Teaching code

4S002926

Academic staff

Emanuel Stelzer, Carla Sassi

Coordinator

Emanuel Stelzer

Credits

9

Language

English

Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)

L-LIN/10 - ENGLISH LITERATURE

Period

I semestre (Area Lingue e letterature straniere) dal Sep 22, 2025 al Dec 24, 2025.

Courses Single

Authorized

Lessons timetable Moodle Seminars 0

Learning objectives

The course, held in English, aims at introducing the students to English literature (from the Victorian to the contemporary period), with specific reference to a selection of canonical texts, and at presenting methodological approaches for the analysis of literary texts and genres. The course aims at providing a good knowledge of British literature (articulated in historical context, texts, genres, literary trends and authors) and the skills for a critical analysis and argumentation on different kinds of texts in their historical and cultural context. At the end of the course, students will be able to: - Analyse the literary texts of the programme in their historical and cultural context; - Apply an aware critical approach to literary texts and present an argumentation which shows knowledge of literary conventions; - Express the acquired literary and critical competence in English clearly and coherently.

Prerequisites and basic notions

To take the exam you must have passed the "saperi minimi" exam first.

Program

Representation of Rural Reality between the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries in Britain.
“'Country' and 'city' are very powerful words, and this is not surprising when we remember how much they seem to stand for in the experience of human communities”. With these words Raymond Williams in his seminal study The Country and the City (1973) outlines the importance of the city-countryside dialectic in Western culture. This course will focus on the representation of rural communities in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Britain and will be divided into two modules. The first module, taught by Prof. Emanuel Stelzer, will deal with two novels. In Thomas Hardy's classic, Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891), the countryside is represented in a complex way. On the one hand, the farmers' life is described with deep realism, on the other hand the rural landscape functions as an active element of the novel which reflects central themes such as fate, nature, and the industrial change that characterised the Victorian age. In the coming-of-age novel The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley (1953), set in the late Victorian period, the country house is the centre of the social, political and, above all, psychological dynamics of the action, with an interesting illustration of the relationships between villagers and the upper classes. The second module, held by Prof. Carla Sassi, will analyse the historical novel Consider the Lilies by Iain Crichton Smith (1968), set in Scotland at the time of the Highland Clearances. This text examines themes such as displacement, social injustice, and the spirit of resilience.

Bibliography

Didactic methods

Attending students: the course will be taught through lectures in English and moments of interaction with students on the topics covered during the lectures. Supporting material will be published on the dedicated e-learning platform. Students must study the materials below (sections A, B, and C).
Non-attending students: For non-attending students the programme is the one indicated on this web page and the material on the dedicated e-learning platform.
A) HISTORY OF LITERATURE HANDBOOK (obligatory) - Ronald Carter/John McRae (eds), The Routledge History of Literature in English. Routledge, 2017, pp. 243-535.
B) PRIMARY TEXTS (must be read in unabridged versions in English)
- Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles (Oxford Classics, Oxford University Press, 1988 or later editions, edited by Juliet Grindle and Simon Gatrell).
- LP Hartley, The Go-Between (Penguin, 2000 or later, edited by Douglas Brooks-Davies).
- Iain Crichton Smith, Consider the Lilies (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2018).
C) CRITICAL TEXTS (obligatory)
- Jessica Martell, 2013. “The Dorset Dairy, the Pastoral, and Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles.” Nineteenth-Century Literature 68(1): 64-89.
- Margaret A. Moan, 1973. “Setting and Structure: An Approach to Hartley's The Go-Between”. Critique: Studies in Modern Fiction 15.2: 27-36.
- Raymond Williams, 1973 (and subsequent editions). The Country and the City, Chattos and Windus, chapters 1 (“Country and City”) and 3 (“Pastoral and Counter-Pastoral”).
- Stan Smith, 2007. “A Double Man in a Double Place: Iain Crichton Smith” (ch. 4, pp. 41-55) in Poetry and Displacement. Liverpool University Press.
- OBLIGATORY FOR NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS:
1) Lynn Parker, "'Pure Woman' and Tragic Heroine? Conflicting Myths in Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles". Studies in the Novel, 24(3), 1992: 273-81.
2) Cairns Craig, "The Necessity of Accident: the English Fiction', in Nicolson, Iain ed. Iain Crichton Smith: Critical Essays (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1992), pp. 11-25 .

Learning assessment procedures

The exam will consist of a discussion in English on the topics of the course and the texts in the program.
Students with disabilities or specific learning disorders (DSA), who intend to ask for a modification of the exam under special conditions, must follow the instructions given here: https://www.univr.it/it/i-nostri-servizi/inclusione-e-accessibilita-supporto-a-studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/adattamento-prove-d-esame

Evaluation criteria

The assessment of learning outcomes is aimed at verifying: 1) knowledge of the history of English literature of the period according to the programme; 2) understanding of the primary texts in the syllabus, in their historical-cultural context; 3) the acquisition of a critical methodology appropriate to the analysis of texts and contexts; 4) the ability to analyse texts as well as to present and argue in English.

Criteria for the composition of the final grade

The final grade will be assigned by averaging the grades relating to the four criteria listed above.

Exam language

English