Teaching code

4S002949

Teacher

Susanna Zinato

Coordinatore

Susanna Zinato

Credits

9

Language

English

Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)

L-LIN/10 - ENGLISH LITERATURE

Period

I semestre (Lingue e letterature straniere) dal Sep 27, 2021 al Jan 8, 2022.

Lessons timetable Moodle Seminars

Learning outcomes

The course, held in English, aims at introducing Students to the English Literature from the 16th century to the Restoration (1660), paying emphasis on some canonical literary texts. Besides, it will offer skills and abilities for the critical analysis of literary texts and their genres. The course objective is to provide a good knowledge of the literature of the period (historical context, texts, genres, literary movements and authors) and to develop in Students a capacity of analysis and argumentative abilities in relation to the various typologies of literary texts set in their literary, historical, and cultural context. At the end of the course, Student will be able to - analyse the examined literary texts setting them in their historical and cultural context; - discuss them in an argumentative way, with due consideration to contemporary literary conventions, and by applying a critical, knowledgeable, and aware approach to the specificity of the literary texts; - present the acquired competences in English, and in a coherent and clear way.

Program

EROS, POLITICS, AND POWER IN ENGLISH RENAISSANCE DRAMA

This module is centered on the period that, In England, ushers in early modernity: a period of radical upheavals - intellectual and material, religious and political - that mark the transition from the medieval to the modern. Theatre effectively embodies this intensely self-conscious, often violent and still engaging time, by addressing and interrogating all its major key-themes. This is brilliantly shown in the great tragic and problem plays of the Elizabethan and Jacobean period by Marlowe and Shakespeare selected for the course. These will be explored by focusing on the fil rouge of the agonistic relationship between the power of eros and the power of politics, that in its turn strongly involves a new, tragic approach to subjectivity, as well as an extraordinary tension between rhetoric and action, language and body.

The face-to-face classes, in English, will start from a contextual survey of the main themes and motifs realtive to the theme of the course, and will then focus on the scheduled primary texts. The students will be invited to participate, also through seminar-like moments of discussion and confrontation.

A) PRIMARY SOURCES:
-C. MARLOWE, "Edward II", M. Wiggings et al. (eds.), Bloomsbury Methuen Drama (2014)
-W. SHAKESPEARE, "Measure for Measure", N.W. Bawcutt (ed.), Oxford World's Classics (2008)
- W. SHAKESPEARE, "Antony and Cleopatra", M. Neill (ed.), Oxford World's Classics (2013)

B) CRITICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY:
-S. GUY-BRAY, "Introduction" (cf. New Mermaid edition above), pp.VII-XXVIII.
- N.W. BAWCUTT, in "Introduction" (cf. Oxford edition above): " 'Measure for Measure' as a Jacobean Play" (1-12) e "The Play" (42-63).
-M. NEILL, "Introduction" (cf. the Oxford edition above): "Reception" (1-5), "The Pattern of Anticlimax" (67-77), "The dislocation of identity" (78-88.)


C) HANDBOOK OF ENGLISH LITERARY HISTORY:
-A. SANDERS, "The Short Oxford History of English Literature", Clarendon Press, Oxford (1994): Ch. 3 ("Renaissance and Reformation: Literature 1510-1620)

NB: NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS WILL INTEGRATE (B) WITHE THE FOLLOWING, OBLIGATORY READINGS:
-T. CARTELLI, "Edward II" (158-173), in P: CHENEY (ed.), "The Cambridge Companion to Christopher Marlowe", Cambridge UP, 2004
-B. J. BAINES, "Assaying the Power of Chastity in 'Measure for Measure'", in Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Vol 30 (Spring 1990), No.2: 283-301 ( article downloadable from Jstor, data base in Frinzi Library)
-M. NEILL, in "Introduction" (cf. Oxford edition above): "The Play in perspective: Enobarbus as a choric fool" (89-94) e "The rhythms of nostalgia" (94-100)

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USEFUL, THOUGH COMPLETELY OPTIONAL, SUGGESTIONS FOR READING:
- R.A. FOAKES, "Playhouses and Players",in A.R. Braunmuller & M. Hattaway (eds.), "The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Drama" , Cambridge UP, 1990
-N. JONES, "The Politics of Renaissance England", ch.1 (13-24), in A.F. KINNEY (ed.), "A Companion to Renaissance Drama", Blackwell, 2002

ALL THE CRITICAL TEXTS CITED ABOVE MAY BE ACCESSED THROUGH FRINZI LIBRARY

Bibliography

Examination Methods

The exam will be oral and in English. It will be centered on the topics of the module discussed during classes and on the texts scheduled in the syllabsu (parts A, B, C). The students must have their primary sources with them.
The exam will start with the request of reading and commenting on one of the passages dealt with in class.