Learning objectives
To give the students the opportunity to know the development of English literature from 1660 to the end of the 19th century by looking at some representative texts and analysing the socio-cultural contexts in which they were produced. To provide the students with the theoretical and critical tools necessary to approach the literary discourse, as well as to read and discuss any literary topic autonomously.
Prerequisites
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Course unit content
Thematic itineraries in English Literature from the Restoration to the End of the 19th century
The course aims at introducing and illustrating the development of English literature from the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 to the end of the 19th century. The methodological approach consists of devising specific thematic itineraries investing the whole period in question, by selecting for each of them some representative texts. Each of these examples will be first examined within the historical-cultural context in which it was produced, and then in its formal and conceptual features. Ultimately, the course intends to guide the students along a complex literary path, certainly heterogeneous and hardly definable according to fixed paradigms but, at the same time, marked by essential and crucial moments and fils rouges that will allow the students to see the connections and evolving processes characterising the period under examination.
Full programme
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Bibliography
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, voll. I e II (introductory sections to each period and to the authors and texts in the programme)
L. M. Crisafulli e E. Keir (a cura di) Manuale di letteratura e cultura inglese (Bononia UP 2009) (in particular the following sections and chapters: Il Settecento: Introduzione; Il romanzo del Settecento; Il Romanticismo: Introduzione; La poesia del Romanticismo; La narrativa nell’età delle rivoluzioni (1780-1830); Il teatro romantico; La critica romantica; Introduzione: I Vittoriani; Il romanzo vittoriano; L’estetismo: Pater e Wilde; La New Woman; La poesia vittoriana; Il teatro vittoriano; Il viaggio in Italia; Esotismo e Orientalismo; Critica e teoria letteraria inglese).
Teaching methods
Lectures and class discussion on the selected texts of the course.
Assessment methods and criteria
Oral examination
Other information
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