English Literature
A.Y. 2026/2027
Learning objectives
The course aims at providing a basic preparation in English and other Anglophone literatures. Specific attention will be given to the interdisciplinary connections with the fields of geography, history, cultural and literary studies. Students will acquire the basic methodological tools of literary criticism, and they will be provided hints on the most suitable critical strategies to approach the issues proposed by each syllabus. Primary texts will be proposed in English. Texts in translation are allowed but not encouraged.
Expected learning outcomes
Knowledge: Within the cultural and critical horizon of English Literature, openly referring to the chosen historical period focussed on each year, students will prove able to read and understand the chosen texts, locating them in their context. They are expected to frame the text with reference to its author (biography and works), its genre (analogies and divergences), its publishing context (culture and history). They are also required to be able to compare the given text with other texts belonging to the English and/or the international context.
Competence: Students are expected to understand a literary text in English (novel, poem or play) and to be able to identify its main thematic guidelines, though they are not required to translate it. Moreover the students are expected to develop the basic skills of textual analysis and show the ability to select and point out the texts' stylistic guidelines in terms of rhetorical choices and analogies/deviations in comparison with the genre they belong to.
Competence: Students are expected to understand a literary text in English (novel, poem or play) and to be able to identify its main thematic guidelines, though they are not required to translate it. Moreover the students are expected to develop the basic skills of textual analysis and show the ability to select and point out the texts' stylistic guidelines in terms of rhetorical choices and analogies/deviations in comparison with the genre they belong to.
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: Real and imaginary spaces in English literature.
Description: The course explores the representation of space in English literature from the nineteenth century to the present through a study of three key sites of the British cultural imaginary: the countryside, the city, and the sea. Through the reading of a selection of significant texts, it ex-amines the ways in which real and imagined places, with their symbolic and ideological meanings, contribute to the construction of individual and collective identities and to the definition of cultural affiliations. From transformations of the rural landscape and the myth of the English countryside to the multiple representations of London across the Victorian age, modernism, and postcolonialism, and finally to literary configurations of the sea as a crossroads of mobility, cultural exchange, and memory, the course highlights the role of spatiality as a privileged critical category through which to interrogate the relationships between identity and alterity, centre and margin, belonging and displacement.
Students interested in the 6 credit exam are required to study Part I and Part II; students interested in the 9 credit exam are required to study Part I, II and III.
The syllabus is valid until February 2028.
Description: The course explores the representation of space in English literature from the nineteenth century to the present through a study of three key sites of the British cultural imaginary: the countryside, the city, and the sea. Through the reading of a selection of significant texts, it ex-amines the ways in which real and imagined places, with their symbolic and ideological meanings, contribute to the construction of individual and collective identities and to the definition of cultural affiliations. From transformations of the rural landscape and the myth of the English countryside to the multiple representations of London across the Victorian age, modernism, and postcolonialism, and finally to literary configurations of the sea as a crossroads of mobility, cultural exchange, and memory, the course highlights the role of spatiality as a privileged critical category through which to interrogate the relationships between identity and alterity, centre and margin, belonging and displacement.
Students interested in the 6 credit exam are required to study Part I and Part II; students interested in the 9 credit exam are required to study Part I, II and III.
The syllabus is valid until February 2028.
Prerequisites for admission
The course is taught in Italian, but a good knowledge of English is required, since students will be expected to read literary texts in English.
Teaching methods
The course adopts lectures with reading, analysis and contextualisation of the texts on the syllabus; it also makes use of audiovisual materials, such as sequences from television or film adaptations, documentaries, interviews, etc. Students are encouraged to actively participate in textual analysis and in the discussions in class.
Teaching Resources
GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Paolo Bertinetti (ed.), Storia della letteratura inglese. Dal Romanticismo all'Età contemporanea, Vol. 2 (Einaudi). Students are required to consult only the sections relating to the authors and texts included in the course syllabus.
Further materials will be suggested in class and made available on the website or through links.
Part I: THE COUNTRY: TRANSFORMATIONS
Literary texts:
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day
J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace.
Film adaptations will also be considered. One of the three novels must be read in English. The other two may be read in Italian translation, although students are encouraged to read them in the original language.
Part II: THE CITY: PEREGRINATIONS
Literary texts:
R.L. Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway
Samuel Selvon, The Lonely Londoners.
Film adaptations will also be considered. One of the three novels must be read in English. The other two may be read in Italian translation, although students are encouraged to read them in the original language.
Part III: THE SEA: CROSSINGS
Literary texts:
Joseph Conrad, The Shadow Line
Abdulrazak Gurnah, By the Sea
Ian McEwan, On Chesil Beach.
Film adaptations will also be considered. One of the three novels must be read in English. The other two may be read in Italian translation, although students are encouraged to read them in the original language.
FURTHER INFORMATION:
The website of the course is online on the myAriel platform (http://myariel.unimi.it): students will be able to download materials and slides. The website also contains general information on the course and is continuously updated.
At the end of Part I and Part II, students attending the course may take intermediate written tests.
Paolo Bertinetti (ed.), Storia della letteratura inglese. Dal Romanticismo all'Età contemporanea, Vol. 2 (Einaudi). Students are required to consult only the sections relating to the authors and texts included in the course syllabus.
Further materials will be suggested in class and made available on the website or through links.
Part I: THE COUNTRY: TRANSFORMATIONS
Literary texts:
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day
J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace.
Film adaptations will also be considered. One of the three novels must be read in English. The other two may be read in Italian translation, although students are encouraged to read them in the original language.
Part II: THE CITY: PEREGRINATIONS
Literary texts:
R.L. Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway
Samuel Selvon, The Lonely Londoners.
Film adaptations will also be considered. One of the three novels must be read in English. The other two may be read in Italian translation, although students are encouraged to read them in the original language.
Part III: THE SEA: CROSSINGS
Literary texts:
Joseph Conrad, The Shadow Line
Abdulrazak Gurnah, By the Sea
Ian McEwan, On Chesil Beach.
Film adaptations will also be considered. One of the three novels must be read in English. The other two may be read in Italian translation, although students are encouraged to read them in the original language.
FURTHER INFORMATION:
The website of the course is online on the myAriel platform (http://myariel.unimi.it): students will be able to download materials and slides. The website also contains general information on the course and is continuously updated.
At the end of Part I and Part II, students attending the course may take intermediate written tests.
Assessment methods and Criteria
The exam consists of an oral interview. The minimum score is 18, the maximum is 30. The oral exam (to be taken in Italian) consists of an interview on the topics covered in the course and is designed to assess whether students have acquired an adequate level of linguistic and literary-historical competence, including knowledge and contextualisation of the authors and literary texts studied, as well as the ability to provide critical commentary. Students will also be assessed on the appropriateness of their language and their ability to establish connections between texts, authors, and historical and cultural contexts.
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".
Modules or teaching units
Part A and B
ANGL-01/A - English Literature - University credits: 6
Lessons: 40 hours
Part C
ANGL-01/A - English Literature - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
Professor(s)