Teaching code

4S002911

Teacher

Susanna Zinato

Coordinatore

Susanna Zinato

Credits

9

Language

English

Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)

L-LIN/10 - ENGLISH LITERATURE

Period

I semestre (Lingue e letterature straniere) dal Sep 26, 2022 al Dec 23, 2022.

Lessons timetable Moodle Seminars

Learning objectives

The aim of the course is to provide students with: - a basic knowledge of the history of the British Empire - a basic knowledge of postcolonial theories At the end of the course students will be able to: - discuss the selected literary texts through the critical theories introduced in the course - discuss in English, in a clear and consistent way, the topics dealt with in the course

Prerequisites and basic notions

As required by the Regolamento Didattico of the degree course, students can sit for the exam of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures only after passing English Literature 1 and English Literature 1.

Program

RE-WRITING THE CANON: ANGLOPHONE LITERATURES/CULTURES AND THE EMPIRE'S DISCOURSE
The counter-discoursive re-writing,of, or “writing back” to, the works of the canon that have prominently figured in the ideology and imaginary of the British empire and that are still detectable in its post-imperial legacies, thus exposing their underlying ideological-cultural assumptions, has been vital and necessary for the re-birth and affirmation of the anglophone cultures and literatures of the former colonies. In the light of the main theoretical tools of Postcolonial Studies, the module will deal with the main narrative strategies – rhetorical as much as political – enacted by Caribbean creole Jean Rhys and by South-African J.M. Coetzee in their re-writing of two classic novels set in the period of colonization and imperialism, D. Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and C. Brontë’s Jane Eyre. In studying the subversive intertextuality superbly enacted by Rhys and Coetzee, attention will be focused over themes such as Otherness, identity/identitary alienation, the subaltern’s representation/voiceleeeness, resistance to the imperial/patriarchal dominion and to Euro-centric universality.
PRIMARY TEXTS (no abridgements):
-D. DEFOE : The Life and Strange and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719)
-J.M. COETZEE, Foe (1986)
-C. BRONTE: Jane Eyre (1847)
-J. RHYS: Wide Sargasso Sea (1966)
A) CRITICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY.
-C. Plasa,Textual Politics from Slavery to Postcolonialism: Race and Identification, Palgrave Macmillan, 2000, ch.3: “’Silent revolt’. Slavery and the Politics of Metaphor in Jane Eyre”+Ch.4: “‘Qui est là? Race and the Politics of Fantasy in Wide Sargasso Sea”.
-D. Head, “The maze of Doubting: Foe”, in ID, "J.M. Coetzee", Cambridge UP, 1998 (112-128).
ADDITIONAL OBLIGATORY CRITICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR NON-ATTENDING STUDENT:
-J Thieme, Postcolonial Con-Texts. Writing Back to the Canon, Continuum, 2002, the following chapters:
“Introduction: Parents, Bastards and Orphans”;
ch.3: “’ On England’s desert Island Cast Away’: Protean Crusoes; Exiled Fridays”;ch.4: “Reclaiming Ghosts, Claiming Ghosts: Caribbean and Canadian Responses to Brontes”.
-A. Howells, “The Madwoman comes out of the attic: Wide Sargasso Sea “ in ID, Jean Rhys, St.Martin’s Press, 1991.
-A. Moradi and F. Purgiv, “A Contrapuntal Reading of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe”, in Journal of Humanistic & Social Studies, Vol.8 (2017), 31-42.
Non-attending students are strongly recommended to read the Introductions to the novels.
C) Reference handbook: J. McLeod: Beginning Postcolonialism, Manchester UP, 2010, capitoli: 1-2-3-6-7-8
N:B: All the critical texts listed above are available at the A. Frinzi Library

Bibliography

Didactic methods

Frontal teaching lessons in English.
Students will have to register for the webclass on the e-learning platform, and check it regularly for updates and supplementary teaching material discussed in class and uploaded on moodle so as to be available and downloadable. The latter contents do not replace the critical material set in the syllabus, they simply complement it.

Learning assessment procedures

Oral exam in English.
The exam will principally consist in questions on the primary texts and the contents of taught classes. It will ascertain the students' reading of the scheduled critical bibliography and handbbok.
Non-attending students will be principally examined on the whole critical bibliography scheduled for them + handbook.
All students may be required to read and comment on passages taken from the primary texts, which they are strictly required to take with them at the exam.
There will be no mid-term tests.

Evaluation criteria

Students will have to demonstrate:
-knowledge of the texts set in the syllabus and their contexts
-ability to critically comment on them (by drawing on the notes taken during classes and on the critical material set in the syllabus, resorting to personal elaboration, too)
-knowledge of the main points of postcolonial theory
-use of a language appropriate for discussing literature

Criteria for the composition of the final grade

The final grade, awarded on a 30-point scale, will be based on the above-listed criteria.

Exam language

English