30030 - English Literature 1 (LM) (B)

Learning outcomes

Students are requested to enter the main critical and theoretical debates on English literature; to analyse the relationship between text and context; to elaborate on diverse critical analyses; to use methodologies for the "interpretations" of  literary texts.

Course contents

“I am not what I am”: postcolonial and “dissident” readings of W. Shakespeare and C. Marlowe. From text to screen.

The course will analyse representations and constructions of  “otherness”, the relationship between ethnic, religious and cultural differences, the violence of representation in W. Shakespeare and C. Marlowe. Lessons will focus on: 1) the construction of the ‘other' as stereotype; 2) the relationship between the violence of the State and the violence of  ‘common sense'; 3) the woman as stranger; 4) relationships that exceed and transgress social, sexual, cultural norms 5) politics of the body. The body as significant of  cultural and power relations. 6) the use of language as ‘mask' and/or subversion 7) amnesia, aphasia, silences of the 'other' as primitive. The course include methodological lessons on postcolonial and gender re-readings, with reference also to cultural materialism and queer studies. The course include an analysis of  ‘dissident' transpositions from text/stage to cinema. The lessons will also show different critical methodologies.

Readings/Bibliography

Texts:

William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, 1596-97.

William Shakespeare, Othello, 1601-1602.

Cristopher Marlowe, The Jew of Malta, 1589-90.

Cristopher Marlowe, Edward II, 1592.

Further Reading:

William Shakespeare The Tempest, 1611

Movies:

The Merchant of  Venice, Michael Radford, 2004

Othello, Orson Welles, 1952

Edward II, Derek Jarman, 1991

Bibliography of secondary sources: IN PROGRESS. Students will be requested to choose a number of essays/articles/chapters in the volumes from the reading list.

The complete list of the secondary sources will be ready at the beginning of the course. Please do check this web page for further notice and changes.

Mayer, Hans, I diversi Milano: Garzanti, 1977, Introduzione pp. 5-24

Sinfield, Alan, “Shakespeare and Dissident Reading” in Cultural Politics –Queer Reading, London: Routledge, 1994, pp. 1-19

Traub, Valerie, “Gender and sexuality in Shakespeare” in The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare, Ed. De Grazia, Margareta and Stanley Wells, Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001, pp. 129-146

Jackson, Russell, “Shakespeare and the cinema”, in The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare, Ed. De Grazia, Margareta and Stanley Wells, Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001, pp. 217-234

Montrose, Louis, The Subject of Elizabeth. Authority, Gender, and Representation. Chicago and London: The U of Chicago P, 2006. “Introduction: Foundations and Trajectories”

Howard, Jean E., “Crossdressing, the Theatre, and Gender Struggle in Early Modern England”, in Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol 39, No. 4 (Winter 1988), in http://www.jstor.org/stable/2870706

Fielder, Leslie, Lo straniero in Shakespeare. A cura di Ada Donati e Alfredo Rizzardi. Urbino: Argalia, 1979. Cap.II, “L'Ebreo come straniero” pp. 95-157.

Mayer, Hans, I diversi. Milano: Garzanti, 1977, cap. II. “L'ebreo di Malta e l'ebreo di Venezia”, pp. 298-308.

Newman, Karen, "Portia's Ring: Unruly Women and Structures of Exchange in The Merchant of Venice" in Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 38, No. 1 (Spring 1987), pp. 19-33 in  http://www.jstor.org/stable/2870399

Metzger, Mary Janell, "Now by My Hood, a Gentle and No Jew": Jessica, The Merchant of Venice, and the Discourse of Early Modern English Identity" in PMLA, Vol. 113, No. 1, Special Topic: Ethnicity (Jan. 1998), pp. 52-63, in http://www.jstor.org/stable/463408

Battaglia, Luisella, “Porzia e Shylock: l'enigma del diritto” in Pluriverso 3. 2001, pp. 61-70.

Calogero, Elena, “Interpretazioni di Shylock nella critica ebraico-americana del novecento” in Paragone XLIX, numero 15-16, Febbraio-Aprile 1998, pp. 67-85

Carpi, Daniela, “Borghesi e mercanti. La nuova società capitalistica in The Merchant of Venice di William Shakespeare” in Strumenti critici XVI, 97, 3, 2001, pp.429-440

Cohen, Derek,  “The Question of Shylock” in The Politics of Shakespeare London: Macmillan, 1993, pp. 23-37.

Sinfield, Alan,  “Cultural Materialism, Othello, and the Politics of Plausibility” in Faultlines Oxford: Oxford UP, 1992.

Okri, Ben, “Leaping Out of Shakespeare's Terror. Five Meditations on Othello” in A Way of Being Free, London: Phoenix, 1998, pp. 71-87.

Ciocca Rossella, “Eros e alterità. Conflitto tra razza e genere sessuale in Othello”, in Aspetti di Othello, a cura di Laura Di Michele. Napoli: Liguori, 1996, pp. 158-173.

Monticelli, Rita, “Matrimoni impossibili e relazioni pericolose in Othello” in I volti dell'altro. Letterature della diaspora e migranti. A cura di Paola Boi e Radhouan Ben Amara. Cagliari: Edizioni AV, 2003. (fotocopie nel Reader)

Cohen, Derek, “Othello's suicide” in The Politics of Shakespeare London: Macmillan, 1993, pp. 9-22.

Parlati, Maria Maddalena, “La vista avvelenata; incubi di contaminazione in Othello” in Tragiche risonanze shakespeariane, a cura di Laura Di Michele, Napoli: Liguori, 2001, pp. 77-10

Vaughan, A. T and Vaughan Mason, V. “Before Othello: Elizabethan Representations of Sub-Saharan Africans” The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Vol 54, No. 1 (Jan. 1997), pp. 19-44, in http://www.jstor.org/stable/2953311

White, Hayden, “New Historicism: A Comment” in The New Historicism Ed. Veeser, Aram, H., New York and London: Routledge, 1989, pp. 293-302

Zunder, William, Elizabethan Marlowe. Writing and Culture in the English Renaissance. Unity Press, 1994. Chapter Three “The Jew of Malta: Policy and Greed”, pp. 31-43.

Downie, J.A and Parnell, J.T, Constructing Christopher Marlowe, Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2000, selected chapters.

D'Amico Masolino, e Corso, Simona (a cura di) Postcolonial Shakespeare, Roma: Edizioni di Storia e di Letteratura, 2009. Selected chapters

Hall, Stuart “Ethnicity: Identity and Difference”, paper delivered at Hampshire College, 1989

Per una analisi del teatro elisabettiano:

Elam, Keir, The semiotics of theatre and drama. London e New York: Methuen, 1980; Elam, Keir, Semiotica del teatro, Bologna: Il Mulino, 1988.

Texts are available in the Reader, library, (some) online.

Specific bibliography on The Jew of Malta and Edward II will be provided during the course. Do check this web page for further notice.

 Further reading will be provided durimg the course

 

 

Teaching methods

Lessons and seminars. Bibliography and critical tools will be provided also during the course. For this reason some critical sources might be changed during lessons. Languages requested: English AND Italian. Fort further notice please do check this web page also during the course. This course is intended for graduate students only.

Assessment methods

Final oral exam.

Active participation in class: 25%

Students' presentation: 25%

Final oral exam: 50%

Teaching tools

Literary texts, power point, videos, films.

Office hours

See the website of Rita Monticelli