31146 - English Literature 2 (A-L)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students will be acquainted with the lineaments of English literary history. They will be able to read, understand and translate texts from English into Italian, and to deal with some basic critical methods and tools, in order to elaborate comments and critical opinions on the literary texts read during the course.

Course contents

Romantic Literature and Human Rights: Poetics of Resistance.

Romantic Literature and Human Rights: Poetics of Resistance.

British Literature and culture of the Romantic Period are steeped in the discourse generated by many revolutionary events: mainly the French Revolution and the battle for rights and reforms by writers and intellectuals. After the loss of the American colonies, Britain witnessed a remarkable growth in imperial power and colonial expansion all around the world. Together with the debate generated by the French Revolution on civil and personal rights, another most fiercely debated aspect of Britain's imperial role during the Romantic period was its involvement in the slave trade, which was central to the nation's trading system. The campaign for the abolition of the slave trade and the fight for human freedom became major issues discussed in literature under several forms and by different authors.

The course will investigate how human rights, liberty, empire, slavery, were all central issues in many British writers from the Eighteenth to the Nineteenth century across different literary genres such as poetry, prose, novel, and drama.

The course includes an introductory part dedicated to the history of English literature from the Eighteenth century, the Romantic to the Victorian Period.

Readings/Bibliography

Primary Texts (available online)

D. Defoe, Robison Crusoe (extracts)

Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790); A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) (estratti)

Anna Laetitia Barbauld, “Epistle to William Wilberforce”; "The Mouse Petition";

William Wordsworth, estratti dalla "Preface" to The Lyrical Ballads; “To Thomas Clarkson, on the Final Passing of the Bill for the Abolition of the Slave Trade”; "To Toussaint L'Overture ".

Amelia Opie, “The Black Man's Lament; or, How to Make Sugar”; “The Negro Boy's Tale”;

Helen Maria Williams, “A Poem on the Bill Lately Passed for Regulating the Slave-Trade”;

W. Blake, "Visions of the Daugthers of Albion";

.T. Coleridge, Passages from "Biographia Literaria";

Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (any critical edition available);

Jane Austen, Mansfield Park (extracts);

G.M. Lewis, The Castle Spectre (estratti on-line);

C. Brontë, Jane Eyre (extracts)

Secondary Reading:

History of English Literature:L. M. Crisafulli e K. Elam (a cura di), Manuale di letteratura e cultura inglese, Bologna, BUP, 2009. (From the XVIII century to the Victorian Period);

Antologia delle poetesse romantiche (a cura di L.M. Crisafulli) 2 vols. Carocci, 2003. [only the poets included in the reading lists]

English Editions:

English Literature in Contex, ed. P. Poplawski (Cambridge UP 2008) Ch. 3 "Restoration and eighteenth Century"; Ch. 4 "The Romantic Period"; Ch. 5 "The Victorian Age".

The Norton Anthology of English Literature, vol. II or The Oxford Anthology (Biblioteca LLSM)

The Broadview Anthology of British Literature, "The Age of Romanticism", second ed., Broadview Press 2010.

The Cambridge History of English Literature, ed. J. Chandler, Cambridge UP 2009.

Critical Essays:

One essay on Slavery&Revolution at your choice (2 for students who do not attend lectures)

Serena Baiesi, “Romantic Women Writers and the Abolitionist Movement: The Economics of Freedom” in La Questione Romantica “Imperialismo/Colonialismo” n. 18/19, Liguori, Napoli 2008 (pp. 33-49).

T. Fulford and P.J. Kitson, "Romanticism and colonialism: texts, contexts, issues" in Romanticism and Colonialism. Writing and Empire, 1780-1830 (eds. T. Fulford and P.J. Kiston) Cambridge UP (1998).

Eric Williams, "The Goldern Age of the Slave System in Britain" in The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Jan., 1940), pp. 60-106

M. Ferguson, "British Women Writers and an Emerging Abolitionist Discourse" in The Eighteenth Century, vol. 33, n. 1, 1992.

J.Mee, D.Fallon, "Introduction", Romanticism and Revolution (Wiley-Blackwell 2011).

One essay on Frankenstein (twe essay for students who do not attend lectures)

All essays will be uploaded online:

“Aesthetics, gender, and empire in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein” in Women Travel Writers and the Language of Aesthetics, 1716-1818, E. A. Bohls, Cambridge UP 1999.

“Making a ‘monster': an introduction to Frankenstein” in Mary Shelley: Her Life, Her Fiction, Her Monsters by Anne K. Mellor, Methuen, 1988.

“ ‘My Hideous Progeny': The Lady and the Monster” by M. Poovey, from The Proper Lady and the Woman Writer, Chicago UP 1984 (pp. 114-142).

One essay on other authors (two for students who do not attend lectures)

Janet Todd, The Cambridge Introduction to Jane Austen, Cambridge UP 2006. (Introduzione e capitoli relativi al romanzo MP - materiale on-line)

Ian Watt, "Robinson Crusoe, individualism and the novel", in The Rise of the Novel, University of California Press (1971) pp. 60-92.

G. Silvani, "Il teatro di Matthew G. Lewis: è di scena il terrore" in Il teatro della paura: scenari gotici del romanticismo europeo, a cura di D. Saglia e G. Silvani, Bulzoni 2005 (pp. 77-90).

Susan L. Meyers, "Colonialism and the Figurative Strategy of Jane Eyre" in Victorian Studies 33.2 (1990)

Teaching methods

Online and frontal lessons in English: introduction of the literary periods from the eighteenth century to the Victorian age; reading and comment of the primary sources; videos and film adaptations from literary works.

Assessment methods

The evaluation of the students' competencies and abilities acquired during the course consists in a written work at the end of the course for those students who attended classes regularly as well as for those who do not attend classes.

The written test is divided into two parts: the first will be made of open questions concerning the literary history of the period from the Eighteenth century to the Victorian period; the second part will require a critical comments on the topics and text listed in the syllabus.

Those students,who are able to demonstrate a wide and systematic understanding of the issues covered during classes, are able to use these critically and who master the field-specific language of the discipline will be given a mark of excellence. Those students who demonstrate a mnemonic knowledge of the subject with a more superficial analytical ability and ability to synthesize, a correct command of the language but not always appropriate, will be given a satisfactory mark. A superficial knowledge and understanding of the material, a scarce analytical and expressive ability that is not always appropriate will be rewarded with a ‘pass' mark. Students who demonstrate gaps in their knowledge of the subject matter, inappropriate language use, lack of familiarity with the literature in the program bibliography will not be given a pass mark.

Teaching tools

Online resourses available for student online; film and videos show during lectures.

Links to further information

http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/campaignforabolition/abolition.html

Office hours

See the website of Serena Baiesi