Learning outcomes

The module aims at offering an overview of late nineteenth- to twentieth-century English literature, and at presenting the students with the basics of textual and contextual analysis, as well as with an introduction to the theory of genres.

Program

“Between History and Myth in Modernist Experimentation”
The module will examine the relation between History and Myth in two prominent examples of Modernist literary experimentation: T.S. Eliot and James Joyce. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and The Waste Land will be analysed as privileged instances of T.S. Eliot’s interpretation of the notion of Tradition as well as of the relation between past and present through the use of the so-called mythical method. The first three chapters of Ulysses will instead provide revealing treatments of the topics of exile and the nightmare of history, as well as the first full-fledged application of the stream of consciousness technique. This experimentation will be located within a wider literary panorama spanning from the Victorian age to the late twentieth century.


LANGUAGE: The module will be held in English; primary texts will be read in English and translated into Italian.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Primary texts:
• James Joyce, Ulysses, part I, chapters 1, 2, 3 (1922; any English edition; recommended Italian edition: Ulisse, tr. and commentary G. De Angelis, intr. G. Melchiori, Milano, Mondadori 1978).
• T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, in R. Sanesi (ed.), Poesie, Milano, Bompiani, 1983.
• T.S. Eliot, La terra desolata (1922), ed. A. Serpieri, Milano, Rizzoli (BUR), 2006.

Secondary texts:
• G. Melchiori e G. De Angelis (eds), Guida alla lettura dell’Ulisse di James Joyce, Milano, Mondadori, 1984, pp. 11-106.
• A. Serpieri, Le strutture profonde, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1973, pp. 89-119.
• A. Tagliaferri, “Tradizioni rivisitate: Pound, Eliot, Joyce” (pp. 272-289); F. Gozzi, “La rottura dei codici: il linguaggio protagonista” (pp. 290-313); C. Corti, “Il recupero del mitologico” (pp. 314-341); Carla Marengo Vaglio, “Da Ulyssses a Finnegans Wake” (pp. 342-360): in G. Cianci (ed.), Modernismo/Modernismi, Milano, Principato, 1991.
• A. Marchese, L’officina del racconto, Milano, Mondadori, pp. 69-234.
• A. Sanders, The Short History of English Literature, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1994, chapters 7-10 (pp. 398-639); alternatively, L.M. Crisafulli e K. Elam (eds), Manuale di letteratura e cultura inglese, Bologna, Bononia University Press, 2009, pp. 283-411.

Examination Methods