Comparative Studies in Literature, Art and Culture

This section works under the assumption that all cultural phenomena have a dialogic nature. As such, it is based on the study of Literature beyond national borders, either from a synchronic or a diachronic point of view. In addition, it favours the analysis of the relationships between Literary expression, Art forms (music, Visual Arts, cinema, etc.) and other areas of thought, such as Humanities and Social Sciences. As to the field of research, Comparative Studies focus on the analysis of intertextuality, understood as a dialogue between texts in a broad sense (written works, but also oral, visual and performative forms of culture). More specifically, they are devoted to the observation of all the influences, rewritings and significant differences which emerge within the shared spaces of literary and artistic expression. Themes and topoi, codes, genres, forms and myths are therefore the main areas of investigation, with special, necessary attention to the study of language and languages, their characteristics and transformations, and with special regard to the connections between rhetoric and imaginary. In this sense, Comparative Studies prove to be an ideal common ground between the scientific characteristics of the individual literatures and research areas (Antiquity Studies, Italian studies, Foreign Literatures, Arts, Performing arts, etc.) and the different methodological approaches (from Philology to Cultural, Visual, Performing, Genre studies etc.). Furthermore, the Department electively adopts an interdisciplinary approach, open towards not exclusively Western cultural horizons in a broad sense.