English Literature 3
A.Y. 2019/2020
Learning objectives
This course brings to conclusion the general knowledge of English literature and is addressed to third-year students. It provides students with historical and literary knowledge on the period considered (1870-1970) and teaches them how to critically analyse literary texts produced between the late Victorian age and the second half of the twentieth century, focusing on Modernism and offering some hints at Postmodernism and Postcolonialism. In the three didactic units, prose, poetical and theatrical texts will be examined.
Expected learning outcomes
KNOWLEDGE: By the end of the course, students should be able to contextualise the literary texts included in the course within the cultural and literary background in which they were produced; they should also be able to place writers within their own context and know in detail the literary works included in the programme.
LINGUISTIC ABILITIES: Students should be able to read and translate into Italian the literary texts included in the programme and to discuss in English what they have learned during the course.
LITERARY ABILITIES: Students should be able to critically analyse the texts included in the programme and be able to connect different authors, texts and literary trends.
LINGUISTIC ABILITIES: Students should be able to read and translate into Italian the literary texts included in the programme and to discuss in English what they have learned during the course.
LITERARY ABILITIES: Students should be able to critically analyse the texts included in the programme and be able to connect different authors, texts and literary trends.
Lesson period: First semester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course cannot be attended as a single course. Please check our list of single courses to find the ones available for enrolment.
Course syllabus and organization
A (A-K)
Responsible
Lesson period
First semester
Course syllabus
Course title: Writing the Identity from Queen Victoria to Tony Blair.
It is divided into three units:
A. The multiple identities of Empire
B. From post-war experimentalism to Thatcher's 'We are all unequal'
C. Cool Britannia?
The course is addressed to third year students specialising in Foreign Languages and Literatures, whose surnames are in the A to K range. Students are obliged to study for 9 cfu and must complete the entire programme.
The programme is valid until February 2021.
How does literature engage with identity? The course will investigate issues of individual and national identity in British literature through the paradigms of class, gender, and ethnicity. A selection of texts ranging from the end of the "long century" to the end of the XXI century will be analysed, along with the historical and ideological contexts in which they were produced.
It is divided into three units:
A. The multiple identities of Empire
B. From post-war experimentalism to Thatcher's 'We are all unequal'
C. Cool Britannia?
The course is addressed to third year students specialising in Foreign Languages and Literatures, whose surnames are in the A to K range. Students are obliged to study for 9 cfu and must complete the entire programme.
The programme is valid until February 2021.
How does literature engage with identity? The course will investigate issues of individual and national identity in British literature through the paradigms of class, gender, and ethnicity. A selection of texts ranging from the end of the "long century" to the end of the XXI century will be analysed, along with the historical and ideological contexts in which they were produced.
Prerequisites for admission
The course is taught in English; the syllabus implies a good knowledge of literary history and the critical skills of textual analysis acquired during the first and second year. To sit the third year exam, students need to have passed the first and second year English language exams and the first and second year English literature exams.
Teaching methods
The course employs the following teaching methods: lectures including close reading and analysis of the texts; audiovisual materials, such as projections of sequences of television and film adaptations or documentaries, etc. Students are encouraged to actively participate in textual analysis and in the discussions in class.
Attending students will work in team to realise short presentations inspired to Forced Entertainment's "Table Top Shakespeare".
Attending students will work in team to realise short presentations inspired to Forced Entertainment's "Table Top Shakespeare".
Teaching Resources
The website of the course is online on the Ariel platform (http://ariel.unimi.it): students will be able to download slides and other materials. For each unit critical essays on general questions or on specific texts will be available. The website also contains general information on the course.
General bibliography
Compulsory reference texts (for both attending and non-attending students):
- Arturo Cattaneo, A Short History of English Literature. From the Victorians to the Present, Milano, Mondadori, 2011, vol. 2
or
The Norton Anthology of English Literature (introduction to 'The Victorian Age' and introduction to 'The Twentieth Century') (any edition)
- Margaret Rose, Il teatro Inglese dell'Ottocento e del Novecento, Roma, Carocci, 2000, pp. 11-87; 157-72.
