This course provides an introduction to aspects and problems of the literature of the sixteenth and early-seventeenth centuries, focussing on theatre (Shakespeare's Hamlet), and on the development of the sonnet from Wyatt to Shakespeare.
The course aims to provide students with a basic knowledge of British literature and culture from the Renaissance to the present age with special emphasis on the development of modern fiction, post-colonial studies, twentieth-century modernism and post-modernism.
Students who attend this course regularly, and study the prescribed materials, will acquire a detailed knowledge of some aspects of Renaissance theatre and poetry. They will be able to analyse a number of literary texts, describe their main formal features and connect them to specific historical and cultural contexts.
Lectures (54 hours; 5 hours per week; second semester), interspersed with optional seminar activities.
Erasmus students with little knowledge of Italian should contact Professor Villa: they will be allowed to take the exam on a different reading list devised for students who are unable to attend and cannot read Italian.
This course provides an introduction to the literature of the Elizabethan Age. It can be chosen as a 6 credit (36 hours) or 9 credit (36+18 hours) course. The first part of the course (36 hours/ 6 credits) offers an historical-cultural survey of Tudor and Stuart England, and of the genesis and the main features of the Elizabethan theatre, and then focuses on Hamlet. The second part of the course (18 hours) covers the development of the sonnet from Wyatt to Shakespeare.
Students will have to study Hamlet (BUR edition, edited by K. Elam, or any other edition with parallel text and annotations in their own language), as well as the other materials (poems, contextual texts, and critical essays) that will be made available through aulaweb or in the Department library. They will also have to make themselves familiar with the history of English Literature 1500-1785 (reference book: Crisafulli-Elam, Manuale di letteratura e cultura inglese, Bononia UP, 2009, pp. 19-179). And they will also have to read either Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, or Samuel Richardson's Pamela.
Foreign students who cannot read Italian will be allowed to use a different reference book.
LUISA VILLA (President)
MARIA RITA CIFARELLI
LAURA COLOMBINO
STEFANIA MICHELUCCI
GIUSEPPE SERTOLI
Timetable
Wedn. 13-15, aula L (polo didattico, via delle Fontane)
Thursday 14-16, aula L (polo didattico, via delle Fontane)
Friday 10-11, aula L (polo didattico, via delle Fontane)
Classes start February 22nd.
This course is assessed by written examination. Language of examination: Italian or English (students are free to choose either). The exam paper covers all parts of the syllabus (Theatre, Poetry, History of Literature 1500-1785, and all the prescribed texts and critical material).
The exam paper involves open questions and guided commentary of literary texts (poems, extracts of plays and novels). The open questions test knowledge and comprehension; the guided commentary tests the student's ability to recognise and describe the main formal features of specific texts, and connect them to contextual historical and cultural information; it also tests the student's comprehension of, and ability to respond to, critical essays included in the reading list.
Attendance is heartily recommended. Students who are unable to attend, will have to study some supplementary or different material. Enrolment in the course via aulaweb is mandatory. The password will be provided at the beginning of the course.
Students who have already passed an exam on sixteenth and early seventeenth century literature will have to inform Prof. Villa to find out whether they can take this exam on a modified reading list.
This syllabus is valid till July 2018.
