31353 - Anglo-American Literature 3

Learning outcomes

Students will learn the literary history of the period at stake; they will acquire useful literary tools to analyze fictional productions and question them in relation to the complex and heterogeneous North American realities.

Course contents

NORTH AMERICA AND NEW CULTURAL GEOGRAPHIES: 1950-2020

This course proposes a journey across North American literary and cultural productions relating to the period 1950-2020. From the second Red Scare to the Vietnam War to 9/11, from Postmodern Fiction to World Literature, we will cross read Canadian and American ‘old’ and ‘new’ classics to investigate the making of today globalized/Americanized and interconnected realities.

IMPORTANT: The course is structured into two modules of 30 hours each; the course directors will work in synergy and there will a unique final exam (see here below).

Part 1 (Prof. Elena Lamberti, Course Coordinator):

Main themes: Young rebels in/of the Tranquilized 1950s; Good wars & bad wars: from WWII to Vietnam and after; Canadian Renaissance; Writing after 9/11; Indigenous Perspectives on Mainstream Narratives.

Part 2 (Prof. Chiara Patrizi, Course Co-Coordinator):

Main themes: Postmodern temporalities; Contemporary Women Writers from Sylvia Plath to Jesmyn Ward; African-American and New-Diasporic Blackness; TV series and US culture; Contemporary US music

Authors/Texts discussed:

• Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. Americanah. 2013.
• Auster, Paul. The New York Trilogy. 1987
• Bulawayo, NoViolet. We Need New Names. 2013. (“Hitting Budapest”)
• Cade Bambara, Toni. “Blues Ain’t No Mockingbird”. 1971.
• Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. 1984.
• DeLillo, Don. Underworld. 1997. (“Pafko at the Wall”)
• Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. 1952.
• McCullers, Carson. The Member of the Wedding. 1946.
• Morrison, Toni. Beloved. 1987.
• O’ Connor, Flannery. “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. 1953.
• Plath, Sylvia. “Daddy”. 1962.
• Smith, Anna Deavere. Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn and Other Identities. 1992.
• Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse-Five. 1969.
• Ward, Jesmyn. Sing, Unburied, Sing. 2017.

Please Notice: This course is organized as part of the sustainability phase of the European Project “PERFORMIGRATIONS: People Are the Territory” (www.performigratios.eu), in the frame of the research project “WeTell: Storytelling and Civic Awareness” (https://site.unibo.it/wetell/en) and in collaboration with the literary portal https://site.unibo.it/canadausa . The main goal is to encourage a new global mentality, deeply rooted in the humanities, so to reorient today geopolitics and create a happier and more just world. No knowledge is useful if it leads to satisfy only a few people’s urgent needs, be that material or emotional; knowledge is useful if it induces us to question our communal existence, helping us to learn how to act upon our community in responsible ways, in turn leading to a truly shared happiness.

Important: EVERYBODY IS WELCOME AND DIVERSITY (IN ALL ITS FORMS) IS WELCOME TOO.

This course will feature a series of guest scholars and professionals to encourage the dialogue between literature and civic society so to widen our knowledge of learning and training opportunities available nationally or internationally. The list of featured guests will available when classes start.

Readings/Bibliography

To work on their final essays, students will be able to choose their topic, create and customize their reading list under the supervision of the course directors.

Background readings (recommended, not mandatory):

• Antonelli, S. e Mariani, G., Il Novecento USA: narrazioni e culture del secolo Americano, Carocci, 2009.

• Fink, G., Maffi, M., Minganti, F. e Tarozzi, B. Storia della letteratura americana (nuova edizione), Sansoni (1991) 2013 (From chapter IV).

• Iuli, C. e Loreto P. (eds), La letteratura degli Stati Uniti. Carocci Editore, 2017 (chapters 11-16).

• Kroller, E.M. (ed), The Cambridge Companion to Canadian Literature, Cambridge U.P. 2004 (Chapters 1, 3, 4).

• Lamberti, E., Controambienti letterari. Classici newyorkesi dell’era elettrica. Bologna, Clueb, 2018.

• Patrizi, C., “American Dreams and Black Identity in the New African Diaspora. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah and Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing.” Oltreoceano, 19, 2022, pp. 121–129.

• Patrizi, C., “Lontano dal Paradiso: identità nera e (non) appartenenza in We Need New Names di NoViolet Bulawayo”, Ácoma, 21, 2022, pp. 144–166.

• Petrelli, M., Paradiso in nero. Spazio e mito nella narrativa di Cormac McCarthy. Aracne Editrice, 2020.

• Richard J. Lane, The Routledge Concise History of Canadian Literature, Routledge, 2011 (Chapters 1, 2, 3).

• Simonetti, P., Paranoia Blues, trame del Postmoderno americano. Aracne Editrice, 2015.

• Wagner-Martin, L., A History of American Literature. 1950 to the Present. Wiley-Blackwell, 2013.

Teaching methods

Students’ active participations is strongly encouraged.

Assessment methods

The final exam is structured in three parts:

1. Review of a book/film/TV series of approximately 1000 words (or multimedia format)
2. Class presentation (or, as an alternative, oral exam)
3. Final essay of 3000-3500 words, in English.

 

Teaching tools

Traditional and Multimedia tools

Links to further information

https://site.unibo.it/wetell/en

Office hours

See the website of Elena Lamberti

See the website of Chiara Patrizi