TRCS02  CATHOLIC NOVELS OF ROME (A.Y. 2023/2024)

• Accademic Unit

  Faculty of Theology

• Course

  .

Objectives: To reflect on three important and influential novels set in Rome at diverse time periods and with different and complex relations to the Catholic Church. We will combine close literary analysis with site visits to locations in Rome that are important for the novels. Our overall goal will be sustained reflection on the nature and value of Catholic literature with a special focus on the Eternal City.

Contents: Our three novels represent three different perspectives on Rome and on Catholicism. Sigrid Undset wrote Jenny almost a decade before her conversion to Catholicism and during a time when she was reflecting on the inability of art to provide for our deepest human needs; Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The Marble Faun as an American Protestant who was intrigued by the Catholic mystery of Rome; Henryk Sienkiewicz wrote Quo Vadis after being inspired by a small church in Rome and used his historical novel to explore the Christian message during the time of the early martyrs under Emperor Nero. Besides our consdieration of the stories themselves, we will also be considering the relationship between art and faith, art as a means of conversion, art as potential temptation, and related questions.

Methodology : A mixture of lecture and discussion. Students will provide written seminar papers that will provide a framework for class discussion.

Means of evaluation: These will include two seminar essays (2 x 15%), one term paper (30%), and class participation/attendance (40%).

• Information
• Teachers
• Lesson schedule/Room
• Bibliography

Information

• Semestre: 1° Semestre
• ECTS: 6

Teachers

Raymond Fischer HAIN IV

Lesson schedule/Room

Semester	Day	From	To	Room	Floor	Building	Notes
1° Semestre	Lunedì	10.30	11.15	TBD	0
1° Semestre	Lunedì	11.30	12.15	TBD	0
1° Semestre	Mercoledì	10.30	11.15	TBD	0
1° Semestre	Mercoledì	11.30	12.15	TBD	0

Bibliography

• Sienkiewicz, H., Quo Vadis, Hippocrene Books, New York 1997; Hawthorne, N., The Marble Faun, Oxford 2009; Undset, S., Jenny, Steerforth, Hanover, NH 1998.