English Literature 2
A.Y. 2023/2024
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 writers active between the 1870s and the second half of the twentieth century. 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 XIX and XX 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
A (A-K)
Responsible
Lesson period
First semester
Course syllabus
Course title: Between memory and desire: English literature from the end of the nineteenth to the twentieth century.
Description: The course investigates how late-imperial and twentieth-century literature explore issues of national identity, through the paradigms of class, gender and ethnicity and discusses the cultural and aesthetic transformations raised by modernity. The First World War leads to new ways of perceiving and representing the world; after the Second World War a new postcolonial 'order' is established. Part I focuses on the fin de siècle imperial fiction, especially questioning the ambiguity and anxiety concerning the destiny of the British Empire. Part II is devoted to Modernist texts revealing the growing awareness of fragmentation, disintegration and loss following the changing conditions of Britain. Part III deals with the twentieth century novel and its development from Modernism to the Postcolonialism: the process of decolonization generates new strategies of narration, revisiting the relationship between the self and the other.
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 2025.
Description: The course investigates how late-imperial and twentieth-century literature explore issues of national identity, through the paradigms of class, gender and ethnicity and discusses the cultural and aesthetic transformations raised by modernity. The First World War leads to new ways of perceiving and representing the world; after the Second World War a new postcolonial 'order' is established. Part I focuses on the fin de siècle imperial fiction, especially questioning the ambiguity and anxiety concerning the destiny of the British Empire. Part II is devoted to Modernist texts revealing the growing awareness of fragmentation, disintegration and loss following the changing conditions of Britain. Part III deals with the twentieth century novel and its development from Modernism to the Postcolonialism: the process of decolonization generates new strategies of narration, revisiting the relationship between the self and the other.
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 2025.
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:
Arturo Cattaneo, A Short History of English Literature, vol. 2 (the sections on writers and texts included in the syllabus). Alternatively: Paul Poplawski (ed.), English Literature in Context (the setions on writers and texts included in the syllabus).
Other materials will be suggested in class (especially for non attending students).
PART I: INTO THE UNKNOWN
Literary texts:
Henry Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines (any edition in English)
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (any edition in English including introduction and notes)
Rudyard Kipling, Kim (any edition in English including introduction and notes).
PART II: DEATH AND REBIRTH
Literary texts:
William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming (available on the website of the course))
James Joyce, The Dead (any edition in English)
T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land (bilingual edition edited by Alessandro Serpieri, Bur Rizzoli)
Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse (any edition in English including introduction and notes).
PART III: THE CENTRE CANNOT HOLD
Literary texts:
Edward Morgan Forster, A Passage to India (any edition in English including introduction and notes)
Doris Lessing, The Grass is Singing (any edition in English)
Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (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.
Arturo Cattaneo, A Short History of English Literature, vol. 2 (the sections on writers and texts included in the syllabus). Alternatively: Paul Poplawski (ed.), English Literature in Context (the setions on writers and texts included in the syllabus).
Other materials will be suggested in class (especially for non attending students).
PART I: INTO THE UNKNOWN
Literary texts:
Henry Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines (any edition in English)
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (any edition in English including introduction and notes)
Rudyard Kipling, Kim (any edition in English including introduction and notes).
PART II: DEATH AND REBIRTH
Literary texts:
William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming (available on the website of the course))
James Joyce, The Dead (any edition in English)
T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land (bilingual edition edited by Alessandro Serpieri, Bur Rizzoli)
Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse (any edition in English including introduction and notes).
PART III: THE CENTRE CANNOT HOLD
Literary texts:
Edward Morgan Forster, A Passage to India (any edition in English including introduction and notes)
Doris Lessing, The Grass is Singing (any edition in English)
Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (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
B (L-Z)
Responsible
Lesson period
First semester
Course syllabus
The course is addressed to students of Lingue e Letterature Straniere (surname letter: L-Z).
The course bears 9 credits. It is NOT possible to take the exam only for 6 credits.
The course syllabus is valid until February 2025.
The course is entitled: "Word & Image. Breaking the Rules"
1. Visual Arts in Literature
Attention will be paid on the interdependence of literature and the visual arts and on the methodologies through which XIX and XX centuries' specialists approach word and image studies today.