- Giovanni Cianci, Modernismo/Modernismi. Dall'avanguardia storica agli anni Trenta e oltre, Milano, Principato, 1991: Introduzione (pp. 15-45), Il recupero del mitologico (pp. 314-41).
Not attending students add:
- Giovanni Cianci, Modernismo/Modernismi. Dall'avanguardia storica agli anni Trenta e oltre, Milano, Principato, 1991 (pp. 49-62; 83-98; 290-313; 398-422).
- A. Marzola, Englishness. Percorsi nella cultura britannica del Novecento, Roma, Carocci, 1999, pp. 11-76; 197-212; 249-67; 285-94; 308-27.
- M. Cavecchi, Cerchi e cicli. Sulle forme della memoria in Ulisse, Roma, Bulzoni, 2012.
Suggested reading:
- Giulia Guazzaloca, Storia della Gran Bretagna (1832-2014), Milano, Mondadori, 2015
Unit A
Literary texts:
- O. Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest (in Ariel)
- O. Wilde, The Decay of Lying (in Ariel)
- J. Conrad, Heart of Darkness, Norton Critical Edition edited by P. B. Armstrong, New York and London, Norton & Company, 2017 (Cuore di tenebra, a cura di G. Sertoli, Torino, Einaudi, 1999)
- R. Brooke, The Soldier (Norton Anthology)
- T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (in Ariel)
- T.S. Eliot, Tradition and the Individual Talent (in Ariel)
- J. Joyce, "Circe", in Ulysses, edited by D. Kiberd, London, Penguin Books, 1992
- V. Woolf, To the Lighthouse (any edition in English with introduction and notes, such as Penguin or Oxford UP)
Unit B
Literary texts:
- S. Beckett, Waiting for Godot; Not I; That Time in Samuel Beckett. The Complete Dramatic Works (any edition)
- H. Pinter, The Caretaker (any edition)
- S. Rushdie, Midnight's Children (any edition)
- H. Barker, Scenes from an Execution (any edition)
- H. Kureishi, The Budda of Suburbia (any edition)
Not attending students add:
- M. Cavecchi, "From Playwrighting to Curatorship. An Investigation into the Status of Samuel Beckett's Objects" (in Ariel)
- M. Cavecchi, "Gli oggetti in The Caretaker. Pinter e la Pop Art" (in Ariel)
Unit C
Literary texts:
- S. Kane, Blasted (any edition) (Dannati, in Tutto il teatro di Sarah Kane, Torino, Einaudi, 2000)
- M. Ravenhill, Shopping and F***ing (any edition)
- I. McEwan, Enduring Love (any edition)
- J. Butcher, Scaramouche Jones, or The Seven White Masks, London, Bloomsbury, 2002
Not attending students add:
- A. Sierz, In-Yer-face Theatre. British Drama Today, London, Faber and Faber, 2000, pp. 3-35; 90-107; 122-34.
General bibliography
Compulsory reference texts (for both attending and non-attending students):
- Arturo Cattaneo, A Short History of English Literature. From the Victorians to the Present, Milano, Mondadori, 2011, vol. 2
or
The Norton Anthology of English Literature (introduction to 'The Victorian Age' and introduction to 'The Twentieth Century') (any edition)
- Margaret Rose, Il teatro Inglese dell'Ottocento e del Novecento, Roma, Carocci, 2000, pp. 11-87; 157-72.
- Giovanni Cianci, Modernismo/Modernismi. Dall'avanguardia storica agli anni Trenta e oltre, Milano, Principato, 1991: Introduzione (pp. 15-45), Il recupero del mitologico (pp. 314-41).
