori Riuniti
Th. Bernhard, A colpi d’ascia, Adelphi
J. Roth, La cripta dei cappuccini, Adelphi
E. Kandell, L'età dell'inconscio. Arte, mente e cervello dalla grande Vienna ai nostri giorni, Milano, Raffaello Cortina Editore

ROMA/MILANO/NAPOLI/ALTRO
Goethe, Viaggio in Italia, ed. a scelta
Ch. Ransmayr, Atlante di un uomo irrequieto, Feltrinelli
I. Bachmann, Quel che ho visto e sentito a Roma, Quodlibet
G. Simmel, La metropoli e la vita dello spirito, Armando editore + Roma, Firenze, Venezia, Meltemi

The professor reserves the right to indicate and provide any additional material during the lessons
The teacher receives the students at the end of her lessons or by appointment. Contact micaela.latini@uninsubria.it