At the completion of the course the student
- will have become familiar with major American historical and cultural developments, and with some major American writers and texts;
- will be able to interpret these developments in English and Italian with reference to fiction, poetry, drama and literary theory;
- will be able to contextualize and analyze texts and documents of notable complexity and historical significance and describe their cultural and linguistic peculiarities.
This is a lecture course given in English in the 2nd Semester. There will be 3 hours per week given in 2 classes. Students must enroll for this course in Aulaweb where they will find weekly notes & resources. The final exam is written. Students may write a paper after taking their final exam if they wish to improve their grade.
Topics of lectures, discussion and papers: Characters of American democracy. Whitman’s utopian democracy. Melville’s radical & ironic protesy. Thoreau’s civil disobedience. The question of slavery (Baldwin, Morrison). Beat literature. The Vietnam crisis: Robert Lowell e Norman Mailer. Protest and folk music: Dylan.
This is a provisional list of works that may be addressed in this course. A definitive Syllabus will be available on Aulaweb.
Outline of American History https://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/history/toc.htm
Outline of American Government http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/outlines/government-1991/
Dos Passos, The 42nd Parallel
Ginsberg, Howl
Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance
Ernest Hemingway, To Have and Have Not;
Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
Melville, Bartleby the Scrivener, The Two Temples
Thoreau, Walden
Whitman, Song of Myself
PAOLA ANNA NARDI (President)
MASSIMO BACIGALUPO
20 February 2019 (3 hours per week until May 15)
Note. This 6-CFU course is intended for graduates. However, students new to American literature and Erasmus students are welcome.
