OVERVIEW

Focussing on Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, this course provides an introduction to Elizabethan drama outlining its historical-cultural context, and its structural and formal features.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The courses of English literature and culture seek to provide students with a basic knowledge of the development of British literature and culture from the Renaissance to the twentieth century through the study of particularly significant genres and/or periods. The students who attend classes regularly and study the prescribed materials know aspects and problems of a specific literary-historical period, as well as one or more literary works, whose main formal and thematic features they are able to describe and link to specific historical and cultural contexts.

LEARNING OUTCOMES (FURTHER INFO)

Students who attend this course regularly and study the prescribed materials will acquire a detailed knowledge of some aspects of Renaissance literature. 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. In addition, the course seeks to foster the students’ critical thinking by providing them with the necessary tools towards the interpretation of complex texts that belong to a distant and crucial period in English literary history.

TEACHING METHODS

Lectures, in English, plus optional screenings of movies or recordings of theatrical performances and/or seminar activities (if the students who attend classes regularly will show an interest in the said activities). Attendance is heartily recommended. Students who are unable to attend will have to study some supplementary or different material.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

This course introduces the literature of the early modern era. The first part of the course will offer an historical-cultural survey of Tudor and Stuart England, as well as examining the genesis and the main features of the Elizabethan theatre. The remaining lectures will focus on the analysis of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, with a particular focus on the connections between the play and the Elizabethan milieu, as well as the rhetorical strategies the characters deploy in order to prevail in the political arena.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Students will have to study Julius Caesar (Garzanti edition, edited by A. Serpieri), as well as the other materials (poems, contextual texts, and critical essays) that will be made available either through aulaweb or in the Department library.

They will also have to make themselves familiar with the history of English Literature between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries. The reference book is: L. Hopkins and M. Steggle, Renaissance Literature and Culture, Continuum, London 2006, plus a small selection of supplementary materials concerning the 1660-1785 period, which will be made available at the beginning of the semester either through aulaweb or the Department library.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

DOMENICO LOVASCIO (President)

LUISA VILLA (President)

LESSONS

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

This course is assessed by written examination. Language of examination: English. The open-ended-question exam paper (3 hours) covers all parts of the syllabus (cultural and historical context, history of literature 1500-1785, and all the prescribed texts and critical materials). 

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The exam paper involves open-ended questions (on the historical period, the cultural contexts, the main authors, extracts of plays and novels) and guided commentary of literary texts. The open-ended questions test knowledge and comprehension; the guided commentary tests the students’ 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 students’ comprehension of, and ability to respond to, critical essays included in the reading list.

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

Enrolment in exams: online on www.unige.it.

Enrolment in the course via aulaweb is mandatory (enrolment is especially important for students who cannot attend their classes regularly). The password will be provided at the beginning of the course.

This exam syllabus is valid until July 2018.