English Literature (MA)
A.Y. 2025/2026
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 can be attended as a single course.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
Second semester
Course syllabus
"Wars and Words: Representations of Conflict from the Romantic Period to World War One" (40/60 hours, 6/9 ECTS)
- Unit A (20 hrs, 3 ECTS): Old and New Turmoils
- Unit B (20 hrs, 3 ECTS): From and About the Trenches
- Unit C (20 hrs, 3 ECTS): Women's voices
The course examines the representations of war and conflict in English literature through a selection of poetic and prose texts from the Romantic period to the Great War. Starting from the post-Napoleonic context, Unit A examines the role of revolutions as well as the nationalist movements following the Congress of Vienna, foregrounding the tension between Romantic ideals and historical realities. Unit B explores the voices that narrated the often painful transformations brought about by the Great War, with a focus on War Poets and their first-hand experience of the reality of the trenches. Unit C explores the role of women writers, whose crucial experience has often been marginalized. Classes aim to encourage a critical reading of literary texts that highlights the narrative and poetic strategies through which poets and writers give voice to the experience of conflict, memory, and trauma.
Students who intend to take this class for 6 credits will attend and prepare Units A and B; students who intend to take this class for 8 credits will attend and prepare the whole syllabus (Units A, B, C). The exam can be sat with this syllabus until September 2027.
- Unit A (20 hrs, 3 ECTS): Old and New Turmoils
- Unit B (20 hrs, 3 ECTS): From and About the Trenches
- Unit C (20 hrs, 3 ECTS): Women's voices
The course examines the representations of war and conflict in English literature through a selection of poetic and prose texts from the Romantic period to the Great War. Starting from the post-Napoleonic context, Unit A examines the role of revolutions as well as the nationalist movements following the Congress of Vienna, foregrounding the tension between Romantic ideals and historical realities. Unit B explores the voices that narrated the often painful transformations brought about by the Great War, with a focus on War Poets and their first-hand experience of the reality of the trenches. Unit C explores the role of women writers, whose crucial experience has often been marginalized. Classes aim to encourage a critical reading of literary texts that highlights the narrative and poetic strategies through which poets and writers give voice to the experience of conflict, memory, and trauma.
Students who intend to take this class for 6 credits will attend and prepare Units A and B; students who intend to take this class for 8 credits will attend and prepare the whole syllabus (Units A, B, C). The exam can be sat with this syllabus until September 2027.
Prerequisites for admission
The course is taught in English. Students are expected to possess adequate language skills in order to read literary and critical texts and discuss them in English. In addition, students are expected to possess a solid knowledge of English literary history, as acquired in their undergraduate studies.
Teaching methods
Lectures; close reading of literary texts, discussions and debates; students are encouraged to take part in classs activities and debates.
Teaching Resources
Unit A: Old and New Turmoils
- William Wordsworth, "Character of the Happy Warrior"
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "France: An Ode"; "Fears in Solitude"
- Anna Laetitia Barbauld, "Eighteen Hundred and Eleven"
- George Gordon Byron, from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Cantos I, III
- Simon Bainbridge, British Poetry and the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Visions of Conflict, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2003: Ch. 1, 2, 4
Unit B: From and About the Trenches
- Tim Kendall (ed.), Poetry of the First World War: An Anthology, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013
Unit C: Women's voices
- Charlotte Mew, "May, 1915", "June, 1915"
- Mary Borden, "At the Somme"; da The Forbidden Zone (Part II, online)
- Vernon Lee, The Ballet of the Nations: A Modern-Day Morality (online)
- Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room (un'edizione critica paperback)
The reading list may include further material uploaded by the lecturer on MyAriel
READING LIST FOR NON ATTENDING-STUDENTS
In addition to the reading list for attending students:
- Santanu Das, "Reframing First World War Poetry: An Introduction", in The Cambridge Companion to the Poetry of the First World War, edited by Santanu Das, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2013, pp. 3-34
- Marco Canani, "Vernon Lee's The Ballet of the Nations: A Modern Morality, an Intermedial Mosaic," Volupté: International Journal of Decadence Studies 5, 2 (2022): 20-39 (online)
- Galen Bunting, "'Brought up in an Illusion': Jacob's Room as Modernist Anti-War Novel", Woolf Studies Annual 30 (2024): 5-29 (Minerva)
- Alison S. Fell, Christine E. Hallett (eds.), First World War Nursing: New Perspectives, New York, Routledge, 2013, Ch. 8
- William Wordsworth, "Character of the Happy Warrior"
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "France: An Ode"; "Fears in Solitude"
- Anna Laetitia Barbauld, "Eighteen Hundred and Eleven"
- George Gordon Byron, from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Cantos I, III
- Simon Bainbridge, British Poetry and the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Visions of Conflict, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2003: Ch. 1, 2, 4
Unit B: From and About the Trenches
- Tim Kendall (ed.), Poetry of the First World War: An Anthology, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013
Unit C: Women's voices
- Charlotte Mew, "May, 1915", "June, 1915"
- Mary Borden, "At the Somme"; da The Forbidden Zone (Part II, online)
- Vernon Lee, The Ballet of the Nations: A Modern-Day Morality (online)
- Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room (un'edizione critica paperback)
The reading list may include further material uploaded by the lecturer on MyAriel
READING LIST FOR NON ATTENDING-STUDENTS
In addition to the reading list for attending students:
- Santanu Das, "Reframing First World War Poetry: An Introduction", in The Cambridge Companion to the Poetry of the First World War, edited by Santanu Das, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2013, pp. 3-34
- Marco Canani, "Vernon Lee's The Ballet of the Nations: A Modern Morality, an Intermedial Mosaic," Volupté: International Journal of Decadence Studies 5, 2 (2022): 20-39 (online)
- Galen Bunting, "'Brought up in an Illusion': Jacob's Room as Modernist Anti-War Novel", Woolf Studies Annual 30 (2024): 5-29 (Minerva)
- Alison S. Fell, Christine E. Hallett (eds.), First World War Nursing: New Perspectives, New York, Routledge, 2013, Ch. 8
Assessment methods and Criteria
The oral exam assesses the students' knowledge of the course contents/reading list, their critical thinking skills, their ability to apply them to the analysis of texts, as well as their ability to communicate in English.
Students will be graded as follows: 1-17 Fail, 18-21 satisfactory, 22-24 fairly good, 25-27 good, 28-29 very good, 30-30 cum laude excellent. Candidates may choose not to accept the grade and resit for the exam on another exam day (in this case, the exam result is "ritirato", "withdrawn").
On the exam day, candidates are requested to have with them their own copy of the literary texts included in the course syllabus.
To register for the exam, students are requested to always refer to the lecturer responsible for the course, especially if they take the exam more than a year after the course ended. This syllabus is valid until February 2027.
Students with any disabilities are requested to contact the lecturer and the university's office ("Servizi per studenti con DSA") to agree on alternative examination methods according to the current regulation..
Students will be graded as follows: 1-17 Fail, 18-21 satisfactory, 22-24 fairly good, 25-27 good, 28-29 very good, 30-30 cum laude excellent. Candidates may choose not to accept the grade and resit for the exam on another exam day (in this case, the exam result is "ritirato", "withdrawn").
On the exam day, candidates are requested to have with them their own copy of the literary texts included in the course syllabus.
To register for the exam, students are requested to always refer to the lecturer responsible for the course, especially if they take the exam more than a year after the course ended. This syllabus is valid until February 2027.
Students with any disabilities are requested to contact the lecturer and the university's office ("Servizi per studenti con DSA") to agree on alternative examination methods according to the current regulation..
Professor(s)