2. Samuel Beckett, Visual Artist
The investigation will focus on the impact of visual arts on both the genesis and the form of Beckett's visual/theatrical imagery.
3. Shakespearean afterlives
An exploration of the strategies through which playwrights, poets and novelists have "redesigned" Shakespearean plays and of the theoretical implications of Shakespearean appropriation.
The course bears 9 credits. It is NOT possible to take the exam only for 6 credits.
The course syllabus is valid until February 2025.
The course is entitled: "Word & Image. Breaking the Rules"
1. Visual Arts in Literature
Attention will be paid on the interdependence of literature and the visual arts and on the methodologies through which XIX and XX centuries' specialists approach word and image studies today.
2. Samuel Beckett, Visual Artist
The investigation will focus on the impact of visual arts on both the genesis and the form of Beckett's visual/theatrical imagery.
3. Shakespearean afterlives
An exploration of the strategies through which playwrights, poets and novelists have "redesigned" Shakespearean plays and of the theoretical implications of Shakespearean appropriation.
Prerequisites for admission
The course is taught in English. To follow the course successfully, a good knowledge of the previous literary periods and good critical skills are required (both should have been acquired during the first-year literature course).
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 be asked to work to realize short presentations.
Attending students will be asked to work to realize short presentations.
Teaching Resources
"The Norton Anthology of English Literature", (Introduction to 'The Victorian Age' and introduction to a 'The Twentieth Century')
or
Arturo Cattaneo, "A Short History of English Literature. From the Victorians to the Present", Milano, Mondadori, 2011, vol. 2.
Suggested reading:
Giulia Guazzaloca, "Storia della Gran Bretagna (1832-2014)", Milano, Mondadori, 2015
In addition to the following reading list, students will study ALL MATERIALS SUGGESTE OR/AND UPLOADED ON THE DIDACTIC PLATFORM before or during the course.
1. Visual Arts in Literature
- O. Wilde, "The Decay of Lying"
- O. Wilde, "The Importance of Being Earnest" (con note e apparato critico, come Penguin o Oxford UP)
- R. Fry, "The French Post-Impressionists" in "Vision and Design", Chatto & Windus, London, 1920, pp. 156-9. (ARIEL)
- V. Woolf, "To the Lighthouse" (con note e apparato critico, come Penguin o Oxford UP)
- T. Gunn, "Santa Maria del Popolo
- Renzo S. Crivelli, "Lo sguardo narrato: Letteratura e arti visive", Roma, Carocci, 2003 (pp. 13-73; 127-99).
- Caroline Patey, "'Gita al faro'. Circumnavigazioni", Milano, Mimesis, 2016
- "L'importanza di chiamarsi Ernesto" (Teatro Elfo Puccini, 12 December 2023 - 12 January 2024)
Non-attending students add:
_Renzo S. Crivelli, "Lo sguardo narrato: Letteratura e arti visive", Roma, Carocci, 2003.
_Mariacristina Cavecchi, Sara Soncini, Percorsi nel teatro inglese dell'Ottocento e del primo Novecento, ETS, Pisa, 2012.
2. Samuel Beckett, Visual Artist
- S. Beckett, "Assumption"
- S. Beckett, "Letter to Axel Kaun", or "German Letter, 1937"
- S. Beckett, "Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts" (any edition with introduction and notes)
_ S. Beckett, "Happy Days"
- S. Beckett, "Act Without Words I"
- S. Beckett, "Act Without Words II"
- S. Beckett, "Quad I+II". Plays for TV at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZDRfnICq9M
- S. Beckett, "Breath"
- S. Beckett, "Ohio Impromptu"
_ J. Haynes and J. Knowlson, "Images of Beckett", Cambridge, Cambridge UP, 2003
_ "Samuel Beckett: A Short Biography", The Samuel Beckett Society, https://samuelbeckettsociety.org/biography/
___
- 1987 television text production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot by the San Quentin Drama Workshop - Act 1 Lucky's Scene, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-zhUBPDitk
- "Samuel Beckett: Quad I+II (play for TV)" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLbtf-zpKfU
- Samuel Beckett's Breath", directed by Damien Hirst,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV6s8IsPVn8
- Samuel Beckett, Ohio Impromptu, directed by Charles Sturridge,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NH7R8NPoLQ
___ SUGGESTED: Giorni felici (Piccolo Teatro, 12 - 17 March 2024) and Giorni felici (Teatro Elfo Puccini, 19 March - 21 April 2024).
