Learning objectives

The module aims at offering an overview of late-nineteenth to twentieth-century English drama, as well as at presenting the students with the basics of textual analysis. On successful completion of the module, students will achieve a good knowledge of the cultural context in which the texts included in the programme were composed. They will be able to develop a coherent and detailed interpretation of the texts, apply key methods and concepts relevant to textual analysis, and provide a plausible critical interpretation in a register and style that serve the context and intention.

Prerequisites and basic notions

A sufficient competence in English is advisable in order for students to comprehend primary texts and scholarly work in the discipline in English.

Program

Jane Eyre: Legacies and Afterlives
The module will offer a reading of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre and, through the critical lens of adaptation and appropriation, of two of the many 'responses' the novel had after its first publication in 1847 (Rhys and Tennant) as examples of a rich literary and cultural afterlife.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Primary texts
- Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, ed. by Stevie Davies, Penguin, 2006.
- Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea, ed. by Andrea Ashworth, Penguin, 2000.
- Emma Tennant, Thornfield Hall, Harper, 2002.
2. Readings
- Julie Sanders, Adaptation and Appropriation, Routledge, 2006, pp. 1-41, 95-137.
- Esther Godfrey, “Jane Eyre, from Governess to Girl Bride”, Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Vol. 45, No. 4, 2005, pp. 853-871.
- Caroline Rody, “Burning Down the House: The Revisionary Paradigm of Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea”, in Wide Sargasso Sea, ed. by Judith L. Raiskin, Norton, 1999, pp. 217-225.
- Carolyn Williams, “Closing the Book: The Intertextual End of Jane Eyre”, in Jane Eyre, ed. by Heather Glen, New Casebooks Macmillan, 1997, pp. 227-250.
Further details on required readings and general information on the bibliography will be provided during classes.

Bibliography

Didactic methods

Whole class teaching in Italian.
Supplementary teaching materials (slides, images, videos, other texts, etc.) that will be used during classes will be available for download from the MOODLE e-repository. These contents do not substitute but complement the mandatory readings listed in the PROGRAMME section.
It is advised, yet not mandatory, to attend classes.

Learning assessment procedures

Oral exam (the exam will last approximately 20/30 minutes and will be based on 5/6 questions).
Students may be required to read and comment on passages taken from primary texts (see a. above).
There will be no mid-term tests.

Evaluation criteria

1) the knowledge and comprehension of the module’s topics (texts, authors, genres);
2) the development of good analytical and synthetic skill levels with regard to the main historical, cultural, textual, and critical topics of the module;
3) the use of an appropriate vocabulary.

Criteria for the composition of the final grade

The assessment of the three components listed above (see "Evaluation criteria") will form the final grade, awarded on a 30-point scale.
Minimum pass: 18/30
Maximum: 30/30 (cum laude)

Exam language

Italiano / Italian