Teaching code

4S002911

Teacher

Susanna Zinato

Coordinator

Susanna Zinato

Credits

9

Language

English

Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)

L-LIN/10 - ENGLISH LITERATURE

Period

I semestre (Lingue e letterature straniere) dal Sep 25, 2023 al Dec 22, 2023.

Courses Single

Authorized

Lessons timetable Moodle Seminars 0

Learning objectives

The aim of the course is to provide students with: - a basic knowledge of the history of the British Empire - a basic knowledge of postcolonial theories At the end of the course students will be able to: - discuss the selected literary texts through the critical theories introduced in the course - discuss in English, in a clear and consistent way, the topics dealt with in the course

Prerequisites and basic notions

As required by the Regolamento Didattico of the degree course, students can sit for the exam of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures only after passing English Literature 1 and English Literature 1.

Program

TITLE: GROWING UP IN THE COLONY: THE WEST INDIAN AND THE AFRICAN COMING-OF-AGE NOVEL
This module will deal with the coming-of-age novel set in colonial Antigua and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and in apartheid South Africa, through close-reading, in context, of three texts representative of the postcolonial appropriation of the Bildungsroman genre.
TEXTS:
-J. KINCAID, Annie John (1983)
-T. DANGAREMBGA, Nervous Conditions (1988)
-A .FUGARD, Tsotsi (1980)
CRITICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY:
--L.C. CATON, “Romantic Struggles: The Bildungsroman and Mother-Daughter Bonding in Jamaica Kincaid’s Annie John”, Melus, Vol.21, No. 3 (1996), pp.125-142
-S. PATCHAY, “Transgressive Boundaries: Marginality, Complicity and Subversion in Nervous Conditions, English in Africa, Vol.30 (2003), pp.145-156
-R. BARNARD, “Tsotsi: On Law, the Outlaw, and the Postcolonial State”, Contemporary Literature, Vol. 49, No.4 (2008), pp.541-572
HANDBOOK: McLeod, Beginning Postcolonialism, Manchester UP, 2010: chs. 1-2-3-6-7-8
SUPPLEMENTARY OBLIGATORY CRITICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS:
-G. RAMPAUL, “The West Indian Child as Subject/Object: Interrogating Notions of Power in Annie John”, Journal of Caribbean LiteraturesVol.7, No.1 (2011), pp.153-160
-L. PARAVISINI-GEBERT, Jamaica Kincaid. A Critical Companion, Greenwood Press, 1999: Ch. 1 (“The life of Jamaica Kincaid”, 1-22) + ch. 4 (“Annie John”, 85-116)
-C. OKONKUO, “Space Matters: Form and Narrative in Tsitsi Dangaremgba’s Nervous Conditions, Research in African Literatures, Vol. 34, No.2 (2003), pp.53-74
-C. CONCILIO, “Trauma and Children’s Rights in Atol Fugard’s Tsotsi” (ch.18) in OBOE and Bassi (eds.), Experiences of Freedom in Postcolonial Literatures and Cultures, Routledge, 2011.
N.B.: attending and non-attending students are expected to know about the informative and critical material uploaded on the moodle of the course.
N.B.; The entire bibliography given above can be accessed through Frinzi Library (for the articles see Jstor in its Data Base section).

Bibliography

Didactic methods

Frontal teaching lessons in English, integrated by filmic material, which will devote time for summing-up and involvment of the attending students.
Students will have to register on the e-learning platform, and check it regularly for updates and supplementary teaching material discussed in class and uploaded on moodle so as to be available and downloadable. The latter contents do not replace the critical material set in the syllabus, they simply complement it.
Students unable to attent classes are required to prepare the exam programme specially prepared for non-attending students (see “Programme”) e to regularly check the course moodle to stay updated as to reading indications and material uoloaded on it. To get further bibliographical explanations they should contact directly the professor in her office hours.
Regularly-attending students in need of recuperating a few missed classes may receive useful indications directly by the professor in her office hours (‘ricevimenti’).

Learning assessment procedures

Oral exam in English.
The exam will principally consist in questions on the primary texts and the contents of taught classes. It will ascertain the students' reading of the scheduled critical bibliography and handbbok.
Non-attending students will be examined on the whole critical bibliography scheduled for them, handbook included (class notes excluded).
All students may be required to read and comment on passages taken from the primary texts, which they are strictly required to take with them at the exam.

Evaluation criteria

Students will have to demonstrate:
-knowledge of the texts set in the syllabus and their contexts
-ability to critically comment on them (by drawing on the notes taken during classes and on the critical material set in the syllabus, resorting to personal elaboration, too)
-knowledge of the main points of postcolonial theory
-use of a language appropriate for discussing literature

Criteria for the composition of the final grade

The final grade, awarded on a 30-point scale, will be based on the above-listed criteria.

Exam language

English