English Literature (MA)
A.Y. 2023/2024
Learning objectives
This course intends to provide students with reading paths and critical analysis of texts belonging to English literature produced in different periods and places. It follows thematic clusters according to diachronic and/or synchronic perspectives and offers students several critical approaches to literary texts. In addition, it aims at reflecting on the English literary canon and on its transformations through time. It also explores intertextual mechanisms and structures through different literary genres.
Expected learning outcomes
KNOWLEDGE: By the end of the course, students should be able to discuss the main issues and questions concerning the discipline, to place the literary texts included in the course within the cultural and literary context in which they were produced, and to provide thematic and critical interpretations of the literary works included in the programme. LINGUISTIC AND LITERARY ABILITIES: Students should be able to read the texts and acknowledge their linguistic complexity. Students should also be able to critically analyse the texts included in the programme and be able to connect different authors, texts and literary trends. They should demonstrate understanding of different critical approaches and of the various levels of textual interpretation. In addition, students are expected to express themselves with clarity and precision and to use the specific terminology of the discipline correctly.
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
Around, about, across, and beyond Virginia Woolf's Orlando
Prerequisites for admission
The course is taught in English. Students are expected to read English literary texts and criticism and to discuss them in English, therefore a very good knowledge of English is required.
Teaching methods
Lectures; lectures including close reading and analysis of texts (and plays and films).
Teaching Resources
Unit A
Primary literature:
Virginia Woolf, "The Patron and the Crocus" (1923), in The Essays of Virginia Woolf, vol. 4, pp. 212-15 (on Ariel Platform)
Virginia Woolf, "How It Strikes a Contemporary" (1923), in The Essays of Virginia Woolf, vol. 4, pp. 233-43 (on Ariel Platform)
Virginia Woolf, "Poetry, Fiction and the Future" (1927), in The Essays of Virginia Woolf, vol. 4, pp. 428-41 (on Ariel Platform)
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own (1929), any edition
Secondary literature:
C. Baldick, The Oxford English Literary History, Vol. 10, The Modern Movement, OUP, 2004, chapters 1 and 2 (University Library)
Laura Marcus, "Woolf's Feminism and Feminism's Woolf", in The Cambridge Companion to Virginia Woolf, ed. Susan Sellers, CUP, 2010 (University Library, online)
Liliana Rampello, Il canto del mondo reale, il Saggiatore, 2004, pp. 143-67
Unit B
Primary literature:
Virginia Woolf, Orlando (1928), ed. Michael Whitworth, Oxford World Classics 2015
Secondary literature:
Claire Battershill, Modernist Lives: Biography and Autobiography at Leonard and Virginia Woolf's Hogarth Press, Bloomsbury Academic, 2018, pp. 92-142.
Pamela Caughie, "Virginia Woolf's Double Discourse", in Marleen Barr e Richard Feldstein (eds.), Discontented Discourses: Feminism/Textual Intervention/Psychoanalysis, University of Illinois Press, 1989 (on Ariel Platform)
Anne E. Fernald, "A Feminist Public Sphere? Virginia Woolf's Revisions of the Eighteenth Century", in Feminist Studies, 31.1, 2005, pp. 158-82 (University online library)
Melanie Micir, Queer Woolf, in Jessica Berman (a cura di), A Companion to Virginia Woolf, Wiley-Blackwell, 2016, pp. 347-58 (University library, online)
Unit C
Primary literature:
Sally Potter, Orlando (1992), movie available at the University Library
Neil Bartlett, Orlando (2022), NHB modern plays
Paul B. Preciado, Orlando: My Political Biography (2023), available for free at this link https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/103542-000-A/orlando-ma-biographie-politique )
Secondary literature:
Linda Hutcheon, A Theory of Adaptation, Routledge, 2013 (University Library, online)
Earl Ingersoll, Screening Woolf: Virginia Woolf On/And/In Film, Farleigh Dickinson UP, 2013, pp. 55-82.
Additional bibliography for "non frequentanti" students
In addition to the aforementioned texts, non-attending students will read:
Unit A
Susan Sellers (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Virginia Woolf, chapters 1, 2, 3
Unit B
Max Saunders, Self Impression: Life-Writing, Autobiografiction, and the Forms of Modern Literature, OUP, 2010, chapter 11 (University Library online)
Jane DeGay, Virginia Woolf and the Literary Past, EUP, 2006, chapter 5 (University Library Online)
Jane Darcy, "The Emergence of Literary Biography", in Richard Bradford (ed.), A Companion to Literary Biography, John Wiley & Sons, 2019, pp. 7-24 (University Library online)
Unit C:
Valeria Gennero, La manomissione del genere, Trauben 2015, pp. 1-38.
