Italo Svevo wrote some of the most important modern Italian novels, like 'Zeno's Conscience.' Through considerations of Svevo with other writers such as Darwin, Freud, Kafka, Pirandello, Proust, Shakespeare, and Woolf this class examines Svevo in his various contexts, including Italian, Austrian, German, Jewish, Triestine, European, and Modernist to understand the strengths and weaknesses of classifications according to language, religious or cultural background, nation, education, and literary movement. Graduate students will develop their critical understanding of 'world literature' through work on secondary readings and write a final conference paper related to their research interests.
