Graduates in Languages and Literatures for Teaching and Translation obtain advanced knowledge and understanding in all the subject areas of their training in order to
1) consolidate and develop their competence in European and American Studies, with particular attention to their literature of specialisation;
2) deepen their knowledge of the two foreign languages chosen, achieving a heightened competence in the language of specialization and an advancement in the second language;
3) reach enhanced awareness of the linguistic features of their language of specialisation, both from a diachronic and a synchronic perspective;
4) reach an adequate knowledge of the most advanced methodologies for the analysis of literary texts;
5) handle confidently the theoretical-practical tools for teaching and for translation.
Literary mindscapes is one of the characterising modules of the programme. It enables students to consolidate their competence in the field of Anglophone literatures; it also allows them to further enhance their theoretical and methodological skills in order to achieve a thoroughly independent critical assessment in the philological analysis of literary texts and/or phenomena, also with reference to the processes of transcultural translation.
At the end of the module students will be able to: apply their knowledge to the analysis of literary texts and/or phenomena; communicate at an advanced level the disciplinary content; analyse the processes of transcultural translation.
Requirements: Students must have already taken Literature and Forms.
1) consolidate and develop their competence in European and American Studies, with particular attention to their literature of specialisation;
2) deepen their knowledge of the two foreign languages chosen, achieving a heightened competence in the language of specialization and an advancement in the second language;
3) reach enhanced awareness of the linguistic features of their language of specialisation, both from a diachronic and a synchronic perspective;
4) reach an adequate knowledge of the most advanced methodologies for the analysis of literary texts;
5) handle confidently the theoretical-practical tools for teaching and for translation.
Literary mindscapes is one of the characterising modules of the programme. It enables students to consolidate their competence in the field of Anglophone literatures; it also allows them to further enhance their theoretical and methodological skills in order to achieve a thoroughly independent critical assessment in the philological analysis of literary texts and/or phenomena, also with reference to the processes of transcultural translation.
At the end of the module students will be able to: apply their knowledge to the analysis of literary texts and/or phenomena; communicate at an advanced level the disciplinary content; analyse the processes of transcultural translation.
Requirements: Students must have already taken Literature and Forms.
Canali
teacher profile teaching materials
In this course we will examine some (written and/or performed) lyrical texts by South African poets who ‘use’ historical female characters (Krotoa/Eva, Saartjie Baartman, etc.) to discuss and rewrite the symbols of the nation. What role do women as mothers, wives, lovers, handmaids, warriors, caretakers, mediators, etc. play in the New South Africa's nation-building process? How does the poetry by women about women contest the hypersexualization of the female body as a colonial practice and propose a new idea of history and memory?
Toni Stuart, Krotoa-Eva's suite- a cape jazz poem in three movement, 2018 (video);
Makosazana Xaba, Tongues of Their Mothers, Scottsville, University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2008;
Diana Ferrus, I’ve Come to Take You Home, Xlibris, 2011.
Programme
Women, History, and the Postcolonial Nation in South African PoetryIn this course we will examine some (written and/or performed) lyrical texts by South African poets who ‘use’ historical female characters (Krotoa/Eva, Saartjie Baartman, etc.) to discuss and rewrite the symbols of the nation. What role do women as mothers, wives, lovers, handmaids, warriors, caretakers, mediators, etc. play in the New South Africa's nation-building process? How does the poetry by women about women contest the hypersexualization of the female body as a colonial practice and propose a new idea of history and memory?
Core Documentation
Karen Press, Krotoa's Story, Cape Town, Buchu Books, 1990;Toni Stuart, Krotoa-Eva's suite- a cape jazz poem in three movement, 2018 (video);
Makosazana Xaba, Tongues of Their Mothers, Scottsville, University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2008;
Diana Ferrus, I’ve Come to Take You Home, Xlibris, 2011.
Reference Bibliography
Elleke Boehmer, Stories of Women. Gender and Narrative in the Postcolonial Nation, Manchester UP, 2005; Carli Coetzee, "Krotoa remembered: a mother of unity, a mother of sorrows?", in Negotiationg the Past. The Making of Memory on the New South Africa, ed. by Carli Coetzee & Sarah Nuttall, oxford UP, 2008; Maria Paola Guarducci, In-verse. Poesia femminile dal Sudafrica, Mimesis, 2022; pp. 21-44 and 135-140 Andrew P. Lyons, The Two Lives of Sara Baartman: Gender, ‘Race,’ Politics and the Historiography of Mis/Representation, in Anthropologica, 60:1 (2018); Meg Samuelson, Remembering the Nation, Dismembering Women? Stories of South African Transition, University of KwaZulu-Natal Press; Makhosazana Xaba (ed.), Our Words, Our Worlds: Writing on Black South African Women Poets. 2000-2018, University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2019 Methodological texts 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. This is a lecture-discussion course.Attendance
Although not compulsory, attendance is strongly recommended.Type of evaluation
Students will be assessed at the end of the course through an oral exam. Participation to class discussions, assignments handed in during the course (mid-course written tests, short dissertations, projects, etc.) also contribute to the final assessment. teacher profile teaching materials
In this course we will explore the island trope in a selection of texts, from R.L. Stevenson’s Treasure Island to Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place. In these narratives, the island features at times as a place of adventure, at other times as a theatre where humanity is tested, as a projection of psychotic fantasies, as an artificial paradise, or as a place of violence and squalor. In its latest, astonishing metamorphosis, the island has become a gigantic, floating garbage patch. In this way, islands continue to inspire the imagination of both writers and readers.
Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island (1883)
David Herbert Lawrence, The Man who Loved Islands (1928)
William Golding, Lord of the Flies (1954)
V. S. Naipaul, The Middle Passage (1962)
Doris Lessing, Briefing for a Descent into Hell (1971)
Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place (1988)
Marianne Wiggins, John Dollar (1999)
Films:
Lord of the Flies, dir. Peter Brook (1963) (link available on the course’s Team)
Cast Away, dir. Robert Zemeckis (2000)
Plastic Paradise, dir. Angela Sun (2014).
Programme
Island narratives and the rhetoric of nostalgiaIn this course we will explore the island trope in a selection of texts, from R.L. Stevenson’s Treasure Island to Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place. In these narratives, the island features at times as a place of adventure, at other times as a theatre where humanity is tested, as a projection of psychotic fantasies, as an artificial paradise, or as a place of violence and squalor. In its latest, astonishing metamorphosis, the island has become a gigantic, floating garbage patch. In this way, islands continue to inspire the imagination of both writers and readers.
Core Documentation
Primary texts:Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island (1883)
David Herbert Lawrence, The Man who Loved Islands (1928)
William Golding, Lord of the Flies (1954)
V. S. Naipaul, The Middle Passage (1962)
Doris Lessing, Briefing for a Descent into Hell (1971)
Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place (1988)
Marianne Wiggins, John Dollar (1999)
Films:
Lord of the Flies, dir. Peter Brook (1963) (link available on the course’s Team)
Cast Away, dir. Robert Zemeckis (2000)
Plastic Paradise, dir. Angela Sun (2014).
Reference Bibliography
Secondary readings (provided by me). General: Stephanos Stephanides et Susan Bassnett, «Islands, Literature, and Cultural Translatability», Transtext(e)s Transcultures 跨文本跨文化, http://journals.openedition.org/transtexts/212 ; DOI : https:// doi.org/10.4000/transtexts.212 On The Man Who Loved Islands: Julian Moynahan, «Lawrence’s The Man Who Loved Islands: A Modern Fable», Modern Fiction Studies, Spring 1959, Vol. 5, No. 1, D. H. LAWRENCE NUMBER: special number (Spring 1959), pp. 57-64. On Treasure Island: Diana Loxley, Problematic Shores: The Literature of Islands, Palgrave Macmillan, 1990, chapter 3 https://discovery.sba.uniroma3.it/primo-explore/search?query=any,contains,problematic%20shores&tab=default_tab&search_scope=ALL&vid=39CAB_V1&offset=0 On Lord of the Flies: William Golding, Lord of the Flies as Fable (1962) Stefan Hawlin, «The savages in the forest: decolonising William Golding», Critical Survey, 1995, Vol. 7, No. 2, Heritage: textual landscapes (1995), pp. 125-135. On Briefing for a Descent into Hell: Katherine Fishburn, «Doris Lessing's "Briefing for a Descent into Hell": Science Fiction or Psycho-Drama? ("Briefing for a Descent into Hell" de Doris Lessing, science-fiction ou psychodrame?)», Science Fiction Studies, Mar., 1988, Vol. 15, No. 1 (Mar., 1988), pp. 48-60. Douglass Bolling, «Structure and Theme in "Briefing for a Descent into Hell"», Contemporary Literature , Autumn, 1973, Vol. 14, No. 4, Special Number on Doris Lessing (Autumn, 1973), pp. 550-564. R.D. Laing, The Politics of Experience, chapters 5 and 7. On The Middle Passage: Review: THE MIDDLE PASSAGE by V. S. Naipaul. Review by: John Hearne, Caribbean Quarterly, Vol. 8, No. 4 (DECEMBER, 1962), pp. 65-66. John Thieme, «Searching for a Centre: The Writing of V. S. Naipaul», Third World Quarterly , Oct., 1987, Vol. 9, No. 4 (Oct., 1987), pp. 1352-1365. Derek Walcott, «History and Picong in The Middle Passage» (review) On A Small Place: Suzanne Gauch, «A Small Place: Some Perspectives on the Ordinary», Callaloo, Vol. 25, No. 3 (Summer, 2002), pp. 910-919. Keith E. Byerman, «Anger in a Small Place: Jamaica Kincaid's Cultural Critique of Antigua», College Literature , Feb., 1995, Vol. 22, No. 1, Third World Women's Inscriptions (Feb., 1995), pp. 91-102.Type of delivery of the course
Lectures will be held on campus.The course will be taught in the form of a seminar with great emphasis on group discussion. Students are encouraged to read the texts before the courses starts. Attendance is highly recommended. Class participation will be one of the criteria for the final evaluation.Type of evaluation
Class participation, short presentations during the course, and a final essay (approx. and no more than 3000 words), to be discussed during the oral exam. The essay must offer a comparative analysis of two of the texts from the syllabus, that should be discussed through a common theme of your choice. A third text (chosen among the ones that are included in the programme or a text of your choice) can be discussed along the two main texts. The essay must be submitted via e-mail at least 10 days before the date of the exam. Essays may be written in English or Italian.