ENGLISH LITERATURE
Academic year and teacher
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2022/2023
- Teacher
- PAOLA SPINOZZI
- Credits
- 6
- Didactic period
- Primo Semestre
- SSD
- L-LIN/10
Training objectives
- Students will widen their knowledge of British literature and culture from a theoretical, methodological, diachronic, and synchronic perspective.
Discussion of theoretical and methodological topics will highlight the metaliterary dimension. The study of specific authors and texts is aimed at: presenting the historical and cultural contexts in Great Britain and Europe; applying critical tools to literary texts and interpreting their aesthetic, ethical and ideological value.
Particular attention will be devoted to the students’ acquisition of skills required in job sectors such as literature teaching and publishing, which involve understanding how literary forms and genres have evolved through history and in relation to other cultural expressions. Prerequisites
- Knowledge of English language: B2 level
Course programme
- ECOLOGICAL NARRATIVES
Discourses of the environment permeate attitudes towards the present, representations of the past and perceptions of the future.
How do literatures and the media create narratives that interrogate Western and Eastern anthropocentric views and promote ecological thought and action?
How do the environmental humanities test new hermeneutic tools to assess the interdependence between natural and anthropic ecosystems?
Our focus is on new narratives of fragile and resilient environments; the im/material wellbeing of the organisms that live in them; the interconnections between diverse forms of life.
First, we will explore ecocritical theories and methodologies, then we will examine Cloud Atlas (2004) by David Mitchell, The Year of the Flood (2009) by Margaret Atwood, and Life on Earth (1979), Planet Earth (2006), Our Planet (2019) by David Attenborough, and Half Earth. Our Planet’s Fight for Life (2016) by Edward O. Wilson. Didactic methods
- Classes will be face-to-face and will tackle the historical and cultural context as well as specific authors and literary texts. To foster interaction, specific contexts and texts will be presented and students’ comments and questions will be encouraged.
The timetable is available on Classroom: https://classroom.google.com/c/NTUyMDgxNzI0MTYz?cjc=lnpocv2 Learning assessment procedures
- The exam consists of:
A. a written essay on the topics of the course;
B. an oral exam, focusing on the history of English literature as well as on the topics of the course.
The written part of the exam can be taken separately from and before the oral part only if you choose the first date available after the end of the course. After that date, the written and the oral part of the exam will have to be taken jointly on the same day.
All primary and critical works can be downloaded from Materiale didattico.
Assignments for the students who attend the course:
1.a) the study of the primary works;
1.b) the study of the critical works, 1 per 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 the critical works, 1 per primary work;
2) the study of two centuries of history of English literature. Reference texts
- PRIMARY TEXTS
David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas (2004)
Margaret Atwood, The Year of the Flood (2009)
David Attenborough, Life on Earth (1979); Planet Earth (2006); Our Planet (2019)
Edward O. Wilson, Half Earth. Our Planet’s Fight for Life (2016)
HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE
Ronald Carter, John McRae, eds, The Routledge History of Literature in English. Britain and Ireland, London and New York: Routledge, 2017, 3rd Edition.
All texts are available on Classroom:
https://classroom.google.com/c/NTUyMDgxNzI0MTYz?cjc=lnpocv2
