English Literature 2
A.Y. 2025/2026
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 can be attended as a single course.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
First semester
Course syllabus
How can we combine the old words in new orders so that they survive, so that they create beauty, so that they tell the truth? asked Virginia Woolf in 1937. The same question resonates throughout the entire body of literature known as 'modernist'—a literature marked, on the one hand, by a rupture with the past, and on the other, by a critical engagement with a present compressed between the conflicts of the 'Age of Extremes'.
Unit A - For Future Memory: Imperial Conflicts
Unit B - Memory, Conflict, and Contemporaneity
Unit C - Among the Ruins
Unit A - For Future Memory: Imperial Conflicts
Unit B - Memory, Conflict, and Contemporaneity
Unit C - Among the Ruins
Prerequisites for admission
- Ability to follow an entire course taught in English
- Ability to read and understand primary and secondary literature in English
- Students MUST have passed English Language 1 and English Literature 1
- Ability to read and understand primary and secondary literature in English
- Students MUST have passed English Language 1 and English Literature 1
Teaching methods
- Lectures
- Classes with a focus on close reading
- Classes with a focus on close reading
Teaching Resources
**Reference Texts:**
Paul Poplawski, *English Literature in Context*, Chapter 6, pp. 470-519.
---
**Unit A - For Future Memory: Imperial Conflicts**
Primary literature:
- Joseph Conrad, *Heart of Darkness*, edited by Paul B. Armstrong, Norton Critical Edition
- W.B. Yeats, *Easter 1916* (text provided on Ariel platform)
- W.B. Yeats, *The Second Coming* (text provided on Ariel platform)
Secondary literature:
**Essays from the Norton Edition:**
- Chinua Achebe, "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness"
- One additional essay of your choice (all included in the Norton Edition):
- Peter Brooks, "An Unreadable Report: Conrad's Heart of Darkness"
- Edward Said, "Two Visions of Heart of Darkness"
- Susan Jones, "Physical and Narrative Movement in Heart of Darkness"
- John Hillis Miller, "Should We Read Heart of Darkness?"
---
**Unit B - Memory, Conflict, and Contemporaneity**
Primary literature:
- T.S. Eliot, *The Waste Land*, edited by Carmen Gallo, *La terra devastata*, Il Saggiatore
- T.S. Eliot, *Tradition and the Individual Talent* (text provided on Ariel platform)
- Virginia Woolf, *How It Strikes a Contemporary* (text provided on Ariel platform)
- Virginia Woolf, *Mrs Dalloway*, edited by David Bradshaw, Oxford World Classics or Norton Critical Edition edited by Anne Fernald
- W.H. Auden, *In Memory of W.B. Yeats* (text provided on Ariel platform)
- W.H. Auden, *Another Time* (text provided on Ariel platform)
- W.H. Auden, *In Memory of Sigmund Freud* (text provided on Ariel platform)
Secondary literature:
**On *Mrs Dalloway*: One essay of your choice from the following:**
- Christine Froula, "Mrs Dalloway's Postwar Elegy", in *Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Avant-Garde: War, Civilization, Modernity*, Columbia University Press, 2004 (text provided on Ariel platform)
- Molly Hite, "Tonal Cues and Uncertain Values: Affect and Ethics in Mrs. Dalloway", *Narrative* 18, no. 3 (2010): 249-275. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/nar.2010.0003
---
**Unit C - Among the Ruins**
Primary literature:
- Rose Macaulay, *The World My Wilderness*
- Samuel Beckett, *Waiting for Godot*
- Virginia Woolf, *Thoughts of Peace During an Air Raid* (text provided on Ariel platform)
- Rose Macaulay, *The World My Wilderness*, Virago Classics
- Samuel Beckett, *Waiting for Godot*, Faber and Faber
Secondary literature:
- Beryl Pong, "The Archaeology of Postwar Childhood in Rose Macaulay's *The World My Wilderness*." *Journal of Modern Literature* 37, no. 3 (2014). https://link-gale-com.pros1.lib.unimi.it/apps/doc/A378369585/LitRC?u=milano&sid=summon&xid=d5dc1417
---
**Additional Readings for Non-Attending Students:**
- Laura Winkiel, *Modernism. The Basics*, Routledge
- Cedric Watts, *Conrad's Heart of Darkness: A Critical and Contextual Discussion*, pp. 19-28 and 31-109
- Sara Sullam, *Leggere Woolf*, pp. 11-34 and 61-71
- Mark Hussey, *Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a Novel*, Manchester University Press, Chapters I and II
- Spencer Morrison, "Geographies of Space" and Michael Coyle, "Doing Tradition in Different Voices", in Gabrielle McIntire, *The Cambridge Companion to The Waste Land*, Cambridge University Press
- John Fletcher, *Samuel Beckett: Faber Critical Guide*, Faber, chapter on *Waiting for Godot*
Paul Poplawski, *English Literature in Context*, Chapter 6, pp. 470-519.
