English Literature
A.Y. 2022/2023
Learning objectives
The course aims at providing a basic preparation in English and other Anglophone literatures. Specific attention will be given to the interdisciplinary connections with the fields of geography, history, cultural and literary studies. Students will acquire the basic methodological tools of literary criticism, and they will be provided hints on the most suitable critical strategies to approach the issues proposed by each syllabus. Primary texts will be proposed in English. Texts in translation are allowed but not encouraged.
Expected learning outcomes
Knowledge: Within the cultural and critical horizon of English Literature, openly referring to the chosen historical period focussed on each year, students will prove able to read and understand the chosen texts, locating them in their context. They are expected to frame the text with reference to its author (biography and works), its genre (analogies and divergences), its publishing context (culture and history). They are also required to be able to compare the given text with other texts belonging to the English and/or the international context.
Competence: Students are expected to understand a literary text in English (novel, poem or play) and to be able to identify its main thematic guidelines, though they are not required to translate it. Moreover the students are expected to develop the basic skills of textual analysis and show the ability to select and point out the texts' stylistic guidelines in terms of rhetorical choices and analogies/deviations in comparison with the genre they belong to.
Competence: Students are expected to understand a literary text in English (novel, poem or play) and to be able to identify its main thematic guidelines, though they are not required to translate it. Moreover the students are expected to develop the basic skills of textual analysis and show the ability to select and point out the texts' stylistic guidelines in terms of rhetorical choices and analogies/deviations in comparison with the genre they belong to.
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
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
First semester
In the emergency teaching phase, should it become necessary to use online teaching, the program designed for face-to-face teaching is modified as follows:
Teaching methods:
The lessons will be held in synchronous, trying to enhance interaction (chat and forum), using mainly Microsoft Teams; only in specific cases and duly communicated, the lessons will be held in asynchronous (videolessons). In case there will be activities in presence (following the indications of the university), students who will not participate will be offered an alternative online activity that will allow them to develop the same critical and text analysis skills.
The timetable of the lessons remains unchanged and all the most important information will be provided through the ARIEL website of the course.
The methods and criteria for attending the lessons in attendance, which require a reservation with the appropriate app, will be published in good time on the ARIEL website of the course.
Reference materials:
Those indicated in the program remain. For those who decide not to attend the course, we recommend the supporting bibliography.
Testing and grading
The exam is oral and will be conducted, in the case of online teaching, in Microsoft Teams, according to the indications provided by the University. The testing/grading methods remain the same both for attending and non attending students.
Teaching methods:
The lessons will be held in synchronous, trying to enhance interaction (chat and forum), using mainly Microsoft Teams; only in specific cases and duly communicated, the lessons will be held in asynchronous (videolessons). In case there will be activities in presence (following the indications of the university), students who will not participate will be offered an alternative online activity that will allow them to develop the same critical and text analysis skills.
The timetable of the lessons remains unchanged and all the most important information will be provided through the ARIEL website of the course.
The methods and criteria for attending the lessons in attendance, which require a reservation with the appropriate app, will be published in good time on the ARIEL website of the course.
Reference materials:
Those indicated in the program remain. For those who decide not to attend the course, we recommend the supporting bibliography.
Testing and grading
The exam is oral and will be conducted, in the case of online teaching, in Microsoft Teams, according to the indications provided by the University. The testing/grading methods remain the same both for attending and non attending students.
Course syllabus
Title: The subalterns. Telling the victims in poetry, fiction, theatre.
