Learning outcomes

The module aims at making students familiar with authors and genre modes representative of the English literature and culture of the period scheduled for the second-year course (1660-1830) and at fostering their critical approach to the texts and their contexts.

Program

Libertines and Libertinism from the Restoration Stage to the Eighteenth-Century Novel
The aim of this course is to guide students through a close textual and contextual analysis of the ‘progress’ of the rake figure and the themes of libertinism, from early- and late-Restoration comedy to the great and influential novel by Richardson, Clarissa, in the eighteenth century. The chosen point of observation will make it possible to focus on the ‘progress’ of the variously inflected debates of the time about issues such as authority, freedom, identity, that are paving the way to the modern.

BIBLIOGRAFIA
Testi primari
Premessa: si raccomanda lo studio delle Introduzioni alle edizioni sotto elencate.
- J. Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, A Satire against Reason and Mankind (1680)
- G. Etherege, The Man of Mode (1676), nell’edizione italiana con testo a fronte curata da V. Papetti, Rizzoli, 1993 oppure nell’edizione New Mermaids
- J. Vanbrugh, The Relapse (1696), edizione New Mermaids
- S. Richardson, Clarissa: Or, the History of a Young Lady (1747-48), le parti che verranno indicate a lezione, nell’edizione ridotta curata da J. Richetti e T. Bowers per Broadview Press di imminente pubblicazione (2010), o, in quella, ridotta, curata da A. Ross per Penguin (1986)

Testi secondari
- S. J. Owen (ed.), A Companion to Restoration Drama, Blackwell, 2001, capitoli 4 “Libertinism and Sexuality”, M.E. Novak), 6 (“Masculinity in Restoration Drama”, L.J. Rosenthal), 13 (“Restoration Comedy”, J.D. Canfield)
- J. Munns, “Change, Skepticism, and Uncertainty”, ch. 9, in D. Payne Fisk (ed), The Cambridge Companion to English Restoration Theatre, Cambridge U.P., 2000, 142-157
- J. Grantham Turner, “Lovelace and the paradoxes of libertinism”, in M.a. Doody and P. Sabor (eds.), Samuel Richardson. Tercentenary Essays, Cambridge U.P., 1989, ch.5, pp.70-88
- D. Berman, “Lord Rochester, apostate atheist”,pp. 52-56, in ID, A History of Atheism in Britain: From Hobbes to Russell, Croom Helm, 1988
Manuali
Il manuale di riferimento consigliato per il contesto storico-letterario (1660-1830) è: A. Sanders, The Short Oxford History of English Literature, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 2004, capitoli 4 (a partire dalla Restoration Literature), 5, 6.

Per la lettura dei testi si consigliano, inoltre, i seguenti manuali di consultazione, del tutto facoltativi:
- C. Segre, Teatro e romanzo, Einaudi, 1984, pp.1-26
- E. Aston, Theatre as a Sign System. A Semiotics of Text and Performance, Routledge, 1988,ch. 6 “Semiotics of Performance”
- A. Marchese, L’officina del racconto, Mondadori, 1983
Informazioni relative al materiale bibliografico e al suo reperimento saranno fornite all’inizio del corso.

BIBLIOGRAFIA SUPPLETIVA PER GLI STUDENTI NON FREQUENTANTI

- M. Thormalen, Rochester. The Poems in Context, Cambridge U.P., 1993, pp.190-203
- R. Markley, Two-Edged Weapons: Style and Ideology in the Comedies of Etherege, Wycherley and Congreve, Clarendon press, 1988, pp. 121-137
- J. Bull, Vanbrugh and Farquar, Macmillan, 1998, capitolo 3 (facoltativo), 4 (pp.40-51)
- S. Zinato, “La retorica blasfema di John Vanbrugh”, Quaderni di lingue e letterature, 22/1997: 154-174
-M. A. Doody, “Tyrannic Love and Virgin Martyr: Tragic Theme and Dramatic Reference in Clarissa”, in ID, A Natural Passion. A Study of the Novels of Samuel Richardson, Clarendon Press, 1974

Examination Methods

Assessment at the end of the course through oral examination, in Italian and in English (or in English only, according to the student’s linguistic competence).