3. Shakespeare afterlives
- T.S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
- V. Woolf, "A Room of One's Own"
- C. Themba "Mob Passion" (ARIEL)
- T. Stoppard, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead"
- J. Winterson, "The Gap of Time", Hogarth Shakespeare, Penguin, London, 2015
- McEwan, "Nutshell", London, Vintage, 2016
- Maggie O'Farrell, "Hamnet", 2020
- D. M. Lanier, "Shakespearean Rhizomatics: Adaptation, Ethics, Value" in A. Huang, E. Rivlin (eds.), Shakespeare and the Ethics of Appropriation, Palgrave, 2014, pp. 21-40. (ARIEL)
- D. Lanier, "Unpopularizing Shakespeare: A Short History" in Shakespeare & Modern Popular Culture, Oxford, Oxford UP, 2002, pp. 21-49.
___:
- film "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead", regia di Tom Stoppard (1990)
Non-attenging students add:
- T.S. Eliot, "Tradition and the Individual Talent" (sull'antologia)
- F. McCormick, "Prufrock and Hamlet Revisited: 'No, I Am Not Prince Hamlet'", Agora,
May, 2005, https://castle.eiu.edu/~agora/May05/Frankall.htm
- B. Vonwiller, "The Spectre of Shakespeare in Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/SSE/article/viewFile/530/502
(Ariel)
- la lettura completa di D. Lanier, "Unpopularizing Shakespeare: A Short History" in Shakespeare & Modern Popular Culture, Oxford, Oxford UP, 2002 (in biblioteca di Anglistica)
or
Arturo Cattaneo, "A Short History of English Literature. From the Victorians to the Present", Milano, Mondadori, 2011, vol. 2.
Suggested reading:
Giulia Guazzaloca, "Storia della Gran Bretagna (1832-2014)", Milano, Mondadori, 2015
In addition to the following reading list, students will study ALL MATERIALS SUGGESTE OR/AND UPLOADED ON THE DIDACTIC PLATFORM before or during the course.
1. Visual Arts in Literature
- O. Wilde, "The Decay of Lying"
- O. Wilde, "The Importance of Being Earnest" (con note e apparato critico, come Penguin o Oxford UP)
- R. Fry, "The French Post-Impressionists" in "Vision and Design", Chatto & Windus, London, 1920, pp. 156-9. (ARIEL)
- V. Woolf, "To the Lighthouse" (con note e apparato critico, come Penguin o Oxford UP)
- T. Gunn, "Santa Maria del Popolo
- Renzo S. Crivelli, "Lo sguardo narrato: Letteratura e arti visive", Roma, Carocci, 2003 (pp. 13-73; 127-99).
- Caroline Patey, "'Gita al faro'. Circumnavigazioni", Milano, Mimesis, 2016
- "L'importanza di chiamarsi Ernesto" (Teatro Elfo Puccini, 12 December 2023 - 12 January 2024)
Non-attending students add:
_Renzo S. Crivelli, "Lo sguardo narrato: Letteratura e arti visive", Roma, Carocci, 2003.
_Mariacristina Cavecchi, Sara Soncini, Percorsi nel teatro inglese dell'Ottocento e del primo Novecento, ETS, Pisa, 2012.
2. Samuel Beckett, Visual Artist
- S. Beckett, "Assumption"
- S. Beckett, "Letter to Axel Kaun", or "German Letter, 1937"
- S. Beckett, "Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts" (any edition with introduction and notes)
_ S. Beckett, "Happy Days"
- S. Beckett, "Act Without Words I"
- S. Beckett, "Act Without Words II"
- S. Beckett, "Quad I+II". Plays for TV at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZDRfnICq9M
- S. Beckett, "Breath"
- S. Beckett, "Ohio Impromptu"
_ J. Haynes and J. Knowlson, "Images of Beckett", Cambridge, Cambridge UP, 2003
_ "Samuel Beckett: A Short Biography", The Samuel Beckett Society, https://samuelbeckettsociety.org/biography/
___
- 1987 television text production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot by the San Quentin Drama Workshop - Act 1 Lucky's Scene, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-zhUBPDitk
- "Samuel Beckett: Quad I+II (play for TV)" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLbtf-zpKfU
- Samuel Beckett's Breath", directed by Damien Hirst,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV6s8IsPVn8
- Samuel Beckett, Ohio Impromptu, directed by Charles Sturridge,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NH7R8NPoLQ
___ SUGGESTED: Giorni felici (Piccolo Teatro, 12 - 17 March 2024) and Giorni felici (Teatro Elfo Puccini, 19 March - 21 April 2024).
