2016/2017

2018/2019

DM270

L-LIN/10 (ENGLISH LITERATURE)

DEPARTMENT OF HUMANITIES

MODERN LANGUAGES AND CULTURES

Lingue per l'impresa

3°

2nd semester (25/02/2019 - 05/06/2019)

6

36 lesson hours

English

WRITTEN AND ORAL TEST

CANTONI VERA (titolare) - 6 ECTS

A good knowledge of English is required to follow lectures, read texts and sit the exam in English. Students should have basic competences in the interpretation of literary texts.

The course is aimed at introducing students to British society and culture by offering them a historical overview based on the specific case of London theatres.

At the end of the course, students should:
* know the main events and developments in the history of English theatre and be able to show their connections with their political and social context;
* be able to read and analyse the primary texts and discuss their relationship with the social and cultural context in which they were produced.

From the South Bank to the West End and back: a short history of London’s theatres and their inhabitants.

The course is meant to open a window on the social and cultural history of Britain by outlining the transformations of London theatres and audiences, from the Middle Ages to the present. By analysing dramatic texts and studying how they were staged, we will investigate developments and crises of the society that produced them.

During classes we will read extracts from plays and from comments of the time. Students will also be asked to read autonomously three plays in English (four in the case of non-attending students) in their entirety, to be chosen from different groups in the reading list.
All the texts read during classes will be available on the KIRO platform.

Lectures in English, with the aid of multimedia presentations. During classes we will also read, translate and/or analyse texts, images, videos, pieces of music.

FOR ATTENDING STUDENTS

* texts available on the KIRO platform (about 20 scenes from plays and as many extracts from comments)
* 3 plays, one from each of three different groups in the following list; the plays must be read in English, in any unabridged edition:
# __first group__
* Tony Harrison, //The Mysteries//
* William Shakespeare, //Richard III//
* William Shakespeare, //The Tempest//
* George Chapman, Ben Jonson, John Marston, //Eastward Ho//
# __second group__
* George Etherege, //The Man of Mode//
* Richard Sheridan, //The Critic//
* Thomas Otway, //Venice Preserved//
* Thomas Robertson, //Caste//
# __third group__
* Oscar Wilde, //An Ideal Husband//
* George Bernard Shaw, //Pygmalion//
* John Osborne, //Look Back in Anger//
* Samuel Beckett, //Happy Days//
# __fourth group__
* Caryl Churchill, //Vinegar Tom//
* Tom Stoppard, //Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead//
* Howard Brenton, //Anne Boleyn//
* Sarah Kane, //Blasted//
* Richard Norton-Taylor, Nicolas Kent, //Called to Account//

NB Extracts must be read entirely, even if they have been read and/or analysed only in part during classes

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FOR NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS

* texts available on the KIRO platform (about 20 scenes from plays and as many extracts from comments)
* 4 plays, one from each of the groups listed above; the plays must be read in English, in any unabridged edition
* Aleks Sierz and Lia Ghilardi, //The Time Traveller’s Guide to British Theatre. The First Four Hundred Years//, London, Oberon Books, 2015
* Martin Middeke, Peter Paul Schnierer and Aleks Sierz, //Introduction//, in //The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary British Playwrights//, London, Methuen Drama, 2011, pp. vii-xxiv

The exam is in English and it is made up of two parts: a very short written test consisting of multi-choice questions, aimed at verifying the students’ knowledge of essential events, definitions, works and authors; and an oral exam. Only the students who pass the written test in the same session can take the oral exam.

In order to pass the exam, students must:
* know the main events and developments in the history of English theatre and be able to show their connections with their political and social context;
* be able to read and analyse the primary texts and discuss their relationship with the social and cultural context in which they were produced.

All students should periodically check KIRO for further information and materials.

NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS who need clarifications concerning the programme or the exam should email the teacher.