Not attending students add:
- Giovanni Cianci, Modernismo/Modernismi. Dall'avanguardia storica agli anni Trenta e oltre, Milano, Principato, 1991 (pp. 49-62; 83-98; 290-313; 398-422).
- A. Marzola, Englishness. Percorsi nella cultura britannica del Novecento, Roma, Carocci, 1999, pp. 11-76; 197-212; 249-67; 285-94; 308-27.
- M. Cavecchi, Cerchi e cicli. Sulle forme della memoria in Ulisse, Roma, Bulzoni, 2012.
Suggested reading:
- Giulia Guazzaloca, Storia della Gran Bretagna (1832-2014), Milano, Mondadori, 2015
Unit A
Literary texts:
- O. Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest (in Ariel)
- O. Wilde, The Decay of Lying (in Ariel)
- J. Conrad, Heart of Darkness, Norton Critical Edition edited by P. B. Armstrong, New York and London, Norton & Company, 2017 (Cuore di tenebra, a cura di G. Sertoli, Torino, Einaudi, 1999)
- R. Brooke, The Soldier (Norton Anthology)
- T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (in Ariel)
- T.S. Eliot, Tradition and the Individual Talent (in Ariel)
- J. Joyce, "Circe", in Ulysses, edited by D. Kiberd, London, Penguin Books, 1992
- V. Woolf, To the Lighthouse (any edition in English with introduction and notes, such as Penguin or Oxford UP)
Unit B
Literary texts:
- S. Beckett, Waiting for Godot; Not I; That Time in Samuel Beckett. The Complete Dramatic Works (any edition)
- H. Pinter, The Caretaker (any edition)
- S. Rushdie, Midnight's Children (any edition)
- H. Barker, Scenes from an Execution (any edition)
- H. Kureishi, The Budda of Suburbia (any edition)
Not attending students add:
- M. Cavecchi, "From Playwrighting to Curatorship. An Investigation into the Status of Samuel Beckett's Objects" (in Ariel)
- M. Cavecchi, "Gli oggetti in The Caretaker. Pinter e la Pop Art" (in Ariel)
Unit C
Literary texts:
- S. Kane, Blasted (any edition) (Dannati, in Tutto il teatro di Sarah Kane, Torino, Einaudi, 2000)
- M. Ravenhill, Shopping and F***ing (any edition)
- I. McEwan, Enduring Love (any edition)
- J. Butcher, Scaramouche Jones, or The Seven White Masks, London, Bloomsbury, 2002
Not attending students add:
- A. Sierz, In-Yer-face Theatre. British Drama Today, London, Faber and Faber, 2000, pp. 3-35; 90-107; 122-34.
Assessment methods and Criteria
The exam consists in an oral interview. The minimun score is 18, the maximum is 30. The oral exam will prove the understanding of literary texts (through reading and translation), the knowledge of literary history (details on the authors, historical and cultural contexts), and the ability to interpret the texts from a critical point of view. Linguistic skills as well as the capacity of making connections between texts, writers and cultural contexts will also be part of the assessment. The interview will be partly in English.
Acitive and regular partecipation will be taken into consideration as well as the taking part to the "Table Top" presentations.
Students may accept or reject the mark, in this case it will be recorded as "ritirato".
Students with disabilities are requested to contact the teacher as well as the University Disability Services.
To sit the exam, students are expected to bring their own copies of all the literary texts in English.
When registering for the exam, students are required to refer to the name of the teacher who taught the course.
Acitive and regular partecipation will be taken into consideration as well as the taking part to the "Table Top" presentations.
Students may accept or reject the mark, in this case it will be recorded as "ritirato".
Students with disabilities are requested to contact the teacher as well as the University Disability Services.
To sit the exam, students are expected to bring their own copies of all the literary texts in English.
When registering for the exam, students are required to refer to the name of the teacher who taught the course.
