67245 - English Literature / Literature of English-speaking Countries 2 (LM)

Course contents

 “Seeking Light in Darkness”: the Ethics of Memory, Hope and Resistance in Dystopian Fiction

The course will present case studies in which texts (literary and visual) are in dialogue with theories and methodologies of gender and postcolonial studies. The texts elaborate on the issue of gender, identity, difference, ‘race', and politics of the body in the representations, transmissions and elaborations of traumatic events in literary and visual texts (with specific reference to utopian and dystopian fictions). Lessons will make reference to memory and trauma studies, dystopia and science fiction within a gender and postgender perspective

Overview of the course:

The course intends to elaborate on critical debates on the intersectionality of gender(s) and ‘race' in theories, visual and literary texts and to analyse issues related to utopia/dystopia/science fiction within a postcolonial and posthuman perspective.

Main theoretical issues:

• critical theories and methodologies of gender and women's studies, queer studies
• re-reading of the notion of identity, difference, and diversity; gender as a social construction
• women's and postcolonial re-visions of the symbolic and social order;
• the construction of sexual difference as a deconstructive strategy; re-writings of the body; (French Feminism(s) and African American and Postcolonial responses
• postcolonial and African American critical debates on the representation and deconstruction of the notion of gender and ‘race'. New politics of ‘identity’ and ‘difference'
• intersectionality of ‘race' and gender(s)
• the interconnection of gender, ethnicity and ‘race' in trauma and memory studies.

Readings/Bibliography

 

Testi/Bibliografia

IN PROGRESS

Primary sources

Burdekin, Katharine, Swastika Night, 1937

Butler, Octavia E., Kindred, 1979

Carter, Angela, The Passion of New Eve, 1977

Atwood, Margaret, The Handmaid’s Tale, 1985 students' presentation

M. Faber, Under the Skin, 2000 (translation in Italian Sotto la pelle, Einaudi, 2004)

Carter, Angela, The Passion of New Eve, 1977

Movies and tv series:

The Village, Director M. Night Shyamalan, 2004

Under the Skin, Director Jonathan Glazer, Great Britain, 2013

The secret Life of Words, Director Isabel Coixet, Irland and Spain, 2005

Bibliography of critical texts (essays, articles, volumes). Lessons will make reference to the following critical sources:

Braidotti, Rosi, The Posthuman, Polity Press, 2013 (available in the library)

Butler, Judith, Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2015 (available in the library)

Baccolini, Raffaella and Tom Moylan (ed.) Dark Horizons. Science Fiction and The Dystopian Imagination.London and New York: Routledge, 2003. (selected chapters) (available in the Library and on Virtuale)

Baccolini, Raffaella “Gender and Genre in the Feminist Critical Dystopias of Katharine Burdekin, Margaret Atwood, and Octavia Butler.” Future Females, The Next Generation: New Voices and Velocities in Feminist Science Fiction Criticism. Ed. Marleen S. Barr. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000. 13-34 (available on Virtuale)

Braidotti, Rosi “Difference, Diversity, and Nomadic Subjectivity” online document, http://women.ped.kun.nl, 2000.

Butler, Judith, 1993, Bodies that Matter. On the Discoursive Limits of “Sex”.New York and London: Routledge, 1996, Corpi che Contano. I limiti discorsivi del “sesso”Trad. S. Capelli. Milano: Feltrinelli. (selected chapters and Italian Introduction by A. Cavarero) (available in the Library)

Halberstam, Jack, The Queer Art of Failure, Duke UP, 2011 (available in the library)

Irigaray, Luce, “Donne Divine" in Sessi e Genealogie, 1989. Trad. L. Muraro. Milano: La Tartaruga. Sexes et parentés Paris: Minuit, 1987, Divine Women, Occasional Paper, Sydney, 1986, trans. S. Muecke reperibile nel reader. “Donne divine”, in AA. VV, Melusina. Mito e leggenda di una donna serpente. Roma, Utopia, 1986, pp. 134-150 (available on Virtuale)

Irigaray, Luce, 1980, "When our Lips Speak Together" (L. Irigaray; C. Burke) in Signs, vol 6, n. 1, 1980, 69-79, Chicago UP. online http://eyegiene.sdsu.edu/2006/spring/imperialbedroom/luceirigaryLIPS.pdf https://www.didaweb.net/risorse/visita.php?url=http://www.women.it/les/testi/labbra.htm (available in French, Italian, Spanish ect.)

