AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course aims to familiarize students with major trends of American culture and with important works in different genres (fiction, essay, drama, poetry, film). Students will learn how to analyze such works competently from a historical and generic perspective.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

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 of the xxth century;

- will be able to interpret these developments in English and Italian with reference to  , poetry, art, fiction, music 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.

TEACHING METHODS

The course is composed of lectures as well as seminars. The latter will involve the active participation of students, who can engage in individual and/or group research and presentations. Three hours per week given in two classes (of 2 hours and 1 hour respectively).

LESSONS ARE IN ENGLISH.

For students who decide to come to lessons, attendance is mandatory for 28 hours out of 36 (75% of the course). Attendance is checked through signatures. 

Active attendance is highly recommended.

Students who are unable to attend will have to read some supplementary material.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The course will deal with the African American tradition from Colonial America to the contemporary period. Every year through different texts and perspectives, students will focus on some issues like slavery, African tradition, the Middle Passage, slave narratives, segregation, relationship with the white and European tradition, the Civil Rights Movement, till the most recent expressions like Black Lives Matter.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Manhood and Womanhood: An African American Perspective

This year's course focuses on reflecting on questions of womanhood and manhood in relation to the African American experience, from the arrival of Africans in the New World to the present. In the introductory part of the course, we will present a theoretical approach to the proposed theme. This will be examined through a close reading of two novels by Toni Morrison that are particularly concerned with these issues: Paradise (1993) and Home (2012).

For one week during the course, we will be honored to welcome Maria Del Mar Gallego Duran, a full Professor of American Literature and Culture from the University of Huelva, Spain. She will conduct lessons on the topic as part of the Erasmus+ Program. Maria Del Mar Gallego Duran has extensively researched Toni Morrison, with a particular focus on gender issues.

The dates of Professor Del Mar Gallego Duran's visit will be communicated in the coming weeks.

Toni Morrison, Paradise (1998)

Toni Morrison, A Mercy (2012)

Students are expected to have read Paradise by the 15th of February 2025

Additional critical material will be made available on AulaWeb.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

PAOLA ANNA NARDI (President)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

Second semester, February 2025, the precise date will be posted in aulaweb at the end of January 2025.

Class schedule

ANGLO-AMERICAN LITERATURE MOD. 1

FURTHER INFORMATION

This syllabus is valid till February 2026.

Erasmus students are welcome!

If you're a student with a learning difficulty, health problem or disability please contact the professor disabili@unige.it and and Professor Dickinson (sara.dickinson@unige.it)

You should also inform the professor with a mail to paola.nardi@unige.it well in advance of the exam.