Primary literature:
Virginia Woolf, "The Patron and the Crocus" (1923), in The Essays of Virginia Woolf, vol. 4, pp. 212-15 (on Ariel Platform)
Virginia Woolf, "How It Strikes a Contemporary" (1923), in The Essays of Virginia Woolf, vol. 4, pp. 233-43 (on Ariel Platform)
Virginia Woolf, "Poetry, Fiction and the Future" (1927), in The Essays of Virginia Woolf, vol. 4, pp. 428-41 (on Ariel Platform)
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own (1929), any edition
Secondary literature:
C. Baldick, The Oxford English Literary History, Vol. 10, The Modern Movement, OUP, 2004, chapters 1 and 2 (University Library)
Laura Marcus, "Woolf's Feminism and Feminism's Woolf", in The Cambridge Companion to Virginia Woolf, ed. Susan Sellers, CUP, 2010 (University Library, online)
Liliana Rampello, Il canto del mondo reale, il Saggiatore, 2004, pp. 143-67
Unit B
Primary literature:
Virginia Woolf, Orlando (1928), ed. Michael Whitworth, Oxford World Classics 2015
Secondary literature:
Claire Battershill, Modernist Lives: Biography and Autobiography at Leonard and Virginia Woolf's Hogarth Press, Bloomsbury Academic, 2018, pp. 92-142.
Pamela Caughie, "Virginia Woolf's Double Discourse", in Marleen Barr e Richard Feldstein (eds.), Discontented Discourses: Feminism/Textual Intervention/Psychoanalysis, University of Illinois Press, 1989 (on Ariel Platform)
Anne E. Fernald, "A Feminist Public Sphere? Virginia Woolf's Revisions of the Eighteenth Century", in Feminist Studies, 31.1, 2005, pp. 158-82 (University online library)
Melanie Micir, Queer Woolf, in Jessica Berman (a cura di), A Companion to Virginia Woolf, Wiley-Blackwell, 2016, pp. 347-58 (University library, online)
Unit C
Primary literature:
Sally Potter, Orlando (1992), movie available at the University Library
Neil Bartlett, Orlando (2022), NHB modern plays
Paul B. Preciado, Orlando: My Political Biography (2023), available for free at this link https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/103542-000-A/orlando-ma-biographie-politique )
Secondary literature:
Linda Hutcheon, A Theory of Adaptation, Routledge, 2013 (University Library, online)
Earl Ingersoll, Screening Woolf: Virginia Woolf On/And/In Film, Farleigh Dickinson UP, 2013, pp. 55-82.
Additional bibliography for "non frequentanti" students
In addition to the aforementioned texts, non-attending students will read:
Unit A
Susan Sellers (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Virginia Woolf, chapters 1, 2, 3
Unit B
Max Saunders, Self Impression: Life-Writing, Autobiografiction, and the Forms of Modern Literature, OUP, 2010, chapter 11 (University Library online)
Jane DeGay, Virginia Woolf and the Literary Past, EUP, 2006, chapter 5 (University Library Online)
Jane Darcy, "The Emergence of Literary Biography", in Richard Bradford (ed.), A Companion to Literary Biography, John Wiley & Sons, 2019, pp. 7-24 (University Library online)
Unit C:
Valeria Gennero, La manomissione del genere, Trauben 2015, pp. 1-38.
Assessment methods and Criteria
The examination consists of:
1) a preliminary written test designed to assess general cultural and literary knowledge (25% of the final grade). Open-ended questions. Students can take the test as midterm or on each appello.
2) a written test (essay) on a topic covered in the course and agreed with the lecturer (50% of the final grade). The essay must be handed in 15 days before the call for papers.
3) an oral test on the course topics, including the discussion of the written essay (25% of the final grade)
The exam can be taken for either 6 or 9 credits. Those who choose to take the exam for 6 credits must take Units A and B.
1) a preliminary written test designed to assess general cultural and literary knowledge (25% of the final grade). Open-ended questions. Students can take the test as midterm or on each appello.
2) a written test (essay) on a topic covered in the course and agreed with the lecturer (50% of the final grade). The essay must be handed in 15 days before the call for papers.
3) an oral test on the course topics, including the discussion of the written essay (25% of the final grade)
The exam can be taken for either 6 or 9 credits. Those who choose to take the exam for 6 credits must take Units A and B.
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