Learning outcomes

The course “Northern Elements in 18th- and Early 19th-century Literature” will show how literature, and the genre of the novel in particular, makes use of Northern and Saxon-gothic elements. Through this filter we will analyse how the aesthetic, cultural, economic, and philosophical changes of this complex age, rich in dramatic, historical events, will permeate the literary field.
The course will be taught in English.

Program

1. History of Literature from 1660 to 1850.


All Students must demonstrate to be able to illustrate the development of the various literary genres, pertaining authors and their works.


- Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. C, “The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century”, and Vol. D, “The Romantic Period”, Norton, New York 2006 (1962) for the period required. 

- Y. Bezrucka, Synopsis of English Literature, under publication.



2. Texts


- Horace Walpole, “The Castle of Otranto”, OUP or Penguin ed.
- Jane Austen, “Northanger Abbey”, OUP or Penguin ed.
- Emily Brontë, “Wuthering Heights”, OUP or Penguin ed.

- Charlotte Brontë, “Villette”, OUP or Penguin ed.

3. Bibliography:


Students will have to read:

- Y. Bezrucka, “Genio ed immaginazione nel Settecento inglese”””, Unversità di Verona, Valdonega 2002, (pp. 54-63, 109-13, 116-27)
- Y. Bezrucka, “L’invenzione del paesaggio nordico tra Settecento e Ottocento”, in ‘Il paesaggio romantico’, W. Busch, A. Larcati , Fiorini, Verona, 2012, pp. 41-67.

- Angela Wright, “Britain, France and the Gothic, 1764-1820: the Import of Terror”, CUP, Cambridge, 2012, pp. 1-33, 64-88, 120-147.
- Angela Wright, “Gothic Fiction: A Reader’s Guide to Essential Criticism”, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2007.
- John Allen Stevenson, “’Heathcliff is Me!’: Wuthering Heights and the Question of Likeness”. ‘Nineteenth-Century Literature’, Vol. 43, No. 1 (June 1988), pp. 60-81.
- Barbara Munson Goff, “Between Natural Theology and Natural Selection: Breeding the Human Animal in ‘Wuthering Heights’", Victorian Studies, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Summer, 1984), pp. 477-508.
- Christopher Heywood, “A Yorkshire Background for ‘Wuthering heights’”, ‘The Modern Language Review’, Vol. 88, No. 4 (Oct., 1993), pp. 817-30.
- J. Hillis Miller, "’Wuthering Heights’ and the Ellipses of Interpretation”, ‘Notre Dame English Journal’, Vol. 12, No. 2, (Apr., 1980), pp. 85-100.
- Syndy M. Conger and Margaret Homans, “Nature in ‘Wuthering Heights’ PMLA, Vol. 93, No. 5 (Oct., 1978), pp. 1003-1004.