Learning outcomes

The module (which is taught in English)aims at making the students familiar with authors and genre modes held to be representative of the Englih literature of the period scheduled for the second-year course and at fostering their critical approach to the chosen texts and their historical-cultural contexts.
The module will be taught in English

Program

RHETORIC AND/IS POWER
The module aims at dealing with the relationship between rhetoric and power in the political persuasion, as well as in the persuasion to love. It will start from a classic on political rhetoric, W. Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" and will then focus the students' close reading on crucial texts (oration, poetry, comedy, and tragedy) of the early-modern literature coinciding with the Restoration period.

Primary Bilbiography:
-W.SHAKESPEARE, "Julius Caesar"(Garzanti; ed.by A.Serpieri)
-J.MILTON, "Areopagitica" (Bompiani; ed. by H. and M. Gatti)
-A. MARVELL, "To his Coy Mistress"
-G. ETHEREGE, "The Man of Mode" (ed. Marsilio or New Mermaids)
_T. OTWAY, "Venice Preserv'd"

Critical Bibliography:
N.B. The students are recommended to study the introductions to the above-given editions of the scheduled works.

All the critical texts below will be put together into a 'plaquette' that will also contain the primary texts "To his Coy Mistress" and "Venice Preserv'd". The students who are interested in getting it should contact prof. Zinato.

-A. Hadfield 2005, "Shakespeare and Republicanism": Introduction + ch. 5 ("The end of the republic: Titus Andronicus and Julius Caesar").
-D. Norbrook, "Areopagitica, Censorship, and the Early-Modern Public Sphere"(ch.1), in R.Demaria Jr., "British Literature 1640-1789. A Critical Reader" (2005).
-L.Berglund, "The Language of the Libertine: Subversive Morality in The Man of Mode", Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. Vol. 30. 3 (1990): 369-386.
-S. Owen, "Perspectives on Restoration Drama"(2002), ch.5 (Thomas Otway's Venice Preserv'd).
Handbook of literary history: A. Sanders, The Oxford Short History of English Literature (1994), chap. 4
Optional reference handbook on rhetoric: o. Reboul, "Introduzione alla retorica", Il Mulino (1996)

OBLIGATORY SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS FOR NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS:
- Leggatt, "Shakespeare's Political Drama"(1988), ch. 6.
-J. Munns, "Restoration Politics and Drama: The Plays of Thomas Otway" (1995): ch.5.
-On Restoration comedy and drama the non-attending students may helpfully refer to: "A Companion to Restoration Drama" ed. by S. Owen (2008), ch.13 ("Restoration Comedy, by J. Douglas Canfield) and ch.14 ("Tragedy and Varieties of Serious Drama" by Jean I. Marsden)

Examination Methods