CULTURES AND SOCIETY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE

The course, as part of the courses specifically related to the Languages taught in the LCSL degree course, enlarges the knowledge of the linguistic, literary and cultural heritage of Great Britain by focussing on the main characteristics of its history and its social and political culture, while – at the same time - further widening, through the reading of texts in the original language, the students’ lexical mastery of the English language.

The course investigates the characteristic features and peculiarities of British history and British social and political culture, as they have developed historically over the centuries in the wider context of European and Global history. Students will develop their critical capacity of analysis of those phenomenons, and the consciousness of the implied social, scientific, and ethical issues. Through the analysis of the texts on the syllabus, the students’ capacity of critical understanding and judgement - in a language both specific and proper - will be enhanced, also in a larger comparative perspective involving their knowledge and experience of Italian national culture.

Advanced skills in reading texts in the English language.

The Contemporary Literary Legacy of Anglo Imperialism

The course aims to provide an exploration of a set of narratives related to Anglo imperialism, both British and North American, starting from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, illustrating how writers and intellectuals engaged in debates about imperialism, such as the case of Twain and Kipling, as well as in its ambiguous literary representation, as in the case of Conrad’s "Heart of Darkness" (1899). The course will then offer examples of how the imperialist and Conrad’s legacies are inextricably present in postcolonial diasporic literary texts and in movies, adding layers of complexity to contemporary narratives. "Heart of Darkness," in fact, returns questionably in the novel "Paradise" (1994), by the Tanzanian-British author Abdulrazak Gurnah, and in the Hollywood classic "Apocalypse Now" (directed by F.F. Coppola, 1979), which is set in Vietnam but filmed in the Philippines, a detail central to the plot of "Insurrecto" (2018), a novel by the U.S.-based Filipina author Gina Apostol. The students will thus be able to navigate the multilayered ramifications of Anglo imperialism and its representations and to discern its legacy in contemporary narratives.

J. Conrad, Heart of Darkness
G. Apostol, Insurrecto
A. Gurnah, Paradise
R. Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden”
M. Twain, “To the Person Sitting in the Darkness”
Apocalypse Now (1979, F.F. Coppola)

A list of critical readings will be given at the beginning of the course, books and critical essays will be available at the University library or uploaded on the Moodle platform.

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

The written exam will be in English and will consist of three main questions about the referral texts designed to assess comprehension and contextualization skills, using the vocabulary learned in class.

Lectures, seminars and students' presentations

Italian

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

further reading will be available on the moodle platform at the beginning of the module.

written

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