The syllabus is goes back to a range of topics related to Gender Studies that have raised so much interests in the students so far and more specifically it develops a discourse on the voice of subaltern identities, mostly women but also non-binary identities. The first part of our work wll concern the institutional and formal frame of Gender Studies as developed in English and Anglophone literatures. Thematically focused on situations where a kind of conflict is implied, the course considers different textualities (fiction, poetry, theatre) as to study the way in which dynamics of oppression are articulated and represented in literature
The critical apparatus is aimed at encouraging an analytic reading and close analysis of the chosen texts, with a specific focus on interdisciplinary connections
The syllabus is goes back to a range of topics related to Gender Studies that have raised so much interests in the students so far and more specifically it develops a discourse on the voice of subaltern identities, mostly women but also non-binary identities. The first part of our work wll concern the institutional and formal frame of Gender Studies as developed in English and Anglophone literatures. Thematically focused on situations where a kind of conflict is implied, the course considers different textualities (fiction, poetry, theatre) as to study the way in which dynamics of oppression are articulated and represented in literature
The critical apparatus is aimed at encouraging an analytic reading and close analysis of the chosen texts, with a specific focus on interdisciplinary connections
Prerequisites for admission
The students are required to be able to read and understand literary texts in English and the critical essays included in the syllabus.
Teaching methods
Classes develop through lessons in the traditional lecture-format, trying - whenever possible - to encourage the students to participate, mostly when analysing the texts. Guest speakers are invited in connections with the themes and topic of the course. The Ariel platform is very much exploited as to share materials and upload slide presentations summarizing the topics approached in classroom practice.
Teaching Resources
Syllabus - 6 CFU
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre (1847)
Bernardine Evaristo, Blonde Roots (2008; also Italian version)
Jean Rhys, The Wide Sargasso Sea (1966 - excerpts; also Italian version)
Warsan Shire, Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth (2011; mostly available on the web)
Tlootlo Tsamaase, The Silence of the Wilting Skin (2020; also Italian version: Silenziosa sfiorisce la pelle, transl.. Giulia Lenti, Zona 42)
V. Woolf, Three Guineas (1938 - excerpts)
Syllabus - 9 CFU (THE FOLLOWING TEXTS ARE TO BE ADDED TO THE PREVIOUSLY INDICATED ONES)
Heather Raffo, 9 Parts of Desire; Noura, in: Heather Raffo, 9 Parts of Desire, London, Methuen, 2021
Naomi Wallace, "No Such Cold Thing", 2009 [messo a disposizione dal docente]
Excerpts from (made available on Ariel):
James Tiptree Jr., "And I Awoke and Found Me on the Cold Hill's Side"
Alcuni saggi di U.K. Le Guin (da The Wave in the Mind e Dreams Must Explain Themselves
Critical resources:
What follows is a general bibliography of the optional texts, that will be use din classroom practice and that are meant as a support for students unable to attend. The books are not meant to be read entirely, but as critical tools whenever needed. As for the general frame of the development of English novel, some recorded support will be suggested: students will use them in case they need them.
AAVV, Introduzione allo studio della letteratura inglese. Carocci, 2017 (Capp. 1 e 4).
AA. VV, Heather Raffo's "Heather Raffo's 9 Parts of Desire". (Drama For Students), Farmington Hills [Michigan], Gale Publishing, 2016
