Teaching code

4S002910

Teacher

Alessia Polatti

Coordinatore

Alessia Polatti

Credits

9

Language

English

Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)

L-LIN/10 - ENGLISH LITERATURE

Period

I semestre dal Oct 1, 2018 al Jan 12, 2019.

Lessons timetable Moodle Seminars

Learning outcomes

The course, taught in English, is meant to provide students with an introduction to British literature from the Renaissance to Enlightenment, focussing on some of the most representative works. It also aims at introducing the main critical approaches and the main features of literary genres.
The overall goal of the course is to provide students with a good level of knowledge of literary history (in terms of historical context, texts, genres, movements and authors) and to develop their critical skills for analysis, argumentation and exposition in English, in relation to various typologies of literary texts in their historical-cultural context.

At the end of the course, students will be able to:
- analyse the set texts and place them in their respective historical-cultural contexts
- discuss the texts in a structured and informed way, taking into account literary conventions and applying an informed critical approach
- discuss literary topics in English in a clear and consistent way

Program

The course provides students with an overview on the representation of the figure of the “Other” and on the concepts of Englishness and Blackness in the English colonial literature of the end of XVII century and of XVIII century. Starting from an introduction to the English social and cultural context from the XVI to the XVIII century, the course will focus on the colonial era and its literary production by considering the relationship between colonizers and colonized people. We will examine both points of view in order to consider how stereotypes and racism characterised the complex interrelationship between “them” and “us”. Particular emphasis will be laid on the relationship between literary texts and their historical and socio-cultural contexts, in order to understand how literature has been vehicle of prejudices which have supported the colonial cause.
The course will be taught by means of lectures to be held in English. Students will have to bring their own primary texts at the exam.

PRIMARY TEXTS
• Aphra Behn, Oroonoko, or The Royal Slave (1688)
• Daniel Defoe, The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719)
• Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African (1789)

CRITICAL TEXTS:
• Andrew Sanders, The Short Oxford History of English Literature (dal cap. 3 al cap. 5)
• Banani Biswas, “Oroonoko: A ‘Royal Slave’ and/or a Master of Dignity”, in Advances in Language and Literary Studies, Vol 6, No 4 (2015), pp. 208-215.
• Andrew Fleck, “Crusoe’s Shadows. Christianity, Colonization and the Other”, in Christian encounters with the Other, 1998, pp. 74-89.
• Jocelyn Stitt, “Olaudah Equiano, Englishness, and the Negotiation of Raced Gender”, in MI: MPublishing, University of Michigan Library, vol. 14, 1999-2000, pp. 1-14.

ADDITIONAL CRITICAL TEXTS for students unable to attend lectures:
• Oddvar Holmesland, "Aphra Behn's "Oroonoko": Cultural Dialectics and the Novel", in ELH, Vol. 68, No. 1 (Spring, 2001), pp. 57-79
• David Blewett, “Robinson Crusoe, Friday, and the Noble Savage: The Illustration of the Rescue of Friday Scene in the Eighteenth Century”, in Man and Nature, 5, 1986, pp. 29-49.
• Laura Doyle, “Middle-Passage Plots”, in Freedom’s Empire: Race and the Rise of the Novel in Atlantic Modernity, 1640-1940, 2008, pp. 183-211.

Examination Methods

Oral exam in English at the end of the course.
The exam will assess the knowledge of texts on the syllabus and the capacity to critically discuss the problematic issues they deal with. In particular students will have to demonstrate knowledge of the historical and literary period; knowledge of texts and contexts (to be able to read primary texts within their historical, geographical and political framework); capacity to critically comment literary texts (to be able to discuss and analyse literary texts in a thoughtful manner and with the aid of critical works); ability to use theoretical tools; ability to express the critical interpretations of texts in clear and effective manners.