CANADIAN STUDIES
- Academic year
- 2020/2021 Syllabus of previous years
- Official course title
- CANADIAN STUDIES
- Course code
- LMJ060 (AF:310718 AR:175458)
- Modality
- Blended (on campus and online classes)
- ECTS credits
- 6
- Degree level
- Master's Degree Programme (DM270)
- Educational sector code
- L-LIN/11
- Period
- 1st Semester
- Course year
- 2
- Where
- VENEZIA
- Moodle
- Go to Moodle page
Contribution of the course to the overall degree programme goals
1. know in depth representative texts from the works of the three authors under scrutiny;
2. understand the ingredients of what is meant by Canadianness in the three contexts that emerge from the texts under scrutiny (the wilderness, rural Canada, urban Canada);
3. skillfully handle stylistic and formal concepts, applying them to the texts in the syllabus contrastively with special attention to the effect they create on readers;
4. read and discuss knowledgeably the secondary materials in the syllabus, formulating judgements;
5. analyze and contextualize primary and secondary texts with self-direction and autonomy.
Expected learning outcomes
Pre-requirements
Contents
Referral texts
Primary texts:
Surfacing
From Wilderness Tips (“Hairball”, “The Bog Man”, “Death by Landscape”, “Wilderness Tips”)
Secondary texts:
Atwood, Margaret. Survival. 25-68
——. On Being a Woman Writer.
Bouson, Brooks. “Cultural Feminism, Female Madness, and Rage in Surfacing.” In Brutal Choreographies. Oppositional Strategies and Narrative Design in the Novels of Margaret Atwood. 39-61.
Davidson, Arnold. “Negotiating Wilderness Tips.” In Approaches to Teaching Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Other Works. 180-186.
Atwood, Margaret. Paris Review. The Art of Fiction. No. 121
http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2262/the-art-of-fiction-no-121-margaret-atwood
Alice Munro:
primary texts:
From Dear Life, "Dear Life"
From Dance of the Happy Shades, The Peace of Utrecht"
From Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage (“Floating Bridge” “Nettles”)
secondary texts:
Munro, Alice. Paris Review. The Art of Fiction. No. 137
http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1791/the-art-of-fiction-no-137-alice-munro
Blodgett, E.D. Alice Munro. Pp. 1-13
Martin, W.R. Alice Munro. Paradox and Parallel. Pp. 1-13; 187-206.
Michael Ondaatje
primary texts:
In the Skin of a Lion
Secondary texts:
Barbour, Douglass. Michael Ondaatje. 1-9;179-205.
All course materials (with the exclusion of the two novels, Surfacing and In the Skin of the Lion) are available on moodle.
Assessment methods
The exam of Canadian Studies (American Literature 1) LMJ060 (LMJ390) will be an oral. On the day scheduled for the exam (according to the usual calendar) the students who signed up in the usual way will be met in a GMeet room (whose link will be posted on my avvisi page and on the Course board in Moodle) and identified. Then I will proceed with the orals according to the order in which you signed up or, in the case the number of students who signed up is to high to be handled in one session, I will subdivide the group and propose other days to complete the orals (taking into consideration your needs – the dates of other exams - as well).
The written exam consists in three Essay Questions and one Close Reading. It aims at assessing the student’s skills at:
1. applying a specific and precise vocabulary in discussing the relationship between formal choices and thematic issues connecting two or more texts among the ones discussed (Essay Questions);
2. recognizing the features of the poetics presented and demonstrating the capacity to handle the critical materials in the syllabus flexibly and appropriately while analyzing two brief excerpts taken from two texts in the syllabus (Close Reading);
3. articulating interpretive autonomous judgements while entering in a critical conversation with the texts in the syllabus (Essay Questions and Close Reading).
Duration and evaluation:
the exam must be completed in 4 hours. Students must obtain a pass in each part in order to pass the whole exam.
Attending students will have the option to complete the Close Reading during the course with one midterm (the details and date will be posted on Moodle).
IMPORTANT: non-attending students—who are invited to e-mail the instructor or come during office-hours to present themselves—, are required to complement the written exam with an oral exam.