OVERVIEW

This is a second-year course taught in the second semester. It introduces to aspects of nineteenth-century literature from Romanticism to the mid- and late-Victorian periods. Language: English. Credits: 9.

This course is also available as a 6-credit option (with a reduced syllabus).

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

BA courses aim 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.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

Students who attend this course regularly, and study the prescribed materials, will acquire a good 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 and thematic features and connect them to specific historical and cultural contexts.

PREREQUISITES

An acquaintance with literary periodization as customarily deployed in the study of European literatures; ability to understand English, both oral and written.

TEACHING METHODS

Lectures in English. Optional seminar activities will be made available. Attendance is heartily recommended. Students who are unable to attend will have to read some supplementary material.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

This course provides an introduction to the literature of the nineteenth century, through an historical and cultural survey of the Romantic, the mid-Victorian and the late Victorian periods. Its main focus on women novelists.

For students who choose this course as a 6-credit option the syllabus does not include the late Victorians.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Students will read the following works in any unabridged edition of their choice.

- one novel chosen between: Jane Austen Persuasion, and Mary Shelley, Frankenstein;

- one novel chosen between Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, and George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss;

- one novel chosen between Olive Schreiner, Story of an African Farm e Ella Hepworth Dixon, Story of a Modern Woman;

- Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest.

Students will also have to make themselves familiar with the history of English Literature 1785-1900. Other materials (poems, essays, contextual and critical texts) will be made available through aulaweb and/or in the Department library.

Students who opt for the 6-credit course will have to attend only two thirds of the lectuers, and will not need to study the late Victorian texts (i.e. Wilde's play, and the Schreiner/Dixon novel).

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

LAURA COLOMBINO (President)

LUISA VILLA (President)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

February 20, 13-15 (aula 18, Albergo dei Poveri)

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

This course is assessed by written examination (the total test-time is 4 hrs; 3hrs for the 6-credit option) on the contents of the course and the reading list, including anthological selections, criticism and other materials provided during the lectures. Language of examination: Italian or English (students are free to choose either). 

ASSESSMENT METHODS

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.

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

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 unige website.