- Docente: Gino Scatasta
- Credits: 9
- Language: English
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
- Campus: Bologna
- Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Italian Culture and Language for Foreigners (cod. 0983)
Course contents
Dickens our contemporary?
The aim of the course is to investigate those aspects of Dickens'
work that could be still considered relevant to our society
and our culture. Issues as the canonization of an author, the
problems of realism in literature, the social and political
function of literature will be examined.
Readings/Bibliography
Students are required to read three novels by Dickens. Two
of them should be:
Oliver Twist (Feb 1837 - Apr 1839);
A Christmas Carol (Dec 1843);
David Copperfield (May 1849 - Nov 1850);
Bleak House (Mar 1852 - Sep 1853);
Little Dorrit (Dec 1855 - June 1857);
Great Expectations (Dec 1860 - Aug 1861);
Our Mutual Friend (May 1864 - Nov 1865).
Students are also required to read the following critical texts:
Peter Ackroyd, “Introduction”, in Dickens' London, London, Headline, 1987, pp. 7-21
R. C. Churchill, “The Genius of Charles Dickens”, in B. Ford, ed. by, The New Pelican Guide to English Literature, 6. From Dickens to Hardy, London, Penguin, 1982, pp. 117-138.
Franco Moretti, Atlante del romanzo europeo. 1800-1900, chapter II “Racconto di due città”, Torino, Einaudi, 1998, pp. 80-144
George Orwell, “Charles Dickens”, in Inside the Whale and Other Essays, London, Gollancz, 1940
V.S. Pritchett, “The Comic World of Dickens”, in Ian Watt, ed. by, The Victorian Novel, London, Oxford U.P., 1971, pp. 27-39
Andrew Sanders, Charles Dickens, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. x- xxi (Chronology), pp. 1- 113 (Chapter I, “Dickens's Life”, Chapter II, “Dickens, Politics, and Society”, Chapter III, “The Literary Context”) e pp. 176-206 (Chapter VII, “Recontextualizing Dickens”)
Kathleen Tillotson, “Novels of the Eighteen-Forties”, in Ian Watt, ed. by, The Victorian Novel, pp. 3-26 (trad. it. “Come lavorava Dickens”, in Franco Marucci, a cura di, Il Vittorianesimo, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1991, pp. 285-311)
Raymond Williams, “Charles Dickens”, in The English Novel from Dickens to Lawrence, London, Chatto & Windus, 1973, pp. 28-59.
Assessment methods
Oral examination at the end of the course. The oral exam or part of
it could be replaced by an essay.
Teaching tools
Reading and analysis of literary text.
Office hours
See the website of Gino Scatasta