Anglo-American Cultures I
A.Y. 2022/2023
Learning objectives
Knowledge and understanding: students, who are expected to know and be able to apply basic cultural studies methodologies, will be led to better define and analyse the relationships between culture, discursive strategies, social phenomena, mass communication, production and consumption of cultural products, and to analyze them from the perspective of ideology and their social, spatial, historical and political contexts. Within the frame of their improved language competences and awareness , they will be led to gain an improved awareness of the relationship between language and cultures within the US context and in connection with the chosen syllabus. MA courses are meant for qualitative, more than quantitative, study and tends to privilege a limited number of texts that must be read and analyzed with sophisticated skills.
Expected learning outcomes
Students will be required to be fluent in both written and spoken English in approaching texts and topics of relevant complexity and belonging to the field of culture, society and literature, managing the required critical lexis and organizing contents coherently. They must prove familiar with the texts proposed in the syllabus and they must be able to analyse them both at the syntagmatic level and at the paradigmatic one.
Moreover they must prove able to approach texts and topic autonomously, exploiting the methodological tools acquired during their MA training, therefore completing their linguistic training through the cultural one.
Moreover they must prove able to approach texts and topic autonomously, exploiting the methodological tools acquired during their MA training, therefore completing their linguistic training through the cultural one.
Lesson period: Second 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
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
Second semester
Course syllabus
In this class, we take a close look at America between 1960 and 1980 through the lens of "second wave feminism." At the center will be Betty Friedan's famous 1963 book The Feminine Mystique, which, as Stephanie Coontz discovered (A Strange Stirring), acquired a 'life of its own', a book that stirred a lot of controversy, became an icon of the feminist movement, was both embraced and contested, loved and hated. We will take a close look, situate it in its socio-historical context, and draw also on a broad variety of other cultural and literary texts to illuminate both, the development of feminist activism as well as the literary/cultural sphere of the times. More specifically we will read two novels, Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar (1963) and Alice Walker's The Color Purple (1982).
Unit 1
General overview and introduction, America 1960-80
Feminism and its "waves"
Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (1963), selected chapters
Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar (1963)
Unit 2
Kate Millet, Sexual Politics (1970), selected chapters
The Boston Collective, Our Bodies, Ourselves (1970), selected chapters
Alice Walker, The Color Purple (1982)
Documentaries: Miss America; Roe v Wade
Feminist Art movement: e.g. Judy Chicago, Cindy Sherman
Unit 1
General overview and introduction, America 1960-80
Feminism and its "waves"
Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (1963), selected chapters
Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar (1963)
Unit 2
Kate Millet, Sexual Politics (1970), selected chapters
The Boston Collective, Our Bodies, Ourselves (1970), selected chapters
Alice Walker, The Color Purple (1982)
Documentaries: Miss America; Roe v Wade
Feminist Art movement: e.g. Judy Chicago, Cindy Sherman
Prerequisites for admission
Students must have taken the exam of AngloAmerican Culture I. They must be able to read and understand complex texts in English and they must prove able to express their own critical position on the suggested issues, in a fluent though simple English. They must also be familiar with the basic notions of British Cultural Studies, that will be given as pre-knowledges.
Teaching methods
Classes will develop partly on a lecture-based method, partly as seminar. Guest-speakers on specific topics will be invited.
Teaching Resources
Unit 1
Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (1963), selected chapters
Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar (1963)
Unit 2
Kate Millet, Sexual Politics (1970), selected chapters
The Boston Collective, Our Bodies, Ourselves (1970), selected chapters
Alice Walker, The Color Purple (1982)
Documentaries: Miss America; Roe v Wade
Critical references (4 essays available via Minerva Unimi databases) to be defined.
Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (1963), selected chapters
Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar (1963)
Unit 2
Kate Millet, Sexual Politics (1970), selected chapters
The Boston Collective, Our Bodies, Ourselves (1970), selected chapters
Alice Walker, The Color Purple (1982)
Documentaries: Miss America; Roe v Wade
Critical references (4 essays available via Minerva Unimi databases) to be defined.
Assessment methods and Criteria
Students will have the opportunity to carry out some in-depth activities (term papers and presentations) that will be subject to evaluation and on which more specific indications will be given in class. The overall evaluation will be communicated at the end of the oral exam.
L-LIN/11 - ANGLO - AMERICAN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES - University credits: 6
Lessons: 40 hours
Professor:
Scarpino Cinzia
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