26019 - English Women's Literature

Learning outcomes

Students will acquire an extensive knoweldge and understanding of the history of modern English theatre and drama  with special attention to the relationship between gender and genre. The historical, cultural and linguistic context of the eighteenth century and nineteenth century drama will be examined together with the way in which female bodies and identities were staged. The students will  develop critical and analytical skills in this specific field of study. Students will be able to analyse and interpret a range of different plays using various methodological practicies. They will be asked to produce personal critical remarks and deal with complex critical analysis.

Course contents

 Title of the course:  Title of the course: English RomanticWomen's Theatre and Drama in the Romantic Age
The course will examine the relationship between genre and gender in the Romantic theatre and drama, through the reading and analysis of both plays written for the stage between the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century. After an introduction to the Romantic critical and theoretical debate on legitimate and illegitimate theatre, different positions and contributions of such authors as Elizabeth Inchbald, Hannah More, Hannah Cowley, Joanna Baillie and Mary Russell Mitford will be analysed. Passages from several plays will be discussed in relation to the different dramatic genres they belong to, with particular attention to the various forms of discourse and languages through which female bodies and identities were staged. What will be also explored is the way in which women playwrights of the romantic period contributed and responded to the political issues of the time and to the gender discourse that was under construction.

In the current academic year, this course is related to other courses within the degree programme that also engage with the macro concepts “Identity, alterity, difference, diversity”.

Readings/Bibliography

Bibliography

Primary Texts:

Joanna Baillie, Witchcraft (1836)

E. Inchbald The Massacre (1792) and Such Things Are (1787)

Hannah Cowley A Day in Turkey, or, The Russian Slaves (1792)

Mary Russell Mitford Foscari: a Tragedy (1826) and Charles the First (1834)1

Critical reading:

Lizbeth Goodman, The Routledge Reader in Gender and Performance,1998

Catherine B. Burrough, Women in British Romantic Theatre: Drama, Performance and Society, 1790-1840, Cambridge University Press, 2000

Lilla Maria Crisafulli and Keir Elam (eds), Women's Romantic Theatre and Drama: History, Agency, and Performativity, Ashgate, 2010

The Languages of Performancein British Romanticism, ed. by Lilla Maria Crisafulli e Cecilia Pietropoli, Peter Lang, 2008, (some chapters), (Biblioteca di Lingue)

Western Women and Imperialism. Complicity and Resistanceed. by Nepur Chaudhuri and Margaret Strobel, Indiana University Press, 1992.

L. M. Crisafulli and K. Elam (a cura di), Manuale di Letteratura e Cultura Inglese, Bononia University Press, 2009 (some chapters), (Biblioteca di Lingue)

Teaching methods

The course will be organized on seminar base, encouraging students to participate in class discussion. Presentation and discussion of written essays. 

Assessment methods

Students will be asked to present papers in class and will be also assessed on the basis of their performance. The final exam will consist in one or two written essays and an oral discussion.

Teaching tools

Audio-visual equipment; Power-Point Projection; texts, photocopies and other documents will be provided during the course.

Links to further information

http://www3.lingue.unibo.it/romanticismo

Office hours

See the website of Lilla Maria Crisafulli