ENGLISH LITERATURE 2

This course is an introduction to the major artistic and literary phenomena of 19th Century England, also considered with reference to the European context. It is addressed to students of the literary-cultural Curriculum of LCSL, and it will build upon their knowledge in the field of study acquired in the previous year. The study of novels and essays will enhance their skills in textual analysis, in understanding historical and cultural contexts, and in the acquisition of critical language. Classes will be mostly taught in English and the students’ active participation will be encouraged.

The study of novels and essays will enhance the student's skills in textual translation and comprehension, in textual analysis, in understanding historical and cultural contexts, and in the acquisition of critical language. The students’ active participation in class will be encouraged. During the module students can write a 2500-word essay on a non compulsory basis to enhance their critical skills in written English.

A good knowledge of the English language, enabling the student to read and translate literay texts.

TITLE: The rebel girl, the fallen woman, the stranger, the savage: figures of the misfit in Victorian Literature.

This module aims to provide the student with the critical tools enabling to read mid-nineteenth-century English fiction. We shall initially give some conceptual coordinates of the period and highlight the terms of the current debate on what we can mean by « Victorian ». The aim of the course is to introduce the student to the most relevant literary phenomena characterizing 19th century Britain, and their interconnection with the main historical and social factors, i.e. the Industrial Revolution, colonialism, the woman question. The main part of the course will be devoted to the reading of works written in the decades 1847-1867. We shall study in particular three novels and a dramatic monologue whose main characters, in different ways, embody the condition of marginalization. Excluded from their family, society, or even from mankind (like Robert Browning’s Caliban, the «lesser creature» from Shakespeare’s the Tempest), each of them raises questions on the relationships between social and religious norms and transgression, striving for inclusion by challenging the notions of individual freedom, tolerance, collective responsibility.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

1. the literary context:
1.a) Philip Davis, The Victorians, Oxford: OUP, 2001 (chapters: 1- 3: pp. 13-157 ; 5: pp. 197-256);
1.b) F. Marucci, Storia della letteratura inglese. (Firenze, Le Lettere 2003) vol. III: dal 1832 al 1870, Il romanzo: pp. 489-498, 517-522 (Gaskell); 554-573, 593-605 (Ch. Bronte); 801-811, 852-864 (G. Eliot);
or:
1.b) Pauline Nestor, Female friendships and communities: Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot and Elizabeth Gaskell (Oxford, OUP 1985);
1.c). Martens, The Poetry of Robert Browning, ch 3: "The Dramatic Monologue: Form and the Reader".

2. Works to be read in English:
2.a) Three novels (Penguin Classics or equivalent):
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847)
Elizabeth Gaskell, Ruth (1853)
George Eliot, Silas Marner (1861)

2.b) Robert Browning, Caliban upon Setebos (1864), in The Oxford Anthology of English Poetry, pp. 419-423.

3. To be read in an English-Italian edition (BUR, Feltrinelli, Mondatori):
W. Shakespeare, The Tempest.

Further reading material and criticism will be available on the Moodle platform after the beginning of the course.

The written exam will be on the following topics:

1. the Victorian Context
2. comment on a passage taken from one of the works
3. translation of a passage from one of the works
4. paragraph writing (in English) on one of the works

Lectures on the themes of the course; close reading, translation, and comment on the texts in English, discussion seminars.
All material will be available on the Moodle platform.

Students who will be unable to attend classes are invited to contact me at the beginning of the course.

written

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Poverty and inequalities" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development