Learning outcomes

The module aims at offering an overview of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English literature, as well as at presenting the students with the basics of textual and literary genre analysis.

Program

«Original sin(s) and fictional conversions. From Milton to Richardson»
The module will deal with a selection of poetic and narrative late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century texts on the basis of the changed (and changing) notions of sin and conversion, and their representation, looking at their various literary, religious, and political aspects. Different genres will be taken into account: from epic, to spiritual autobiography, to novel.
The programme consists of three parts: primary texts, references (and supplementary references for non-attending students), and literary history.
Language: the module will be held in English and in Italian; primary texts will be read in English.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary texts
- J. Milton, Paradise Lost [Books I & IX], any English or parallel edition.
- J. Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, any English edition.
- D. Defoe, Moll Flanders, (ed. by D. Blewett), Penguin, 2003.
- S. Richardson, Pamela, (ed. by M. Doody), Penguin, 2003.
References
- M. Kishlanski, L’età degli Stuart, Il Mulino, 1999, ch. IX, X, XI.
- B. Lewalsky, “The Genres of Paradise Lost”, in The Cambridge Companion to John Milton, ed. by D. Danielson, CUP, 1999, pp. 113-129.
- D. Danielson, “The Fall and Milton’s Theodicity”, in The Cambridge Companion to John Milton, ed. by D. Danielson, CUP, 1999, pp. 144-159.
- R. Bell, “Metamorphoses of Spiritual Autobiography”, ELH, 44:1, 1977, pp. 108-126.
- N. Rosenfeld, “The Tempter in Grace Abounding”, in The Human Satan in Seventeenth-Century English Literature, Ashgate, 2008, pp. 31-52.
- R.S. Beal, “Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners: John Bunyan’s Pauline Epistle”, Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, 21:1, 1981, pp. 147-160.
- I. Watt, The rise of the novel: studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding, Penguin, 1972, pp. 9-59 e 93-173.
- S.C. Conboy, “Fabric and Fabrication in Richardson’s Pamela”, ELH, 54:1, 1987, pp. 81-96.
- L. Innocenti, “Introduzione”, in L’invenzione del vero. Forme dell'autenticazione nel romanzo inglese del ’700, a c. di L. Innocenti, Pacini, 2000, pp. 5-19.
- J. Clegg, “Defoe evidence and the eyewitness”, in L’invenzione del vero. Forme dell'autenticazione nel romanzo inglese del ’700, a c. di L. Innocenti, Pacini, 2000, pp. 21-77.
Supplementary references for non-attending students
- J. Carey, “Milton’s Satan”, in The Cambridge Companion to John Milton, ed. by D. Danielson, CUP, 1999, pp. 160-174.
- P.J. Carlton, “Bunyan: Language, Convention, Authority”, ELH, 51:1, 1984, pp. 17-32.
- R. DiGiuseppe, “The Ghost in Machine: Moll Flanders and the Body Politic”, Quaderni di Lingue e Letterature, 1993, pp. 312-326.
- C. McIntosh, “Pamela’s Clothes”, ELH, 35:1, 1968, pp. 75-83.
Handbooks
As regards the literary and cultural context spanning from 1660 to 1830 (from Milton to Romanticism), students are free to choose between the following handbooks:
- A. Sanders, The Short Oxford History of English Literature, OUP, 2004.
- R. Carter, J. McRae, The Routledge History of English Literature, Routledge, 2001.

To facilitate textual reading, students may refer to any of the following optional handbooks of narratology, rhetoric, stylistics and poetics:
Narratology:
- A. Marchese, L’officina del racconto, Milano, Mondadori, 1990.
Rhetoric, stylistics, and poetics:
- B. Mortara Garavelli, Manuale di retorica, Milano, Bompiani, 1999.
- M. P. Ellero, Introduzione alla retorica, Firenze, Sansoni Editore, 1997.
- A. Marchese, Dizionario di retorica e stilistica, Milano, Mondadori, 2002.
- A. Marchese, Il laboratorio della poesia, Milano, Mondadori, 1997.

Please be advised
Further details on required readings and general information on bibliographical material will be provided during classes.

Examination Methods

The exam will consist in an oral discussion in Italian and in English of the module’s topics

Teaching materials

•   Epic Simile in PL   (pdf, it, 123 KB, 28/10/10)
•   Genesis 25   (pdf, it, 32 KB, 19/11/10)
•   Genesis 3   (pdf, it, 28 KB, 23/10/10)
•   Maze, noun   (pdf, it, 224 KB, 26/10/10)
•   Maze, verb   (pdf, it, 173 KB, 26/10/10)
•   Paradise Lost_Contents   (pdf, it, 86 KB, 07/10/10)