3. Shakespeare afterlives
- T.S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
- V. Woolf, "A Room of One's Own"
- C. Themba "Mob Passion" (ARIEL)
- T. Stoppard, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead"
- J. Winterson, "The Gap of Time", Hogarth Shakespeare, Penguin, London, 2015
- McEwan, "Nutshell", London, Vintage, 2016
- Maggie O'Farrell, "Hamnet", 2020
- D. M. Lanier, "Shakespearean Rhizomatics: Adaptation, Ethics, Value" in A. Huang, E. Rivlin (eds.), Shakespeare and the Ethics of Appropriation, Palgrave, 2014, pp. 21-40. (ARIEL)
- D. Lanier, "Unpopularizing Shakespeare: A Short History" in Shakespeare & Modern Popular Culture, Oxford, Oxford UP, 2002, pp. 21-49.
___:
- film "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead", regia di Tom Stoppard (1990)
Non-attenging students add:
- T.S. Eliot, "Tradition and the Individual Talent" (sull'antologia)
- F. McCormick, "Prufrock and Hamlet Revisited: 'No, I Am Not Prince Hamlet'", Agora,
May, 2005, https://castle.eiu.edu/~agora/May05/Frankall.htm
- B. Vonwiller, "The Spectre of Shakespeare in Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/SSE/article/viewFile/530/502
(Ariel)
- la lettura completa di D. Lanier, "Unpopularizing Shakespeare: A Short History" in Shakespeare & Modern Popular Culture, Oxford, Oxford UP, 2002 (in biblioteca di Anglistica)
Assessment methods and Criteria
It consists in an oral interview assessed in thirtieths; 18/30 is the pass score.
The interview will ascertain: the capacity of students to read and translate the literary texts in the course syllabus (non-Italian students will be asked to paraphrase the same in English); their knowledge of the historical, cultural, and literary context of both texts and writers proposed; their knowledge of the literary works proposed; 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. Active and regular participation will be taken into consideration.
To take the exam, it is mandatory to bring along all literary texts listed in this syllabus.
It is possible to take the exam both in English or in Italian (in the latter case, at least one or two answers will have to be given in English).
The final score is expressed in thirtieths; students may accept or reject the mark (in that case the record will be "ritirato", and they will have to take the whole exam again in a future session).
International or Erasmus incoming students are kindly requested to contact the teacher.
Students with any disabilities should contact the teacher in order to agree on alternative examination methods, in agreement with the competent office.
Attending students will be asked to complete two tasks: 1) a piece of creative writing and 2) a PowerPoint presentation to be prepared in a team of 3-4 students.
The interview will ascertain: the capacity of students to read and translate the literary texts in the course syllabus (non-Italian students will be asked to paraphrase the same in English); their knowledge of the historical, cultural, and literary context of both texts and writers proposed; their knowledge of the literary works proposed; 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. Active and regular participation will be taken into consideration.
To take the exam, it is mandatory to bring along all literary texts listed in this syllabus.
It is possible to take the exam both in English or in Italian (in the latter case, at least one or two answers will have to be given in English).
The final score is expressed in thirtieths; students may accept or reject the mark (in that case the record will be "ritirato", and they will have to take the whole exam again in a future session).
International or Erasmus incoming students are kindly requested to contact the teacher.
Students with any disabilities should contact the teacher in order to agree on alternative examination methods, in agreement with the competent office.
Attending students will be asked to complete two tasks: 1) a piece of creative writing and 2) a PowerPoint presentation to be prepared in a team of 3-4 students.
L-LIN/10 - ENGLISH LITERATURE - University credits: 9
Lessons: 60 hours
Professor:
Cavecchi Mariacristina
Educational website(s)
Professor(s)
Reception:
4/4, 11.30. 11/4, 3pm. 29/4, 4pm. 12/5, 3pm. Teams: i2vrlh3.
Teams