S. Antosa, Queer Crossings. Theories, Bodies, Texts. Mimesis, 2012.
P. Bertinetti, Breve storia della letteratura inglese (1982, qualunque edizione)
L. Curti, La voce dell'altra: scritture ibride tra femminismo e postcoloniale, Meltemi, 2006 (ch 1 & ch. 4)
A. Pasolini, "Gender Studies e cultura" in AAVV, Introduzione ai Cultural Studies. UK, USA e paesi anglofoni. Carocci, 2016 (ch. 4)
Gayatri C. Spivak, "Can a Subaltern Speak?" in AAVV, Marxism and the interpretation of culture, London, Macmillan (the article is available on the web)
Joanna Russ, How to Suppress Women Writing (1983), Austin, University of texas Press, 2018 (available on the web)
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre (1847)
Bernardine Evaristo, Blonde Roots (2008; also Italian version)
Jean Rhys, The Wide Sargasso Sea (1966 - excerpts; also Italian version)
Warsan Shire, Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth (2011; mostly available on the web)
Tlootlo Tsamaase, The Silence of the Wilting Skin (2020; also Italian version: Silenziosa sfiorisce la pelle, transl.. Giulia Lenti, Zona 42)
V. Woolf, Three Guineas (1938 - excerpts)
Syllabus - 9 CFU (THE FOLLOWING TEXTS ARE TO BE ADDED TO THE PREVIOUSLY INDICATED ONES)
Heather Raffo, 9 Parts of Desire; Noura, in: Heather Raffo, 9 Parts of Desire, London, Methuen, 2021
Naomi Wallace, "No Such Cold Thing", 2009 [messo a disposizione dal docente]
Excerpts from (made available on Ariel):
James Tiptree Jr., "And I Awoke and Found Me on the Cold Hill's Side"
Alcuni saggi di U.K. Le Guin (da The Wave in the Mind e Dreams Must Explain Themselves
Critical resources:
What follows is a general bibliography of the optional texts, that will be use din classroom practice and that are meant as a support for students unable to attend. The books are not meant to be read entirely, but as critical tools whenever needed. As for the general frame of the development of English novel, some recorded support will be suggested: students will use them in case they need them.
AAVV, Introduzione allo studio della letteratura inglese. Carocci, 2017 (Capp. 1 e 4).
AA. VV, Heather Raffo's "Heather Raffo's 9 Parts of Desire". (Drama For Students), Farmington Hills [Michigan], Gale Publishing, 2016
S. Antosa, Queer Crossings. Theories, Bodies, Texts. Mimesis, 2012.
P. Bertinetti, Breve storia della letteratura inglese (1982, qualunque edizione)
L. Curti, La voce dell'altra: scritture ibride tra femminismo e postcoloniale, Meltemi, 2006 (ch 1 & ch. 4)
A. Pasolini, "Gender Studies e cultura" in AAVV, Introduzione ai Cultural Studies. UK, USA e paesi anglofoni. Carocci, 2016 (ch. 4)
Gayatri C. Spivak, "Can a Subaltern Speak?" in AAVV, Marxism and the interpretation of culture, London, Macmillan (the article is available on the web)
Joanna Russ, How to Suppress Women Writing (1983), Austin, University of texas Press, 2018 (available on the web)
Assessment methods and Criteria
The exam consists in an oral interview, traditionally graded on a 30/30 system. Students are required to take their texts with them when sitting for the exam. Optional midterm exams will be made available.
As to be graded, the students must :
· Show a thorough knowledge of all the works included in the syllabus
· Prove able to understand and comment texts in English
· Prove able to frame each work and author in their respective context
· Organize their knowledge within a critical frame
· Prove able to answer to the question in good Italian. They can, if they want, be interviewed in English.
Attending students will be given the possibility to take a midterm, in modalities to be defined. The final grade, after the oral interview, will be given according to the usual grading system (30/30).International or Erasmus incoming students are kindly requested to contact the teacher of the course. Also students with disabilities should contact the teacher of the course, in order to discuss alternative examination methods, in agreement with the competent Office.
As to be graded, the students must :
· Show a thorough knowledge of all the works included in the syllabus
· Prove able to understand and comment texts in English
· Prove able to frame each work and author in their respective context
· Organize their knowledge within a critical frame
· Prove able to answer to the question in good Italian. They can, if they want, be interviewed in English.
Attending students will be given the possibility to take a midterm, in modalities to be defined. The final grade, after the oral interview, will be given according to the usual grading system (30/30).International or Erasmus incoming students are kindly requested to contact the teacher of the course. Also students with disabilities should contact the teacher of the course, in order to discuss alternative examination methods, in agreement with the competent Office.
Unita' didattica A
L-LIN/10 - ENGLISH LITERATURE - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
Professor:
Vallorani Nicoletta
Unita' didattica B
L-LIN/10 - ENGLISH LITERATURE - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
Professor:
Vallorani Nicoletta
Unita' didattica C
L-LIN/10 - ENGLISH LITERATURE - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
Professor:
Caponi Paolo
Professor(s)