ENGLISH LITERATURE 1

The course, as part of the courses specifically related to the Languages taught in the LCSL degree course, introduces students to the knowledge of the linguistic, literary and cultural heritage of English-speaking countries, and will enhance, through the practice of the historical, thematic, and stylistic analysis of literary texts, the students’ capacity of critical understanding and judgement, while enhancing their knowledge of English by the practice of reading texts in the original language.

The course will introduce students to the knowledge of the main literary artistic and cultural movements in England over the last three centuries, through the reading of classics, and more advanced critical texts than at school. Students will develop 1) their skills in reading, translating, and contextualizing a text through the acquisition of historical and literary competence, and of specific methodologies for the analysis of literary texts; 2) their capacity for criticism, and the formulation of arguments and judgements implying consciousness of the relevant social, scientifical, and ethical issues in the texts they study; 3) Students will also start to develop a professional attitude towards their field of study, i.e. the capacity to clearly communicate, and in a proper language, their critical reflections.

B2 Level in The Common European Frame of Reference for Languages. And a reasonable ability to read texts in the English language.

Title: Reason against imagination: Jane Austen, the Romantic revolution, and the culture of the novel.

Aim of this module is to introduce students to the culture of the novel in the United Kingdom from the rise of the novel to the crucial moment when the newly born genre – the eighteenth-century novel – had to face the problematic and often contradictory issues raised by the Romantic revolution at the beginning of the nineteenth-century, i.e. the century which was to become the golden age of the European novel and was to establish , at the same time, the foundations of the essential contradictions still haunting our modern conscience and life.
Starting with a brief outline of the essential elements of the rise of the novel with the publication of 'Robinson Crusoe' in 1719 (and of its development in the course of the eighteenth century), this course will investigate and discuss the crucial issue of the relationship between the individual and the world in the Bildungsroman and in the culture of the Romantic age through a close reading of Jane Austen’s 'Emma'. An over-active imagination is clearly the mark of excellence of the young Romantic protagonists, yet it is at the same time a possible source of corruption in the process of their Bildung: nearly a century after the first eighteenth-century English novel Robinson’s deserted island had become the island of Emma’s imagination.

An ideal attendance requires the reading of at least 'Emma', and possibly of the other chosen novel too, before the beginning of the lessons.

Primary Sources (Only “Penguin Classics” or “Oxford World’s Classics”).
To read in English and be able to translate into Italian*:
Jane Austen, 'Emma', ed. F.Stafford, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1996.
Students should also read ( in Italian or English) a second novel to be chosen between:
Daniel Defoe, 'Robinson Crusoe', ed. J.Richetti, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 2004.
Jane Austen, 'Northanger Abbey', ed. J.Davies and T.Castle, New York, Oxford University Press, 1998.
Students must also read:
W.Shakesperare, “Macbeth”, tr. e cura di Agostino Lombardo (con testo inglese a fronte), Milano, Feltrinelli, 2001 (to be read in Italian or English)* .

CRITICAL READING:
I.Watt, 'The Rise of the Novel', [1957], Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1977 (o la traduzione italiana: I.Watt, 'Le origini del romanzo borghese', Milano, Bompiani, 2002) ( Capitoli I, II, III e X).
F.Moretti, 'Il romanzo di formazione', Torino, Einaudi, 1999 (capitolo I, "Il Bildungsroman come forma simbolica",pp. 3-82)*.
L.Trilling, " ‘Emma’ and the Legend of Jane Austen", in 'Beyond Culture' [1955], New York, The Viking Press, 1968, pp. 31-55 (pp. 24).
T.Tanner, 'Jane Austen', Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1986 (Chapter 6, " The Match-Maker:‘Emma’ ", pp.176-207, and Chapter 2, "Anger in the Abbey: ‘Northanger Abbey’ ", if Northanger Abbey is among the chosen readings).
Students who choose 'Northanger Abbey' will also read:
T.Tanner, 'Jane Austen', Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1986, Chapter 2, "Anger in the Abbey: "Northanger Abbey" " .
Students who choose' Robinson Crusoe' will also read:
E.Villari, 'La tentazione fanatica di Robinson', in A.Cagidemetrio e R.Mamoli Zorzi a cura di, 'A Goodly Garlande', numero speciale degli “Annali di Ca’ Foscari”, XLII, 4, 2003, pp. 361-367.*

Additional readings will be available in MOODLE (http://moodle.unive.it )

(* Erasmus students may refer to the lecturer if they need a different syllabus, or a syllabus in a different language)

Starting from the reading and translation into Italian of a passage from “Emma” chosen by the lecturer, the exam will be devoted to evaluating first the student’s capacity to understand the passage in all its linguistic and cultural details, and then his/her capacity to comment on the passage, in a larger discourse involving the whole novel, other passages from the same novel or from the other two classics 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 texts.

Lectures, film screening.

Italian

Students who can’t attend lessons should refer to the lecturer for additional set texts and secondary works.

oral

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