ENGLISH LITERATURE 3

This third-year course aims to perfect the skills gained in the first two years of the BA course in Lingue, Civiltà e Scienze del Linguaggio (literary and cultural path) and to strengthen the students’ basic knowledge of the history of English literature and culture. It will therefore focus on the early twentieth century, and will enhance the knowledge of the main literary phenomena within their historical and cultural (artistic, philosophical, epistemic) contexts.

The course aims to improve the students’ ability to use analytic instruments and methods, as well as to make autonomous judgements. The course, also in view of the writing of their BA dissertation and of further study, will enhance their skills in individual research.

Classes will be held in English. Students must therefore be able to understand, read, and critically discuss literary and cultural topics.

Early Twentieth-Century Poetry: Tradition and Modernism.
The course will deal with the first decades of the 20th century, and with the strong impact of modernist innovations and formal experiments. The background of philosophical and aesthetic “revolutions” will also be analyzed and English art will be compared to European avant-garde movements, which concerned, besides literature, the visual arts, cinema, theatre, and music.

Reading list
Primary texts
T. S. ELIOT
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Morning at the Window
Sweeney Among the Nightingales

Da The Waste Land (1922)
The Burial of the Dead
A Game of Chess

EZRA POUND
Da Hugh Selwyn Mauberley:
E.P. pour l’election de son sepulchre
Envoi (1919)

VIRGINIA WOOLF
Mrs Dalloway

JAMES JOYCE
Ulysses (Cap. 10: Wandering Rocks)
Secondary reading list

Students will study one of the following texts:
P. Childs, Modernism, Routledge, New York 2000.
Bradbury, Malcolm, & James McFarlane (eds.), Modernism: A Guide to European Literature 1890–1930 (Penguin "Penguin Literary Criticism" series, 1978).
Levenson, Michael (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Modernism (Cambridge University Press, "Cambridge Companions to Literature" series, 1999).
Bradshaw, David & Dettmar, Kevin, A companion to Modernist Literature and Culture, Blackwell, Oxford 2006.

In addition, students will have to choose two of the following essays:

From Storia della Civiltà letteraria inglese, edited by F. Marenco, Utet, 1996, vol. III:
Chapter 2 (M. Pagnini, Difficoltà e oscurità: il linguaggio del Modernismo, pp. 24-41)
Chapter 3 (F. Marenco, "Il romanzo, quel cannibale", pp. 42-74)
Chapter 7 (C. Marengo Vaglio, James Joyce, pp. 131-186)
Chapter 9 (A.L. Johnson, Thomas Stearns Eliot e lo sperimentalismo in poesia, pp. 226-270)
Chapter 12 (G. Cianci, Il Modernismo e le arti, pp. 334-357).

From Modernismo/Modernismi, edited by G. Cianci:
G. Cianci, “Modernismo/Modernismi” (pp. 15-45)
C. Corti, “Il recupero del mitologico” (pp. 314-341)
S. Sabbadini, “’Make it new’: il Mauberley di Pound e The Waste Land di Eliot (pp. 361-379)

Those unable to attend at least 2/3 of the classes shall choose four essays (instead of two) out of the above mentioned list.

Background studies (History of Literature):
To achieve a good knowledge of early twentieth-century English Literature the suggested handbook is:
Sanders, A., The Short Oxford History of English Literature, Clarendon Press, 1994, chapters 8 and 9 (trad. it. Storia della letteratura inglese, a cura di A. Anzi, Mondadori, 2001, vol. II, chapters 3 and 4).
Any other good book will be accepted.

Students will be evaluated in an oral examination. They will have to prove they know the primary texts and the secondary critical essays which are listed in the syllabus. They will also have to show they have acquired 1) a good knowledge of the cultural and historical contexts of the early twentieth century; 2) the capacity to use appropriate tools of textual analysis, and 3) the skills to make autonomous judgments on the texts analyzed.
The exam will be in English.

15 two-hour classes, one per week. Individual presentations will be welcome, and their results will be assessed.

English

Students unable to attend at least 2/3 of the classes will have to study some supplementary texts which will be recommended later.

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