Learning outcomes

The module aims at offering an overview of nineteenth- and twentieth-century English literature with particular reference to some of its major works, as well as at presenting the students with the basics of textual and literary genre analysis.

Program

Moses and the others. Biblical routes/roots in Victorian poetry.
Through a selection of Victorian poetry, and with special regard to the dramatic monologue genre, the module aims at retracing interpretative routes that rely on the typological reading of the Bible.
The module will be set up into lectures (24h = 4CFU) and a seminar (24h = 2CFU) intended to further the discussion of the syllabus and to apply to textual analysis the critical tools presented during the classes. Non-attending students are required to follow the primary text and reference lists recommended to attending students and to complement it with the supplementary reference list.

Language: the module will be held in Italian; primary texts will be read in English.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary texts
- R. Browning, «The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed’s Church», Dramatis Romances and Lyrics [1845], in Poems – Poesie, a c. di A. Righetti, Mursia, 1990.
- R. Browning, «One Word More», Men and Women [1855], any English edition.
- G. M. Hopkins, «A Soliloquy of One of the Spies left in the Wilderness» [1864], any English edition.
- G. M. Hopkins, «Winepress and Barnfloor» [1865], any English edition.
- T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock [1917] in Opere di T.S. Eliot, a c. di R. Sanesi, Bompiani, 1961, pp. 160-168.
- J. Joyce, The Dead, da Dubliners [1914], Penguin, 1992, pp.175-225.
- V. Woolf, da To the Lighthouse [1927], Penguin, 1992, pp. 31-35.
- S. Beckett, Krapp’s Last Tape [1958], in Krapp’s Last Tape and Embers, Faber, 1959, pp. 7-20.

References
- E. Auerbach, «Figura», in Studi su Dante, a c. di D. della Terza, Feltrinelli, 2007, pp. 176-226.
- C. Segre, «Generi», in ID., Avviamento all’analisi del testo letterario, Einaudi, 1985, pp. 234-263.
- A. Righetti, «Introduzione» in R. Browning, Poems – Poesie, a c. di A. Righetti, Mursia, 1990, pp. 5-33.
- C. D. J. Pearsall, «The Dramatic Monologue», in The Cambridge Companion to Victorian Poetry, CUP, pp. 67-88.
- E. Auerbach, Mimesis. Il realismo nella letteratura occidentale, Einaudi, 1972, vol. II, pp. 305-338.
- F. Gozzi, «La rottura dei codici: il linguaggio protagonista», in G. Cianci (a c. di), Modernismo/i: dall’avanguardia storica agli anni Trenta e oltre, Principato, 1991, pp. 290-312.
- G. P. Landow, Victorian Types, Victorian Shadows. Biblical Typology in Victorian Literature, Art and Thought, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980, pp. 3-63 e pp. 179-187.
- M. Bacigalupo, «Le poetiche dell’impersonalità: Pound, Eliot, Joyce e Lewis», in G. Cianci (a c. di), Modernismo/i: dall’avanguardia storica agli anni Trenta e oltre, Principato, 1991, pp. 262-264.
- T.S. Eliot, Tradition and the Individual Talent e Hamlet, in Selected Prose of T.S. Eliot, a c. di F. Kermode, Faber, 1975, pp. 37-49.
- P. Lawley, «Stages of Identity: from Krapp’s Last Tape to Play», in The Cambridge Companion to Samuel Beckett, a c. di J. Pilling, CUP, 1994, pp.88-105.

Supplementary references for non-attending students
- A. Righetti, Dittico Eliotiano, Il Segno, 1984, pp. 11-93.
- A. Righetti, Il ritratto, l’epitaffio, il clavicordo. Analisi di tre monologhi drammatici di R. Browning, Libreria Universitaria Editrice, 1981, pp. 83-136.
- A. van Buren Kelley, The Novels of Virginia Woolf. Fact and Vision, The University of Chicago Press, 1973, pp. 114-143.
- P. O’Donovan, «Beckett’s Monologues: The Context and Conditions of Representation», in The Modern Language Review, Vol. 81, No. 2 (Apr. 1986), pp. 318-326.

Handbooks
As regards the literary and cultural context spanning from the 1830s to the present, students are free to choose between the following handbooks:
- A. Sanders, The Short Oxford History of English Literature, OUP, 2004.
- Storia della letteratura inglese, a cura di P. Bertinetti, Einaudi, 2000, vol. II.

To facilitate textual reading, students may refer to any of the following optional handbooks of narratology, rhetoric, stylistics and poetics:
Narratology:
- A. Marchese, L’officina del racconto, Milano, Mondadori, 1990.
Rhetoric, stylistics and poetics:
- B. Mortara Garavelli, Manuale di retorica, Milano, Bompiani, 1999.
- M. P. Ellero, Introduzione alla retorica, Firenze, Sansoni Editore, 1997.
- A. Marchese, Dizionario di retorica e stilistica, Milano, Mondadori, 2002.
- A. Marchese, Il laboratorio della poesia, Milano, Mondadori, 1997.
- O. Reboul, Introduzione alla retorica, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1996.

Please be advised
Further details on required readings and general information on bibliographical material will be provided during classes.

Examination Methods

The exam will consist in an oral discussion of the module’s topics in Italian and in English. Students attending the seminar may also take in progress written tests.
Non-attending students will take an oral exam only.

Teaching materials e documents

•   Calendario conferenze Primavera 2010   (pdf, it, 51 KB, 17/03/10)
•   Calendario e Programma   (pdf, it, 118 KB, 25/02/10)
•   Lezione prof. Enoch Brater - 12 aprile 2010   (pdf, it, 175 KB, 13/04/10)