ENGLISH LITERATURE II
Academic year and teacher
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2016/2017
- Teacher
- PAOLA SPINOZZI
- Credits
- 9
- Didactic period
- Primo Semestre
- SSD
- L-LIN/10
Training objectives
- Students will widen their knowledge of British literature and culture by acquiring diachronic and synchronic methods of investigation. Literary works will be examined in relation to the British and the European historical context.
Prerequisites
- None
Course programme
- British poetry will be explored from the Middle Ages to the 21st century in order to: 1. appraise aspects connected to specific cultural and historical contexts; 2. appreciate components that transcend time. The late medieval period will be represented by Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, written in the late 14th century. The early Renaissance will be examined in relation to Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542) and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1516/1517-1547), who introduced the genre of the sonnet in Great Britain. The Elizabethan age will be approached through the outstanding poetic production by Edmund Spenser (1552-1599) and Philip Sidney (1554-1586). The Jacobean and Caroline poetry spanning between 1603 and 1660 will be analysed with regard to John Milton (1608-1674) and the Metaphysical poets will be analysed with regard to John Donne (1572[1]-1631). The Restoration and the 18th century will be seen through the poetry by Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673). The Romantic poets will be appraised in relation to William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Victorian poetry will be discussed in relation to Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894) and the twentieth century in relation W. H. Auden (1907-1973), whose poetry became prominent in the Thirties. English poetry now will be the focus of the final part of the course.
Didactic methods
- Classes
Learning assessment procedures
- The exam consists of:
A. a written essay on the topics tackled during the classes;
B. an oral exam, focusing on the history of English literature as well as on the topics tackled during the classes.
Assignments for the students who attend the course:
1.a) the study of the primary works tackled during the classes;
1.b) the study of one critical essay per each primary work;
2) the study of A CENTURY of history of English literature.
Assignments for the students who do not attend the course:
1.a) the study of the primary works in the bibliography;
1.b) the study of one critical essay per each primary work;
2) the study of TWO CENTURIES of history of English literature.
Textbooks of English literature:
a) Andrew Sanders, Storia della letteratura inglese, Milano, Mondadori, 2000. Vol. 1: Dalle origini al secolo XVIII; Vol. 2: Dal secolo XIX al postmoderno.
b) Paolo Bertinetti, a cura di, Storia della letteratura inglese, Torino, Einaudi, 2000. Vol. 1: Dalle origini al Settecento; Vol. 2: Dal Romanticismo all’Età contemporanea.
c) David Daiches, A Critical History of English Literature, 2 volumes, London, Mandarin, 1994 (I edition 1960). Traduzione italiana Storia della letteratura inglese, 3 volumi, Milano, Garzanti, 1998.
d) The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 8th edition, 6 volumes, New York – London, W. W. Norton & Company, 2006-2007. Reference texts
- All the primary and secondary texts will be made available to the students.
