Learning objectives
The course aims to provide students with some basic knowledge of the literary culture of the British Isles in order to enable them to contextualize literary data within complex series of historical-cultural events from both diachronic and synchronic perspectives. During the course students learn to: familiarize with a selection of main authors, works, movements and aesthetic ideas; understand and analyze literary texts, in translation and in the original language, which are particularly significant both in formal terms and in terms of thematic-ideological content; find further information on the topics under examination using both paper and digital bibliographies; formulate competent and motivated assessments of literary and cultural phenomena on the basis of carefully conducted textual analyses; communicate and discuss contents, analyses and assessments using a linguistic register appropriate to the topic, that is, suited to the terminology of literary studies.
Prerequisites
None
Course unit content
Taught in Italian and English, the course focuses on a selection of authors and works connected by the form and mode of the romance. Through an excursus from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, the lectures will retrace some of the foundational moments in the evolution and transformation of one of the most characteristic strands of English, and more generally British, literary and cultural history. During the lessons, historical-aesthetic contextualizations will regularly be accompanied by the analysis of the texts (in anthological form and in the original language) from a structural, stylistic and thematic-ideological point of view. Students are also required autonomously to read and study works in the full version, chosen from those listed in the exam syllabus, made available by the teacher at the end of the course and posted on the course's Moodle page.
Full programme
The extended program is made available online via the Moodle page of the course, at the conclusion of the course.
Bibliography
Bibliographic references are provided during the course and indicated in the exam programme.
Teaching methods
During the lectures, in Italian and English, the teacher will introduce the main elements of the historical-cultural context, and the profiles of the authors and texts with the aid of the course bibliography and additional textual or visual materials made available on the University’s Moodle platform (Elly). Suggestions will also be provided for autonomous study and in-depth analyses in order to stimulate the students’ ability to outline original and independent approaches to the analysis of the themes and problems raised in class.
Assessment methods and criteria
Knowledge and skills are assessed through an oral exam in Italian aimed at verifying: competence in expression in the Italian language, especially in the use of the register and terminology of literary studies; knowledge of texts, authors, contexts and formal and ideological issues addressed during the course and indicated in the exam syllabus; an adequate ability to learn and re-elaborate contents, as well as a degree of autonomy in finding information and making judgements. In order to assess the acquisition of such knowledge and skills, the questions in the oral exam aim to evaluate knowledge, the ability autonomously and originally to rework such knowledge, as well as the ability to apply it through text analysis and to expand it through connections, comparisons and contrasts. A fail is determined by the student’s lack of knowledge of the minimum contents of the course; inability to employ the register and terminology of literary studies; lack of autonomous preparation and an inability to solve problems related to finding information and decoding complex texts, as well as formulating autonomous judgements. A pass (18-23/30) is determined by the student's demonstration of having learned the minimum and fundamental contents of the course; the ability to express oneself, despite the communicative simplicity, in an appropriate register and with the terminology of literary studies; a sufficient level of autonomous preparation, ability to solve problems related to retrieving information and decoding complex texts, as well as formulating autonomous judgements. Average scores (24-27/30) are assigned to students who have a more than sufficient (24-25/30) or good (26-27/30) level of the evaluation indicators listed above. The highest scores (from 28/30 to 30/30 with honors) are assigned on the basis of a very good to excellent level of the evaluation indicators listed above.
Other information
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