Literature: Texts and contexts

For starting this period we will change from now on the topic from language to literature. What is literature? Its definition is: "a highly developed use of language in that is the stylized manipulation of language for larger effect (purpose) and/or affect (emotional response)" (Language and Literature Course Companion p.9). We try our skills in literature by reading fragments of "The Leopard" by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (1958) and "Notable American Women" by Ben Marcus (2002). After some time trying to comprehend the texts I realize that they were very difficult and we needed to focus a lot on what we were reading, finally our teacher said that actually they are difficult texts to understand considering that english is our second language. We conclude the class asking some questions for ourselfs:

For "Notable American Women": 

• How important are the mythical references it gives?
• What are the relationships between the possible characters?
• Is it a good translation of Italian?

And for "The Leopard": 

• What's "Father of Distinction"?
• About the last term, is it used literally?
• Why does the author put his name in the text?