Unita' didattica A
L-LIN/10 - ENGLISH LITERATURE - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
Unita' didattica B
L-LIN/10 - ENGLISH LITERATURE - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
Unita' didattica C
L-LIN/10 - ENGLISH LITERATURE - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
B (L-Z)
Responsible
Lesson period
First semester
Course syllabus
Course title: Englishness and otherness from late nineteenth century to the second half of the twentieth.
It is divided into three units:
A. The Empire and its representations
B. The anxiety of Modernity
C. Britain and the world.
The course is addressed to third year students specialising in Foreign Languages and Literatures, whose surnames are in the L to Z range. It bears 9 credits, and it is not possible to take a 6 credit exam.
The syllabus is valid until February 2021.
The course investigates how late-imperial and XX century literature explore issues of national identity, through the paradigms of class, gender and ethnicity, and explores the cultural and aesthetic transformations raised by the dynamics of modernity. Unit A focuses on the fin de siècle imperial fiction, especially questioning its ambiguities and the anxieties it reveals on the destiny of the British Empire. Unit B is mainly devoted to poems and plays based on the growing consciousness of fragmentation, disintegration and loss, connected with the sense of dislocation and estrangement following the World Wars and the changing conditions of Britain. Unit C deals with the XX century novel and its development from a modernist to a postcolonial sensibility: the process of decolonization generates new strategies of narration, revisiting the relationship between the self and the other.
It is divided into three units:
A. The Empire and its representations
B. The anxiety of Modernity
C. Britain and the world.
The course is addressed to third year students specialising in Foreign Languages and Literatures, whose surnames are in the L to Z range. It bears 9 credits, and it is not possible to take a 6 credit exam.
The syllabus is valid until February 2021.
The course investigates how late-imperial and XX century literature explore issues of national identity, through the paradigms of class, gender and ethnicity, and explores the cultural and aesthetic transformations raised by the dynamics of modernity. Unit A focuses on the fin de siècle imperial fiction, especially questioning its ambiguities and the anxieties it reveals on the destiny of the British Empire. Unit B is mainly devoted to poems and plays based on the growing consciousness of fragmentation, disintegration and loss, connected with the sense of dislocation and estrangement following the World Wars and the changing conditions of Britain. Unit C deals with the XX century novel and its development from a modernist to a postcolonial sensibility: the process of decolonization generates new strategies of narration, revisiting the relationship between the self and the other.
Prerequisites for admission
The course is taught in English; the syllabus implies a good knowledge of literary history and the critical skills of textual analysis acquired during the first and second year. To sit the third year exam, students need to have passed the first and second year English language exams and the first and second year English literature exams.
Teaching methods
The course employs the following teaching methods: lectures including close reading and analysis of the texts; audiovisual materials, such as sequences of television and film adaptations, documentaries, etc. Students are encouraged to actively participate in textual analysis and in the discussions in class.
Teaching Resources
The website of the course is online on the Ariel platform (http://ariel.unimi.it): students will be able to download slides and other materials. For each unit critical essays on general questions or on specific texts are available. The website also contains general information on the course.
General bibliography
Compulsory reference texts for both attending and non-attending students:
Arturo Cattaneo, A Short History of English Literature. From the Victorians to the Present, vol. 2
The Norton Anthology of English Literature (introduction to 'The Victorian Age' and introduction to 'The Twentieth Century').
Unit A
Literary texts:
J. Conrad, Heart of Darkness (any edition in English with introduction and notes, such as Penguin or Oxford University Press; the bilingual edition Cuore di tenebra edited by Giuseppe Sertoli, Einaudi, is strongly recommended)
H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds (any edition in English)
F. Hodgson Burnett, A Little Princess (any edition in English).
Compulsory critical essay for non-attending students, available on the Ariel website:
Elleke Boehmer, Empire and Textuality.