---
**Unit A - For Future Memory: Imperial Conflicts**
Primary literature:
- Joseph Conrad, *Heart of Darkness*, edited by Paul B. Armstrong, Norton Critical Edition
- W.B. Yeats, *Easter 1916* (text provided on Ariel platform)
- W.B. Yeats, *The Second Coming* (text provided on Ariel platform)
Secondary literature:
**Essays from the Norton Edition:**
- Chinua Achebe, "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness"
- One additional essay of your choice (all included in the Norton Edition):
- Peter Brooks, "An Unreadable Report: Conrad's Heart of Darkness"
- Edward Said, "Two Visions of Heart of Darkness"
- Susan Jones, "Physical and Narrative Movement in Heart of Darkness"
- John Hillis Miller, "Should We Read Heart of Darkness?"
---
**Unit B - Memory, Conflict, and Contemporaneity**
Primary literature:
- T.S. Eliot, *The Waste Land*, edited by Carmen Gallo, *La terra devastata*, Il Saggiatore
- T.S. Eliot, *Tradition and the Individual Talent* (text provided on Ariel platform)
- Virginia Woolf, *How It Strikes a Contemporary* (text provided on Ariel platform)
- Virginia Woolf, *Mrs Dalloway*, edited by David Bradshaw, Oxford World Classics or Norton Critical Edition edited by Anne Fernald
- W.H. Auden, *In Memory of W.B. Yeats* (text provided on Ariel platform)
- W.H. Auden, *Another Time* (text provided on Ariel platform)
- W.H. Auden, *In Memory of Sigmund Freud* (text provided on Ariel platform)
Secondary literature:
**On *Mrs Dalloway*: One essay of your choice from the following:**
- Christine Froula, "Mrs Dalloway's Postwar Elegy", in *Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Avant-Garde: War, Civilization, Modernity*, Columbia University Press, 2004 (text provided on Ariel platform)
- Molly Hite, "Tonal Cues and Uncertain Values: Affect and Ethics in Mrs. Dalloway", *Narrative* 18, no. 3 (2010): 249-275. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/nar.2010.0003
---
**Unit C - Among the Ruins**
Primary literature:
- Rose Macaulay, *The World My Wilderness*
- Samuel Beckett, *Waiting for Godot*
- Virginia Woolf, *Thoughts of Peace During an Air Raid* (text provided on Ariel platform)
- Rose Macaulay, *The World My Wilderness*, Virago Classics
- Samuel Beckett, *Waiting for Godot*, Faber and Faber
Secondary literature:
- Beryl Pong, "The Archaeology of Postwar Childhood in Rose Macaulay's *The World My Wilderness*." *Journal of Modern Literature* 37, no. 3 (2014). https://link-gale-com.pros1.lib.unimi.it/apps/doc/A378369585/LitRC?u=milano&sid=summon&xid=d5dc1417
---
**Additional Readings for Non-Attending Students:**
- Laura Winkiel, *Modernism. The Basics*, Routledge
- Cedric Watts, *Conrad's Heart of Darkness: A Critical and Contextual Discussion*, pp. 19-28 and 31-109
- Sara Sullam, *Leggere Woolf*, pp. 11-34 and 61-71
- Mark Hussey, *Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a Novel*, Manchester University Press, Chapters I and II
- Spencer Morrison, "Geographies of Space" and Michael Coyle, "Doing Tradition in Different Voices", in Gabrielle McIntire, *The Cambridge Companion to The Waste Land*, Cambridge University Press
- John Fletcher, *Samuel Beckett: Faber Critical Guide*, Faber, chapter on *Waiting for Godot*
Assessment methods and Criteria
Oral Exam Graded on a Scale of 30
The oral exam assesses:
· Knowledge of the historical, cultural, and literary context of Modernism
· Ability to analyse and interpret primary literary texts
· Ability to read and understand short critical essays on primary literature
· Ability to analyse and interpret texts using appropriate critical language
To take the exam, students must bring all primary literary texts.
The exam may be taken in English or Italian. If taken in Italian, at least one question will be in English.
The final grade is expressed on a scale of 30. Students may choose to reject the grade; in that case, it will be recorded as "Ritirato," and students must resit the entire exam.
International and Erasmus incoming students are invited to contact the instructor as early as possible. Exam arrangements for students with disabilities and/or specific learning disorders (DSA) must be agreed upon with the instructor in collaboration with Unimi Services for students with Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD).
Attendance is strongly recommended.
Non-attending students must study the additional readings listed in the "Reference Materials" section, in addition to the core texts.
The syllabus is valid until February 2027.
The oral exam assesses:
· Knowledge of the historical, cultural, and literary context of Modernism
· Ability to analyse and interpret primary literary texts
· Ability to read and understand short critical essays on primary literature
· Ability to analyse and interpret texts using appropriate critical language
To take the exam, students must bring all primary literary texts.
The exam may be taken in English or Italian. If taken in Italian, at least one question will be in English.
The final grade is expressed on a scale of 30. Students may choose to reject the grade; in that case, it will be recorded as "Ritirato," and students must resit the entire exam.
International and Erasmus incoming students are invited to contact the instructor as early as possible. Exam arrangements for students with disabilities and/or specific learning disorders (DSA) must be agreed upon with the instructor in collaboration with Unimi Services for students with Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD).
Attendance is strongly recommended.
Non-attending students must study the additional readings listed in the "Reference Materials" section, in addition to the core texts.
The syllabus is valid until February 2027.
Professor(s)