One of the main aims of this Course of Study is to provide students with advanced knowledge of two foreign literatures related to the two languages of their choice, paying special attention to intercultural and transcultural dynamics. The course also aims at refining their ability to interpret cultural phenomena, using the tools and methodologies of literary, cultural and historical analysis.
English Literature III is among the characterizing activities of the "Foreign Literatures" area. It aims at providing the students with a good knowledge of nineteenth and twentieth century English Literature with special attention to intercultural dynamics and the theoretical-methodological debate; it helps students discover the tools and methodologies of literary, cultural and historical analysis at an advanced level.
At the end of the module, students will reach an advanced critical ability in the interpretation of exemplary texts in the original language, as well as the necessary competence for oral rewording, translation, rewriting and adaptation in Italian of the texts themselves. They will also be able to re-elaborate and communicate disciplinary knowledge in a specialized and non-specialized intercultural context.
Pre-requisite: English Literature II; English Language and Translation II
English Literature III is among the characterizing activities of the "Foreign Literatures" area. It aims at providing the students with a good knowledge of nineteenth and twentieth century English Literature with special attention to intercultural dynamics and the theoretical-methodological debate; it helps students discover the tools and methodologies of literary, cultural and historical analysis at an advanced level.
At the end of the module, students will reach an advanced critical ability in the interpretation of exemplary texts in the original language, as well as the necessary competence for oral rewording, translation, rewriting and adaptation in Italian of the texts themselves. They will also be able to re-elaborate and communicate disciplinary knowledge in a specialized and non-specialized intercultural context.
Pre-requisite: English Literature II; English Language and Translation II
Canali
teacher profile teaching materials
George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss;
Joseph Conrad, The Shadow Line;
Virginia Woolf, Jacob’s Room;
J.M. Coetzee, Boyhood
(the above novels must be unabridged editions in English).
Programme
In this course we will examine a selection of texts (poetry and novels) from Romaticism to contemporaneity with a view to outlining the notion of ‘space’ as a system of relations and as an element connected to freedom, coercion, vulnerability, (de)construction of one’s self, contemplation. The relationship between space (whether public, private, open, closed, domestic, intimate, individual, collective, etc.) and the body will lead us to reflect also upon movement and stillness. What relationship can we detect between characters, narrators, authors and the spaces they inhabit, they cross and/or describe? Can the space highlight, obscure, align and/or compete with other textual elements? What kind of rapport is there in the selected texts between the notions of space and time?Core Documentation
Selection of poems by William Blake (London, Chimney Sweeper I, II), William Wordsworth, (I wandered lonely as a cloud, Composed upon Westminster Bridge), Samuel Taylor Colerigde (Kubla Khan: only for those who DID NOT attend the course), John Keats (Ode on a Grecian Urn, La Belle Dame sans merci, Bright Star), Emily Brontë (Love is like the wild rose-briar, The night is darkening round me; I'll come when thou are saddest; Long neglect has worn away);George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss;
Joseph Conrad, The Shadow Line;
Virginia Woolf, Jacob’s Room;
J.M. Coetzee, Boyhood
(the above novels must be unabridged editions in English).
Reference Bibliography
Elizabeth Carolyn Miller, “Fixed capital and the flow. Water power, steam power, and The Mill on the Floss”, in Nathan Hensley, Philip Steer (eds.), Ecological Form: System and Aesthetics in the Age of Empire, UC Davies, 2018, pp. 85-100 (online); Riccardo Capoferro, "Providence, Anti-Providence, and the Experience of Time in 'The Shadow-Line'", Conradiana, 47:1, Spring 2015, pp. 17-41 (online); Lindy van Rooyen, Mapping the Modern Mind. Virginia Woolf’s Parodic Approach to the Art of Fiction in Jacob’s Room, Hamburg, Diplomica, 2012 (ch. 5: “Frontiers of Fiction: the Narrative Form of Jacob’s Room”, pp. 41-104) (online); Derek Attridge, “J. M. Coetzee’s Boyhood, Confession and Truth”, Critical Survey, 11:2, 1999, pp. 77-93 (online). More texts, in particular methodological readings, will be indicated at the beginning of the course. Additional readings for those who do not attend classes will be indicated in Moodle at the beginning of the course. Those who do not attend classes are kindly invited to contact the teacher before the exam, ideally at the beginning of the course.Type of delivery of the course
In-class lessons. Students are expected to actively participate to class discussions.Attendance
Although not compulsory, attendance is recommended.Type of evaluation
Students will be assessed at the end of the course through an oral exam. Participation to class discussions, possible assignments handed in during the course (mid-course written tests, short dissertations, projects, etc.) can also contribute to the final assessment. teacher profile teaching materials
Description: The course focuses on some texts from the early 19th century to the first decade of the 2000s that foreground the modes and power of stories and books. The texts taken into consideration range from the parodic forms of literary writing and genres found in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey and Virginia Woolf’s Orlando to Samuel Beckett’s reflection on the impossibility of disposing of (self)narrative in the radio play Embers, to the exaltation of the empathic and ethical function of narration in Douglas Coupland’s futuristic novel Generation A.
Virginia Woolf, "Orlando" (1928), any edition.
Samuel Beckett, "Embers" (1959), available online: https://evergreenreview.com/read/embers-a-play-for-radio/.
Douglas Coupland, "Generation A" (2009), Windmill Books, 2010.
Audio recordings will be provided during the course.
Programme
Title: “The power of stories: between biography, memory and parody”.Description: The course focuses on some texts from the early 19th century to the first decade of the 2000s that foreground the modes and power of stories and books. The texts taken into consideration range from the parodic forms of literary writing and genres found in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey and Virginia Woolf’s Orlando to Samuel Beckett’s reflection on the impossibility of disposing of (self)narrative in the radio play Embers, to the exaltation of the empathic and ethical function of narration in Douglas Coupland’s futuristic novel Generation A.
Core Documentation
Jane Austen, "Northanger Abbey" (1803), any edition.Virginia Woolf, "Orlando" (1928), any edition.
Samuel Beckett, "Embers" (1959), available online: https://evergreenreview.com/read/embers-a-play-for-radio/.
Douglas Coupland, "Generation A" (2009), Windmill Books, 2010.
Audio recordings will be provided during the course.
Reference Bibliography
HISTORY OF LITERATURE Bertinetti Paolo, English Literature. A Short History, Milano, Einaudi, 2010: dal capitolo VII. “The Romantic Period”, al capitolo XI. “Literatures in English”. Some anthological excerpts will be provided during the course. CRITICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY Some critical essays on the chosen literary texts will be provided during the course.Type of delivery of the course
Lectures and practice exercises of close reading and translation both in Italian and in English.Attendance
Attendance is optional, but strongly recommended.Type of evaluation
The examination will be oral and partly in English. There will also be a self-assessment test.