English Literature 2
A.Y. 2022/2023
Learning objectives
The course is the second step for English Literature major and is devoted to second year undergraduate students. The course analyses the development of English literature, focussing on Augustan , Romantic and High Victorian writers, covering authors active between the 1710s and the 1870s. Students will be taught how to critically read and assess complex literary works. The syllabus includes poetry, novels and dramas.
Expected learning outcomes
Knowledge: the course aims at familiarizing students with the major works and the literary history of the XVIII and XIX centuries, through the literary genres of poetry, novel, and drama. Competence: Students will develop different reading techniques such as close reading (textual analysis) and distant reading (historical and genre assessment). The course also aims at strengthening linguistic competence with particular reference to the critical idiom and the literary language. Students attending the classes will be stimulated to develop their critical and analytical abilities with complex literary texts in order to help them become autonomous readers in English.
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
Course syllabus
Course title: Identity and otherness in English literature from the end of the XVII to the second half of the XIX century
Description: Through the analysis of poems and prose narratives, the course explores the relationship between identity and otherness in English literature from the end of the eighteenth to the second half of the nineteenth century. It intends to show the multiple approaches that contribute to the construction of modernity. The course underlies the innovative quality of Romantic poetry, and follows the development of nineteenth-century fiction, both the novel and the romance. Specific attention is devoted to the crucial role of the British Empire, its spatial dynamics, and the ideological and aesthetical questions connected with it.
It is divided into three parts:
1. Romantic poetry: between memory and desire
2. The novel: England and its colonies
3. The romance: other landscapes, other identities.
The course is addressed to second-year students specializing in Foreign Languages and Literatures. It bears 9 credits, and it is not possible to take a 6 credit exam.
The syllabus is valid until February 2024.
Description: Through the analysis of poems and prose narratives, the course explores the relationship between identity and otherness in English literature from the end of the eighteenth to the second half of the nineteenth century. It intends to show the multiple approaches that contribute to the construction of modernity. The course underlies the innovative quality of Romantic poetry, and follows the development of nineteenth-century fiction, both the novel and the romance. Specific attention is devoted to the crucial role of the British Empire, its spatial dynamics, and the ideological and aesthetical questions connected with it.
It is divided into three parts:
1. Romantic poetry: between memory and desire
2. The novel: England and its colonies
3. The romance: other landscapes, other identities.
The course is addressed to second-year students specializing in Foreign Languages and Literatures. It bears 9 credits, and it is not possible to take a 6 credit exam.
The syllabus is valid until February 2024.
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 year. To sit the second-year exam, students need to have passed the first-year English language exam and the first-year English literature exam.
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 or documentaries, etc. Students are encouraged to actively participate in textual analysis and in the discussions in class and in the website forum.
Teaching Resources
GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY:
The Norton Anthology of English Literature (the introduction to the historical and literary contexts ranging from the end of the XVIII century to the second half of the XIX century: "The Romantic Period 1785-1830" and "The Victorian Age 1830-1901").
Other materials will be indicated during the lessons.
PART A: ROMANTIC POETRY: BETWEEN MEMORY AND DESIRE
Literary texts:
Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (selected passages made available on the Ariel website)
William Blake, 'Songs of Innocence and Experience' (selected poems from The Norton Anthology)
William Wordsworth, 'I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud', 'Composed upon Westminster Bridge' (in The Norton Anthology)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner', 'Kubla Kahn' (in The Norton Anthology)
Percy Bysshe Shelley, 'Mont Blanc' (in The Norton Anthology)
John Keats, 'Ode on a Grecian Urn', 'La Belle Dame sans Merci' (in The Norton Anthology).
PART B: THE NOVEL: ENGLAND AND ITS COLONIES
Literary texts:
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park (any edition in English)
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (any edition in English)
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (any edition in English).
PART C: THE ROMANCE: OTHER LANDSCAPES, OTHER IDENTITIES
Literary texts:
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (any edition in English)
Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights (any edition in English).
Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (any edition in English)
The website of the course is online on the Ariel platform (http://ariel.unimi.it): students will be able to download critical materials. The website also contains general information on the course and is constantly updated.
The Norton Anthology of English Literature (the introduction to the historical and literary contexts ranging from the end of the XVIII century to the second half of the XIX century: "The Romantic Period 1785-1830" and "The Victorian Age 1830-1901").
Other materials will be indicated during the lessons.
PART A: ROMANTIC POETRY: BETWEEN MEMORY AND DESIRE
Literary texts:
Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (selected passages made available on the Ariel website)
William Blake, 'Songs of Innocence and Experience' (selected poems from The Norton Anthology)
William Wordsworth, 'I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud', 'Composed upon Westminster Bridge' (in The Norton Anthology)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner', 'Kubla Kahn' (in The Norton Anthology)
Percy Bysshe Shelley, 'Mont Blanc' (in The Norton Anthology)
John Keats, 'Ode on a Grecian Urn', 'La Belle Dame sans Merci' (in The Norton Anthology).
PART B: THE NOVEL: ENGLAND AND ITS COLONIES
Literary texts:
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park (any edition in English)
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (any edition in English)
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (any edition in English).
PART C: THE ROMANCE: OTHER LANDSCAPES, OTHER IDENTITIES
Literary texts:
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (any edition in English)
Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights (any edition in English).
Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (any edition in English)
The website of the course is online on the Ariel platform (http://ariel.unimi.it): students will be able to download critical materials. The website also contains general information on the course and is constantly updated.
Assessment methods and Criteria
The exam consists of an oral interview. The minimum 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 to make 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 may accept or reject the mark, in this case, it will be recorded as "ritirato".
L-LIN/10 - ENGLISH LITERATURE - University credits: 9
Lessons: 60 hours
Professor:
Brazzelli Nicoletta
Professor(s)