POSTCOLONIAL SOCIETY AND CULTURES

The course is linked to the teaching of the English language. It aims to improve the linguistic skills already acquired and introduces students to the knowledge and understanding of various texts (poetic texts) ranging from Seamus Heaney to Douglas Livingstone, and discussing some of the main and post-colonial theory books and some eco-critical essays. In particular, it aims to:
– Allow students to gain the ability to read, translate and understand a literary text in its context, and to critically comment on it;
– Allow them to use the methodologies of textual analysis appropriate to the proposed texts and literary genres;
– Allow them to communicate effective observations derived from the texts and historical-cultural periods dealt with in class.

A finer competence with English language, especially that one used in contemporary literary texts. Students will be guided to critically read and comment various literary texts (mainly poems) and specific theory books in order to become aware of the causes and consequences of colonialism and neo-colonialism which have condemned many Third World countries to poverty and decadence. The module will be focussed on Scotland, Ireland and South Africa, and will present some of the key events linked with the last decades in some post-colonial parts of the world, including a discussions about pollution, climate change, global warming, privatization of land, destruction of wild areas, etc.

None but a reasonable ability to read texts in the English language and about the history of some post-colonial countries such as Ireland, Scotland, South Africa.

This module will offer a general overview on some poetical productions from the 1960s to contemporary writing. It will insist on some of the major writers from Ireland, Scotland and South Africa, such as Douglas Livingstone, Seamus Heaney and Norman MacCaig. A special attention will be dedicated to those texts which have spoken out about the environment and climate crises, about some abuses and violences against our Planet. A certain number of lectures will also be dedicated to some of the formal aspects and tecniques of poetical writing, such as repetition, metaphor, rhyme, stanzas, etc. Some writers and poets might be invited, as guests, to contribute to some of the main lectures.

PRIMARY SOURCES

1. SEAMUS HEANEY: SELECTED POEMS (UNA SCELTA DI POESIE)
2. DOUGLAS LIVINGSTONE: SELECTED POEMS (UNA SCELTA DI POESIE)
3. NORMAN MACCAIG: SELECTED POEMS (UNA SCELTA DI POESIE)

SECONDARY SOURCES ON HEANEY, LIVINGSTONE AND MACCAIG

1. ON SEAMUS HEANEY
—SEAMUS HEANEY, “The Sense of Place”, in Preoccupations, London, Faber & Faber, 1981, pp. 131-149;
—SUSANNA LIDSTROM, Nature, Environment and Poetry, London, Routledge, 2015 (selected pages/pagine scelte);
—TIM WENZELL, Emerald Green, Cambridge, Cambridge Scholars, 2009 (selected pages/ pagine scelte);

2. ON DOUGLAS LIVINGSTONE
—DOUGLAS LIVINGSTONE, “The Other Job”, in Loving. Selected Poems and Other Writings, Venezia, Amos Edizioni, 2009, pp. 59-81;
—MARISS EVERITT, “Jack Sprat and His Wife: Symbiosis in Douglas Livingstone’s A Littoral Zone”, English in Africa (32, 2) October 2005, pp. 53-67;
—MARCO FAZZINI, “With the Miracle of Tolerance”, in The Saying of It, Pisa, ETS, 2017, pp. 87-99.

3. ON NORMAN MACCAIG
—MARCO FAZZINI, “The Language of Alterity. MacCaig the Equilibrist”, in Crossings, Venezia, Supernova, 2000, pp. 39-61;
—COLIN NICHOLSON, “Such Clarity of Seeming”, in Poem, Purpose and Place, Edinburgh, Polygon, 1992, pp. 37-56;
—VALERIE GILLIES, “A Metre of Landscape”, in Norman MacCaig. Critical Essays, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 1990, pp. 145-156.

THEORY BOOKS
—KEN HILTNER, Ecocriticism: The Essential Reader, London, Routledge, 2015 (selected pages/ pagine scelte).
—ASHCROFT-GRIFFITHS-TIFFIN, The Empire Writes Back (Routledge, 1989): introduction chapt.
—CHILDS-WILLIAMS, An Introduction to Post-colonial Theory, London, Routledge, 1997 (selected pages on Fanon, Césaire, Bhabha).
—ASHCROFT-GRIFFITHS-TIFFIN, Postcolonial Studies: The Key Concepts, London, Routledge, 2000 (selected pages and chapters/ pagine scelte e capitoli selezionati).
—AIMÉ CÉSAIRE, Discourse on Colonialism (Monthly Review Press, 1955-1972).

Starting from the reading and translation into Italian of a passage from one of the primary texts (chosen by the lecturer), the exam will be devoted to evaluating the student's capacity to comment on the passage/s, in a larger discourse involving the whole novel/poem, other passages from the same work or from the other texts on the syllabus, and in the light of the problematical issues (related to the history and the literary and cultural questions of the period) discussed in class or in the critical set texts.

Lectures, with class discussions. DVDs, Cds, invited guests from various parts of the world.

English

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