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
Charles Dickens, David Copperfield (any unabridged edition in English)
Virginia Woolf, Night and Day (any unabridged edition in English)
Hanif Kureishi, My Beautiful Laundrette (any unabridged edition in English)
Bernardine Evaristo, Blonde Roots (any unabridged edition in English)
THIS SELECTION MAY CHANGE BEFORE THE COURSE BEGINS
Programme
In this course we will examine a selection of texts (poetry and novels) from Romanticism to contemporaneity with a view to outlining the notions of 'centre' and 'margin(s)' as a system of binary relations that can and/or cannot be contested. In particular, the course will focus on how these notions inform issues of space and gender.Core Documentation
Selection of poems by William Blake, William Wordsworth, John Keats, P. B. Shelley;Charles Dickens, David Copperfield (any unabridged edition in English)
Virginia Woolf, Night and Day (any unabridged edition in English)
Hanif Kureishi, My Beautiful Laundrette (any unabridged edition in English)
Bernardine Evaristo, Blonde Roots (any unabridged edition in English)
THIS SELECTION MAY CHANGE BEFORE THE COURSE BEGINS
Reference Bibliography
Critical and methodological readings will be indicated once we get closer to the beginning of the course. Those who do not attend classes are kindly invited to contact me ideally at the beginning of the course or, at the latest, one month before their exam.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 available on the Moodle.
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 available on the Moodle.
Reference Bibliography
HISTORY OF LITERATURE Introductions to the historical periods and some anthological texts and excerpts, mandatory for the exam, will be made available in .pdf format among the teaching materials. CRITICAL ESSAYS Billi Mirella, "Jane Austen, parodia e reinvenzione del romanzo", in Mirella Billi, "Il testo riflesso. La parodia nel romanzo inglese", Napoli, Liguori, 2000, pp. 133-174; Boehm Beth A., Fact, Fiction, and Metafiction: Blurred Gen(d)res in "Orlando" and "A Room of One's Own", in The Journal of Narrative Technique , Vol. 22, No. 3 (Fall, 1992), pp. 191-204; Esposito Lucia, "Mnemotecnologie beckettiane: Krapp’s Last Tape", "Embers", "Rough for Radio II”", in Sandro Montaldo (a cura di), Fallire ancora, fallire meglio. Percorsi nell'opera di Samuel Beckett, Novi Ligure, Edizioni Joker, 2009, pp. 61-85; Esposito Lucia, "What is Your Story Now? Life Narrative under Threat in Douglas Coupland’s ‘Extreme Present", in Textus-English Studies in Italy, Vol. XXXI, No. 2 (May-August 2018), pp. 103-116.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 (Reading response - text and rules available online among the teaching materials on Moodle)