2015/2016

2017/2018

DM270

L-LIN/10 (ENGLISH LITERATURE)

DEPARTMENT OF HUMANITIES

MODERN LANGUAGES AND CULTURES

LINGUISTICO-FILOLOGICO-LETTERARIO

3°

1st semester (25/09/2017 - 10/01/2018)

9

54 lesson hours

English

ORAL TEST

GRANATA SILVIA (titolare) - 9 ECTS

The course is devoted to second and third year students. All students must have completed the English exams (both language and literature) of the previous year before sitting for this exam. A good knowledge of English is required to follow lectures, to read texts and to sit the exam in English.
All students should be familiar with the main events of British history from the Restoration to the late 19th century.

The aim of the course is to teach students how to read, translate and analyse a literary text. Great attention will be devoted to the complex relationships existing between the poetry of the 18th and 19th century and its historical and cultural context.

The module aims at providing a basic understanding of the period under examination through a thorough analysis of poetical texts. Some lectures (delivered by Dr. Vera Cantoni) will be devoted to the development of theatre, comedy in particular, from the Restoration to the Victorian era.
The list of primary texts (for both attending and non-attending students) will be available on KIRO at the beginning of the course.
Students are also asked to read two novels and a play among those listed below.

Lectures in English, with the aid of powerpoint presentations. During classes we will also read, translate and analyse the primary texts indicated in the reading list.

The Norton Anthology of English Literature (9th edition), volumes C, D, E.

The Restoration and the 18th century, Volume C:
The Restoration and the 18th Century, pp. 2177-2205.
Aphra Behn, pp. 2307-2309.
William Congreve, pp. 2359-2360.
Jonathan Swift, pp. 2464-2466.
Alexander Pope, pp. 2665-2669.
James Thomson, p. 3044.
William Cowper, pp. 3071-3072.

The Romantic Period, Volume D:
The Romantic Period, pp. 3-27.
Anna L. Barbauld, pp. 39-40.
William Blake, pp. 112-116.
The Revolution Controversy, pp. 183-184.
W. Wordsworth, pp. 270-272.
D. Wordsworth, pp. 402-404.
S.T. Coleridge, pp. 437-439.
The Gothic and the Development of a Mass Readership, pp. 584-585.
Lord Byron, pp. 612-616.
P.B. Shelley, pp. 748-751.
John Keats, pp. 901-903.

The Victorian Age, Volume E:
The Victorian Age, pp. 1017-1041.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, pp. 1156-1159.
Robert Browning, pp. 1275-1278.
Matthew Arnold, pp. 1369-73.

The Cambridge Companion to English Literature 1740-1830, T. Keymer; J. Mee (eds.), C.U.P., 2004.
Chapter 1. “Readers, Writers, Reviewers, and the Professionalisation of Literature”, pp. 3-20.

Roy Porter. Enlightenment. Britain and the Creation of the Modern World. Penguin, 2000.
Chapter 13. “Nature”, pp. 295-319.

The Cambridge Companion to British Romanticism, Stuart Curran (ed.), C.U.P., 2010.
Chapter 3. “Poetry in an Age of Revolution”, pp. 56-80.

An Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age. Iain McCalman (gen. ed.), O.U.P., 1999.
Chapter 34. “Natural Philosophy”, pp. 320-328.

The Cambridge Companion to Victorian Poetry, Joseph Bristow (ed.), C.U.P., 2000.
Chapter 4. “The Dramatic Monologue”, pp. 67-85.
Chapter 7. “Victorian Poetry and Science”, pp. 137-158.

Each student will read two novels (one for each group), and one play among those listed below.

Novels:

- Fanny Burney, Tobias Smollett, Mary Wollstonecraft, William Godwin, Charlotte Smith, Walter Scott.
- Mary E. Braddon, Ellen Wood, Anthony Trollope, H. Rider Haggard, Thomas Hardy, Robert Louis Stevenson.

Plays:

Aphra Behn, The Rover; William Congreve, The Way of the World; Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer; Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal; Edward Bulwer Lytton, Money; T.W. Robertson, Society


IN ADDITION, NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS WILL READ:

Manuale di letteratura e cultura inglese, a cura di L.M. Crisafulli e K. Elam, BUP, 2009.

Il Settecento:
“Introduzione”, Lia Guerra, pp. 139-141.
“La poesia del Settecento fino al 1785”, Laura Bandiera, pp. 163-170.

Il Romanticismo:
"Introduzione", L.M. Crisafulli e D. Saglia, pp. 181-184.
"La poesia del Romanticismo", L.M. Crisafulli, pp. 185-218.

I Vittoriani:
"Introduzione", S. Payne, pp. 281-282.
"La poesia vittoriana", G. Silvani, pp. 307-319.

The Cambridge Companion to English literature, 1650-1740, Steven N. Zwicker (ed.). C.U.P., 1998.
Chapter 1. “England 1649–1750: differences contained?” pp. 3-28.
Chapter 4. "Theatrical Culture 1: politics and theatre", pp. 82-103.

The Cambridge Companion to English Literature 1740-1830, T. Keymer and J. Mee (eds.), C.U.P., 2004.
Chapter 2. “Criticism, taste, aesthetics”, pp. 24-40.

The Cambridge Companion to British Romanticism, Stuart Curran (ed.), C.U.P.,2010.
Chapter 1. “Romanticism and the 'schools' of criticism and theory”, pp. 1-32.

The Cambridge Companion to Victorian Poetry, Joseph Bristow (ed.), C.U.P., 2000.
Chapter 1. “Reforming Victorian poetry: poetics after 1832”, pp. 1-22.

Marcello Pagnini, Il Romanticismo, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1986.
Introduzione, pp. 7-23.

Oral exam, in English.

During the exam, students will be asked to:

- Summaize the main historical events of the period under examination

- Discuss cultural and literary trends

- Read, translate and analyse primary texts

Oral exam, in English.

During the exam, students will be asked to:

- Summaize the main historical events of the period under examination

- Discuss cultural and literary trends

- Read, translate and analyse primary texts