Unit B
Literary texts:
J. Joyce, The Dead (in The Norton Anthology)
J.B. Yeats, The Second Coming (in The Norton Anthology)
T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land (La terra desolata edited by Alessandro Serpieri, Bur, is strongly recommended)
T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Men (in The Norton Anthology)
S. Beckett, Waiting for Godot (any edition in English)
S. Beckett, Endgame (any edition in English).
Compulsory critical essay for non-attending students, available on the Ariel website:
Peter Childs, On Modernism
Unit C
Literary texts:
W. Woolf, Mrs Dalloway (any edition in English with introduction and notes, such as Penguin or Oxford University Press)
E.M. Forster, A Passage to India (any edition in English with introduction and notes, such as Penguin or Oxford University Press)
D. Lessing, The Grass is Singing (any edition in English)
J. Lindsay, Picnic at Hanging Rock (any edition in English).
Compulsory critical essay for non-attending students, available on the Ariel website:
Ania Loomba, Situating Colonial and Postcolonial Studies
General bibliography
Compulsory reference texts for both attending and non-attending students:
Arturo Cattaneo, A Short History of English Literature. From the Victorians to the Present, vol. 2
The Norton Anthology of English Literature (introduction to 'The Victorian Age' and introduction to 'The Twentieth Century').
Unit A
Literary texts:
J. Conrad, Heart of Darkness (any edition in English with introduction and notes, such as Penguin or Oxford University Press; the bilingual edition Cuore di tenebra edited by Giuseppe Sertoli, Einaudi, is strongly recommended)
H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds (any edition in English)
F. Hodgson Burnett, A Little Princess (any edition in English).
Compulsory critical essay for non-attending students, available on the Ariel website:
Elleke Boehmer, Empire and Textuality.
Unit B
Literary texts:
J. Joyce, The Dead (in The Norton Anthology)
J.B. Yeats, The Second Coming (in The Norton Anthology)
T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land (La terra desolata edited by Alessandro Serpieri, Bur, is strongly recommended)
T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Men (in The Norton Anthology)
S. Beckett, Waiting for Godot (any edition in English)
S. Beckett, Endgame (any edition in English).
Compulsory critical essay for non-attending students, available on the Ariel website:
Peter Childs, On Modernism
Unit C
Literary texts:
W. Woolf, Mrs Dalloway (any edition in English with introduction and notes, such as Penguin or Oxford University Press)
E.M. Forster, A Passage to India (any edition in English with introduction and notes, such as Penguin or Oxford University Press)
D. Lessing, The Grass is Singing (any edition in English)
J. Lindsay, Picnic at Hanging Rock (any edition in English).
Compulsory critical essay for non-attending students, available on the Ariel website:
Ania Loomba, Situating Colonial and Postcolonial Studies
Assessment methods and Criteria
The exam consists in an oral interview. The minimun score is 18, the maximum is 30. The oral exam will prove the understanding of literary texts (through reading and translation), the knowledge of literary history (details on the authors, historical and cultural contexts), and the ability to interpret the texts from a critical point of view. Linguistic skills as well as the ability of making connections between texts, writers and cultural contexts will also be part of the assessment. The interview will be (at least partly) in English.
Students may accept or reject the mark, in this case it will be recorded as "ritirato".
Students with disabilities are requested to contact the teacher as well as the University Disability Services.
To sit the exam, students are expected to bring their own copies of all the literary texts in English.
When registering for the exam, students are required to refer to the name of the teacher who taught the course.
Students may accept or reject the mark, in this case it will be recorded as "ritirato".
Students with disabilities are requested to contact the teacher as well as the University Disability Services.
To sit the exam, students are expected to bring their own copies of all the literary texts in English.
When registering for the exam, students are required to refer to the name of the teacher who taught the course.
Unita' didattica A
L-LIN/10 - ENGLISH LITERATURE - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
Unita' didattica B
L-LIN/10 - ENGLISH LITERATURE - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
Unita' didattica C
L-LIN/10 - ENGLISH LITERATURE - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
Professor(s)
Reception:
4/7, 12am; 16/7, 11am; 10/9, 11am. Teams: i2vrlh3.
Teams