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 poems by American poets about the Second World War. 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 key poems by a number of poets, both combatants and non-combatants, written during or after the Second World War, but concerning the conflict. 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:
Poems by T. S. Eliot, W. H. Auden, Elizabeth Bishop, Anthony Hecht, Richard Wilbur, Randall Jarrell, Lincoln Kirstein.
Bibliografia secondaria:
Diederik Oostdijk: AMONG THE NIGHTMARE FIGHTERS: AMERICAN POETS OF WORLD WAR II
David K. Vaughan: WORDS TO MEASURE A WAR: NINE AMERICAN POETS OF WORLD WAR II
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.
Written exam. Students will be asked to write short papers and to identify and comment on passages from the texts.

Lectures and seminar-type discussions

English

written