AMERICAN LITERATURE 1 MOD. 1

This is an advanced course in North-American literature which provides the opportunity for students to develop original ideas applying them to a specific research context. Students are supposed to develop advanced skills for analyzing and contextualizing literary texts, le arning how to integrate knowledge and handle complexity, and to study in a manner that may be largely self-directed or autonomous.

The course will study a selection of 20th-century narrative poems, providing an overview of an important, if sometimes undervalued, tradition in American literature. The focus will be on major poems by Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, Anthony Hecht, James Merrill and A. E. Stallings. Students will be expected to show detailed knowledge of the works in question, and to develop their own independent analyses of the works, paying attention not only to thematic issue but also to questions of style and technique, and considering the relations between the various works and the literary and historical context in which they were created.

A general knowledge of the history of North-American literature. Some skills in literary analysis. C1 level in English.

We will consider the background history of narrative poetry in American literature and then study key texts by the five poets in the programme. Most of the course will be devoted to close analysis of the works, paying attention not only to thematic contents but also to questions of style, register, structure and imagery. Students will be expected to have some familiarity with metrical schemes (an extra lesson will be provided on this subject for those students unfamiliar with it).
A complete list of the poems to be studied will be found on the Moodle platform.

Bibliografia primaria:
Robert Frost: COLLECTED POEMS, PROSE AND PLAYS. Library of America.
Elizabeth Bishop: COLLECTED POEMS AND PROSE. Library of America.
Anthony Hecht: THE VENETIAN VESPERS. Oxford U.P.
James Merrill: THE COLLECTED POEMS. Random House.
A. E. Stallings: LIKE. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Bibliografia secondaria:
Steven P.Schneider (Ed.): The Contemporary Narrative Poem: Critical Crosscurrents. University of Iowa Press, 2012. (Selection of essays)
A detailed list of the poems to be studied will be provided on the Moodle platform.

The final exam is intended to verify that students have reached an advanced level in their knowledge and understanding of the texts on the programme, that they are able to discuss literary questions in appropriate language, and can express autonomous judgments when analysing the texts.

Please see the Moodle page for the revised format of the exam made necessary by the Covid crisis.

Lectures and seminar-type discussions

English

written