Corso di laurea magistrale in Filosofia

Subjects and topics of this course, together with tasks and skills that will be acquired, are necessary to get advanced knowledge of philosophy of literature in the analytic tradition. The course aims also to teach how to identify and evaluate arguments presented in the debates concerning the cognitive, moral and aesthetic value of literature.

a) Have good knowledge of the philosophy of literature and have the ability to analyze a philosophical text; b) have the ability to employ what has been discussed during the course and to understand the philosophical arguments that have been examined; c) have the ability to evaluate the philosophical positions thus presented; d) ability to present philosophical positions by making use of examples and counterexamples; e) reading, interpretation and comprehension of the texts discussed during the course.

Lectures (36 hs. overall) using slides; individual and group discussions of arguments and theories in the classroom; students' paper presentations and general discussion.

Oral examination plus possible evaluation of written questions on the scrutinized texts. The evaluation will depend on i) the students' preparation on the texts featured in the syllabus and their ability to face them critically; ii) their capacity to make an oral presentation of a paper; iii) their capacity to ask pertinent and penetrating questions on the texts. During the examination students have to show to: a) have good knowledge of the philosophy of literature together with the ability to analyze a philosophical text; b) have understood the philosophical arguments analyzed during the course; c) possess the ability to present philosophical positions by making use of examples and counterexamples; d) be able to comment and understand the selected texts.

What does it mean to see literature as art? Why are some literary works artworks and not others? When does a written text become literature? Why do we react emotionally to poems and novels? The course aims at sketching possible answers to these and similar questions typical of philosophy of literature.

Exam program

1) Lamarque, P., The Philosophy of Literature, Blackwell Publishing, 2009
2) The following essays:
- Currie, G., "Work and Text", Mind, 1991, 100, pp. 325-326, 328-340
- Deutsch, H., "Making Up Stories", in Everett A. & Hofweber T. (eds.), Empty Names, Fiction and the Puzzles of Non-existence, CSLI Publications, 2000, pp. 149-181
- Deutsch, H., "Friend on Making-Up Stories", Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Vol. cxiii, Part 3, 2013, pp. 365-370
- Friend, S., "Fiction as a Genre", Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Vol. cxii, Part 2, 2012, pp. 179-209
- Goodman, N., Elgin, C., "Interpretation and Identity: Can the Work Survive the World?", Critical Inquiry, 1986, 12, pp. 567-574
- Lewis, D., "Truth in Fiction", American Philosophical Quarterly, 1978, 15, pp. 37-45
- Radford, C., "How can we be moved by the fate of Anna Karenina?", Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, supp., 1975, Vol. xlix, Part 6, pp. 67-80
- Searle, J., "The logical status of fictional discourse", in Id., Expression and Meaning, Oxford University Press, 1979, pp. 58-75
- Stolniz, J., "On the Cognitive Triviality of Art", British Journal of Aesthetics, 1992, 32 (3), pp. 191-200
- Szabó Gendler, T., Kovakovich, K., "Genuine Rational Fictional Emotions", in M. Kieran (ed.), Contemporary Debates in Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art, Blackwell Publishing, 2005, pp. 241-253
- Thomasson, A. L., "Speaking of Fictional Characters", Dialectica, 2003, 57 (2), pp. 207-226

Supplementary readings

- Matravers, D., Art and Emotion, Oxford University Press, 1998
- Currie, G., Narrative and Narrators, Oxford University Press, 2010
- Lamarque, P., The Opacity of Narrative, Rowman and Littlefiled International, 2014

Oral exam in English.