This is a second-year course taught in the first and second semesters. It introduces to aspects of nineteenth-century literature from Romanticism to the mid and late Victorian periods. Language: Italian. Credits: first semester: 3; second semester: 6.
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 nineteenth-century fiction, 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 in Italian and optional seminar activities. Attendance is heartily recommended. Students who are unable to attend will have to read some supplementary material. Erasmus students with little knowledge of Italian should contact Professors Colombino and Villa: they will be allowed to take the exam on a slightly 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 nineteenth century. The first part of the course (first semester, 18 hours/3 credits; Prof. Villa) will offer a historical and cultural survey of the Romantic period. The remaining lectures (second semester, 36 hours/6 credits; Prof. Colombino) will focus on the mid- and late Victorian period.
Students will read the following works in any unabridged edition of their choice.
First semester:
Jane Austen, Persuasion
Mary Shelley, Frankestein
Second semester:
Two novels, one by Charles Dickens and one by Thomas Hardy, chosen between the following:
- Charles Dickens, Hard Times and Great Expectations;
- Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native and Tess of the D’Urbervilles;
A play by Oscar Wilde (further details will be provided at the beginning of the course).
Students will also have to make themselves familiar with the history of English Literature 1785-1900. The reference book is Crisafulli-Elam. Manuale di letteratura e cultura inglese, Bononia UP, 2009, pp. 181-326). Other materials (poems, essays, contextual and critical texts) will be made available through aulaweb and/or in the Department library.
LUISA VILLA (President)
MARIA RITA CIFARELLI
LAURA COLOMBINO
TIME OF CLASSES (weekly): Thursday 14-16, room 17 (Albergo dei Poveri)
START OF CLASS: Thursday Oct. 13, 2016
This course is assessed by written examination (the total test time is 4 hrs.) on the contents of the course and the reading list, including the textbook (Crisafulli-Elam) and other compulsory materials. Language of examination: Italian or English (students are free to choose either).
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. Course enrolment via aulaweb is mandatory. Examination enrolment is through the Ateneo website.
