The teaching is organized as follows:

Learning outcomes

The module aims at offering an overview of late-sixteenth- to nineenth-century English literature, as well as at presenting the students with the basics of textual and literary genre analysis.

Program

Stages and islands in English literature from the Renaissance to Romanticism.
The module will deal with a selection of dramatic, narrative and poetic seventeenth- to nineenth-century texts on the basis of changed (and changing) thematic an aesthetic guidelines connected with the elements of travel and the presence of the island in their various aspects, from magical to realistic and backwards. Different genres will be taken into account: from drama, to novel, to poetry.

Please be advised
Students are required to do all the readings indicated in the three sections below: 1. Primary Texts, 2. References, 3. Handbooks.
Non-attending students are also required to do the readings listed in the Supplementary references for non-attending students.
Further details on required readings and general information on bibliographical material will be provided during classes.
Language: the module will be held in English and in Italian; primary texts will be read in English.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Primary texts
- W. Shakespeare, La tempesta, a c. di A. Serpieri, Marsilio, 2006 (parallel edition).
- J. Dryden, The Tempest, or, the Enchanted Island, in The Works of John Dryden, vol. X, ed. by Maximillian E. Novak, University of California Press, 1970, pp. 3-103.
- D. Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, Penguin, 2001.
- S.T. Coleridge, La ballata del vecchio marinaio, a c. di G. Bompiani e M. Luzi, BUR, 1995 (parallel edition).
2. References
- R. Zacchi, «The Tempest: narrare e rappresentare», in The Tempest. Dal testo alla scena, a c. di M. Tempera, Clueb, 1989, pp. 9-20.
- R. Mullini, «‘A most majestic vision’: il masque in The Tempest», in The Tempest. Dal testo alla scena, a c. di M. Tempera, Clueb, 1989, pp. 21-40.
- E. A. Langhans, «The theatre», in The Cambridge Companion to English Restoration Theatre, ed. by D. Payne Fisk, CUP, 2000, pp. 1-18.
- L. Innocenti, La scena trasformata, Sansoni, 1985 (or the second edition, Pacini, 2010), p. 1-111.
- J. Powell, Restoration Theatre Production, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984, pp. 3-61.
- L. Innocenti (a c. di), L’invenzione del vero. Forme dell’autenticazione nel romanzo inglese del ‘700, Pacini, 1999, pp. 5-19.
- M. Seidel, «Robinson Crusoe: varieties of fictional experience», in The Cambridge Companion to Daniel Defoe, ed. by J. Richetti, CUP, 2008, pp. 182-199.
- J.J. McGann, «The Meaning of the Ancient Mariner», Critical Inquiry, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Autumn, 1981), pp. 35-67.
- D.S. Miall, «Guilt and Death: The Predicament of The Ancient Mariner», Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Vol. 24, No. 4, Nineteenth Century (Autumn, 1984), pp. 633-653.
Supplementary references for non-attending students
- P. Thomson, «Playhouses and Players in the time of Shakespeare», in The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare Studies, ed. by S. Wells, CUP, 1986, pp. 67-83.
- M. Dobson, «Adaptations and Revivals», in The Cambridge Companion to English Restoration Theatre, ed. by D. Payne Fisk, CUP, 2000, pp. 40-51.
- M. Dobson, The Making of the National Poet. Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Authorship, 1660-1769, Clarendon, 1992, pp. 1-61.
- J. Richetti, «Defoe as narrative innovator», in The Cambridge Companion to Daniel Defoe, ed. by J. Richetti, CUP, 2008, pp. 121-138.
- C.A. Owen jr., «Structure in the Ancient Mariner», College English, Vol. 23, No. 4 (Jan., 1962), pp. 261-267.
3. Handbooks
As regards the literary and cultural context spanning from 1590 to 1830 (from Shakespeare to Romanticism), students are free to choose between the following handbooks:
- A. Sanders, The Short Oxford History of English Literature, OUP, 2004.
- R. Carter, J. McRae, The Routledge History of Literature in English, Routledge, 2001.

Examination Methods

The exam will consist in an oral discussion in Italian and in English of the module’s topics.