ENGLISH LITERATURE AND CULTURE

Single discipline educational activity

Course Sheet

Academic Year of enrolment:

2017/2018

Type of Course:

Basic

Optional/Mandatory:

Optional

Degree:

Bachelor's Degree Programme in LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Disciplinary Sector:

ENGLISH LITERATURE

Credits:

Programme Year:

Professor and Collaborators:

SALIS Loredana

Hours of classroom activity:

Prerequisites:

none

AF code:

40X04004

Assessment Methods

Verification of learning:

Oral examination/Viva (English optional)

Assessment of:

- knowledge of the authors and their contexts;
- ability to read critically the literary text in the reading list;
- ability to analyse texts and to do so appropriately, with good critical language competence.

Students are assessed on the basis of their knowledge of the themes and the texts analysed during the course as well as the literary, critical and communicative skills they have acquired.

Teaching period

First semester

Objectives

Students will develop three main areas of competence: (i) knowledge of different cultural paradigms as well as narrative genres, functions and modes; (ii) awareness of the various problems of reading and interpretation; and (iii) critical reading of texts informed by the knowledge of/interaction of text and context. Students will learn to understand some of the basic principles of critical theory as well as applying specific reading strategies to selected texts and to raise questions about the reading process and its contexts. The emphasis throughout is on the development of students’ critical awareness of positions, strategies and possibilities of interpretation and the ability to propose their personal reading of literary texts.

Contents

This year’s course introduces students to Anglophone literatures and cultures through a critical analysis of the canon and its legacy. Special attention will be given to 17th century drama and to the rise of the novel (1700s), the interaction of texts and contexts, and the reception of both genres. A selection of key-texts will enable a reflection upon their significance and permanence in contemporary literature and culture.

Recommended Bibliography

Primary Sources:

William Shakespeare [c.a. 1605], King Lear [parallel text edn, suggested editions: Mondadori, Marsilio or Feltrinelli];

Edward Bond, Lear, with an introduction by the author, in Plays 2, London Methuen, 1978, pp. ix-102. Italian edn. Edited by Tommaso Spinelli, Lear. Roma: Minimum Fax, 2015 (pp. 190);

Daniel Defoe [1719], Robinson Crusoe [Penguin Books, qualsiasi edizione]; Italian edns: Garzanti, Mondadori (c.a. 280 pp.)

J.M. Coetzee [1986], Foe, Viking 2010, Penguin 2015 (pp. 160). Italian transl. by Franca Cavagnoli, Foe, Torino: Einaudi, 2005 (pp. 145).

Secondary Sources (photocopied material):

Astracts from Mary Lamb, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf; Italo Calvino, JM Coetzee [short texts]

Brioschi, Di Girolamo, Brioschi, Introduzione alla letteratura. Roma: Carocci, 2013 [“L’istituzione letteraria”: pp. 13-22; “Cànone”: pp. 47-50; “Modi della narrativa”: pp. 139-184; “L’universo tematico”: pp. 185-192; “Il linguaggio in scena”: pp. 197-205];

Crisafulli, Elam, Manuale di letteratura e cultura inglese. Bologna: Bononia University Press, 2009 [“Il teatro di Shakespeare”: pp. 39-60; “Il romanzo del 1700”: pp. 143-154; “Il teatro contemporaneo”: pp. 395-399; “Virginia Woolf: saggio su Defoe”: pp. 555-557; “La sfera pubblica postcoloniale in Gran Bretagna”: pp. 566-576];

Chiappini, Canani, Sullam, Introduzione allo studio della letteratura inglese. Roma: Carocci, 2017 [“Il romanzo”: pp. 125-154; “Il teatro”: pp. 157-187];

Gualtieri, Vivan, Dalla Englishness alla Britishness. 1950-2000. Discorsi culturali in trasformazione dal canone imperiale alle storie dell'oggi. Roma: Carocci, 2009 [“Strumenti e metodi”, pp. 87-98];

Pèrcopo, L., “Canone e post-coloniale”, in Altri canoni/canoni altri. Firenze: FUP, 2011 [pp. 64-93 + endnotes].

Teaching Methods

Frontal and interactive teaching.
Cooperative learning teaching methodology may occasionally be adopted (group work).

Experts may be involved in the course, and at least one film on the topic of the course will be screened.

All lectures are taught both in Italian and English can be attended by students from the LM-14 course degree below the B1+/B2 level of English (LM-38).

Contacts/More Information

The methodology and theoretical aspects will be taught in the Italian language. Texts will be read in the original language, and thereby analysed with the help of parallel texts.

Further reading: a list of secondary sources is provided for students who want to further their study of the topics encompassed by this module. These selected readings are strongly recommended to students who have not attended the course.

Thomas Cartelli, “Shakespeare in pain: Edward Bond’s Lear and the Ghost of History”, in King Lear and Its Afterlife: An Annual Survey of Shakespeare Studies and Production, Vol. 55, ed. by Peter Holland, CUP, 2002, pp. 159-169;

Steven Connor, The English Novel in History:1950-1995. London: Routledge, 1996, pp. 166-168; 182-186.

Arthur Marwick, Culture in Britain since 1945. Oxford: Balckwell, 1991: capp. 7 & 10 – pp. 67-72; 115-132;

Michela Marroni, Come leggere Robinson Crusoe. Roma: Solfanelli, 2016, cap. II: pp. 59-159;

Virginia Woolf, “Defoe”, in Saggi, prose, racconti. Milano: Mondadori, 1998: pp.106-115.

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