Learning outcomes
Students will be required to know and be able to analyse literary, critical and cinematic texts in English, from heterogeneous cultural areas using the critical and methodological tools offered in class. Texts will be selected according to the course programme.
Course contents
The complexity of cultural identity: mapping identity journeys in contemporary English texts
The course sets out to introduce some key concepts and part of the basic critical tools of Cultural Studies and Gender Studies in order to analyse a range of contemporary English texts which explore the construction of cultural identity. More specifically, our investigation will address the complexities of identity development stemming from uneven power distribution along the axes of gender, ethnicity/race and class, and will focus on the ways in which identity is constructed through language (that is, narrativised) and on the strategies of resistance through which disenfranchised subjects manage to find a voice and negotiate their position.
The main analytical paths which will be traced during the course include:
- The development of identity as a cultural operation in which the subjects need to learn and appropriate social norms and discourses (through acculturation), but also challenge them in order to establish their own narrative;
- Unconventional gender performances and the difficulty of making sense of and coming to terms with them;
- Migration and the difficult negotiation of cultural identity across geographical as well as symbolic borders.
Reccomended or required readings
BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR ATTENDING STUDENTS
Critical texts:
• Handout Critical Readings for Attending Students to be downloaded from the KIRO website;
• PPT slides of the lessons and (if need be) other critical excerpts uploaded to KIRO.
Primary texts
• Carter, 1979, The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories (a selection of tales: "The Bloody Chamber", "The Courtship of Mr Lyon" e "The Tiger’s Bride"). These tales will be uploaded to the KIRO website.
• J. Winterson, 1985, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (novel, any edition).
• C. Cleave, 2008, The Other Hand (novel, any edition).
• S. Frears, 2002, Dirty Pretty Things (film).
BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS
Critical texts:
• Handout “Critical Readings for Non-Attending Students” to be downloaded from the KIRO website;
• Sardar Z. and Van Loon B., Introducing Cultural Studies. A graphic guide, London: Icon Books, 2013.
• Vallorani N. (a cura di), Introduzione ai Cultural Studies, Roma: Carocci, 2016. (Optional. This text can help a better understanding of the critical notions and methodologies introduced by Sardar and Van Loon, as well as to analyse the primary texts)
Primary texts
• Carter, 1979, The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories (a selection of tales: "The Bloody Chamber", "The Courtship of Mr Lyon" and "The Tiger’s Bride"). These tales will be uploaded to the KIRO website.
• J. Winterson, 1985, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (novel, any edition).
• C. Cleave, 2008, The Other Hand (novel, any edition).
• S. Frears, 2002, Dirty Pretty Things (film).
• C. Adichie, 2013, Americanah (novel, any edition).
Assessment methods
Written exam, which aims to test specific content – both of the critical readings and of the primary texts – as well as text analysis. The exam will include multiple choice and gap-filling questions as well as open questions.
Attending students can take a – NON-compulsory – midterm test.
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