English Cultural Studies I
A.Y. 2025/2026
Learning objectives
The main goal of English Cultural Studies I is to provide the basic methodological tools of cultural studies and apply them to understand and analyse cultures connected to the English context.
To this end, the course aims to enable students to:
- understand a first set of cultural practices and productions by adopting the methodological approach of cultural studies applied to the English context;
- use this approach to understand and describe the key cultural concepts of the country or area being studied;
- read, analyse and interpret texts and cultural practices and productions related to the English context;
- understand the historical, political, social and cultural background related to the cultural practices studied.
To this end, the course aims to enable students to:
- understand a first set of cultural practices and productions by adopting the methodological approach of cultural studies applied to the English context;
- use this approach to understand and describe the key cultural concepts of the country or area being studied;
- read, analyse and interpret texts and cultural practices and productions related to the English context;
- understand the historical, political, social and cultural background related to the cultural practices studied.
Expected learning outcomes
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
- use the specific language and skills of English cultural studies, in line with the professional profile to be trained during the three-year programme;
- apply this subject-specific language to mediation practices, in line with the professional profile to be trained during the three-year programme;
- use cultural skills to develop an aptitude for inclusion practices;
- read, critically analyse, summarise and compare cultural practices and productions of the contexts studied;
- make intercultural and interdisciplinary connections, in line with the professional profile to be trained during the three-year programme.
- use the specific language and skills of English cultural studies, in line with the professional profile to be trained during the three-year programme;
- apply this subject-specific language to mediation practices, in line with the professional profile to be trained during the three-year programme;
- use cultural skills to develop an aptitude for inclusion practices;
- read, critically analyse, summarise and compare cultural practices and productions of the contexts studied;
- make intercultural and interdisciplinary connections, in line with the professional profile to be trained during the three-year programme.
Lesson period: Second semester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course can be attended as a single course.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
Second semester
Course syllabus
Course title:
The tragic and the Medical Humanities.
The course is centred on the literary and individual representation of the tragic, applying for this purpose the tools provided by the Cultural Studies and the Medical Humanities in all their multidisciplinary approaches. A special attention is devoted to: the embodiment of the tragic in the dramatic form of the tragedy, and an evaluation of the cultural and therapeutical approaches to the tragic dimension that have stratified throughout the years. The course tackles a wide range of texts: dramatic texts, news reports, philosophical essays and all those texts in general apt at representing the past and contemporary experience of the tragic.
Unit 1
Cultural Studies and Medical Humanities; the concept of "tragic"
Unit 2
The tragedy; William Shakespeare and Othello
Unit 3
Tragedy in contemporary drama (Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Tennessee Williams)
The tragic and the Medical Humanities.
The course is centred on the literary and individual representation of the tragic, applying for this purpose the tools provided by the Cultural Studies and the Medical Humanities in all their multidisciplinary approaches. A special attention is devoted to: the embodiment of the tragic in the dramatic form of the tragedy, and an evaluation of the cultural and therapeutical approaches to the tragic dimension that have stratified throughout the years. The course tackles a wide range of texts: dramatic texts, news reports, philosophical essays and all those texts in general apt at representing the past and contemporary experience of the tragic.
Unit 1
Cultural Studies and Medical Humanities; the concept of "tragic"
Unit 2
The tragedy; William Shakespeare and Othello
Unit 3
Tragedy in contemporary drama (Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Tennessee Williams)
Prerequisites for admission
The student must have a general knowledge of the historical context related to the topics addressed. He/she must be able to understand written and aural texts in English and to express comprehensibly his/her ideas.
Teaching methods
Lecture-based classes, including some team working and occasional guest speakers, whenever possible
Teaching Resources
Any edition, provided it is in English and unabridged, of:
William Shakespeare, Othello
Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire
Harold Pinter, The Caretaker
Samuel Beckett, Play
AAVV, Introduzione ai Cultural Studies. UK, USA e paesi anglofoni. Roma, Carocci, 2016
Further critical essays will be made available by the teacher at the beginning of the course.
Non attending students shall also read, besides what listed above: Jennifer Wallace, The Cambridge Introduction to Tragedy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 2007 [ISBN: 9780521671491]. Non attending students are also reminded to be prepared on the biographic and critic profiles of the authors included in the programme.
William Shakespeare, Othello
Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire
Harold Pinter, The Caretaker
Samuel Beckett, Play
AAVV, Introduzione ai Cultural Studies. UK, USA e paesi anglofoni. Roma, Carocci, 2016
Further critical essays will be made available by the teacher at the beginning of the course.
Non attending students shall also read, besides what listed above: Jennifer Wallace, The Cambridge Introduction to Tragedy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 2007 [ISBN: 9780521671491]. Non attending students are also reminded to be prepared on the biographic and critic profiles of the authors included in the programme.
Assessment methods and Criteria
Attending students and non attending students will take the habitual oral exam. Non attending students are advised to get in touch with the teacher before the exam during his office hours (posted in Unimi > chi e dove > Caponi > ricevimento).
Professor(s)