Irigaray, Luce, 1985, Etica della differenza sessuale. trad. L. Muraro e A. Leoni. Milano: Feltrinelli, 1984, Ethique de la difference sexuelle. Paris: Minuit. (selected chapters)

Monticelli R., The Politics of the Body in Women's Literatures, Bologna, I Libri di Emil - Odoya, 2012, pp. 176.

Monticelli R., 'Seeking light in darkness and harmony in confusion': Death, Memory and Resistance in Swastika Night by Katharine Burdekin and Kindred by Octavia E. Butler, «DEDALUS», 2008, 11-12; 2006-2008, pp. 53 – 66 (available on virtuale)

Mediazioni online, Special issue on The Village (available online) www.mediazionionline.it

Rivisiting Feminism: Cultural trajectoriesed. Kalpana Das and Fréderique Apffel Marglin. iim, InterCulture, Intercultural Institute of Montreal, n. 150. INTERCULTURE. vol. 150. anno 2, n. 6. Edizione italiana della rivista canadese dell'Intercultural Institute of Montreal. (selected essays)

Sargent, Lyman Tower, The Problem of the « Flawed Utopia »: a Note on the Costs of Eutopia » in Baccolini, Raffaella and Tom Moylan (ed.) Dark Horizon. Science Fiction and The Dystopian Imagination.London and New York: Routledge, 2003 (available in the Library and on Virtuale)

Spillers, Hortense J. “Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: An American Grammar Book”, in Diacritics. A Review of ContemporaryCriticism17 (2), 1987, pp. 65-81. “Figli/e di madre, del padre forse: una grammatica Americana” in Critiche femministe e teorie letterarie. A cura di Raffaella Baccolini; M. Giulia Fabi, Vita Fortunati, Rita Monticelli. Bologna: CLUEB, 1997, pp. 255-279, trad. Lucia Gunella e Rita Monticelli. (available in the Library and on Virtuale)

Spivak, Gayatri C, 1985, “Can the Subaltern Speak? Speculations on Widow-Sacrifice.” Wedge (Winter-Spring 1985), 7-8:120-130. Issue entitled "The Imperialism of Representation/The Representation of Imperialism. (available online)

Spivak, Gayatri C, "Three Women's Texts and a Critique of Imperialism" Critical Inquiry, Vol. 12, No. 1, "Race," Writing, and Difference (Autumn, 1985), pp.
243-261, The University of Chicago Press (also available online)

Monticelli, Rita, "Science Fiction as posthuman cultural ecology", in Between, IX.17 (2019), online http://www.Between-journal.it/

Very important: BIBLIOGRAPHY IN PROGRESS: Please do check this web page for further notice and information.

 

Teaching methods

Lessons, seminars, discussion in class, students' presentations. Languages: English (some seminars with guest speakers might be in Italian)

Bibliography and other information will be provided also during the lessons (and then published in the online reading list and program). The course includes both lessons and seminars with the active participation of the students. Students who cannot attend lessons must contact the lecturer during her office hours, or via e-mail before the end of the course. Students are requested to check the online program also during the course for further notice and information.

B.A students are NOT admitted. Erasmus students are requested to contact the lecturer and the tutor BEFORE enrolling in the course as they will be admitted only if they fulfill the requirements.

Seminars: in progress

1-SEMINAR ON FEMINIST GENEALOGIES (in progress) (with Dr. Cristina Gamberi)

The seminar elaborates on the main debates and traditions of feminist theory and such issues as the use of female genealogy; the personal as political; the relationship between sex and gender; bodies, power and subjectivity; black feminism, difference and intersectionality.

The seminar will make reference to the following texts:

• Adrienne Rich (1984), “Notes Towards a Politics of Location”, in Blood, Bread and Poetry. Selected Prose 1979-1985, Norton, New York, 1986, pp. 210 – 231.(available in the Reader)
• Donna Haraway, (1988) “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective”, Feminist Studies, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Autumn, 1988), pp. 575-599. available online https://philpapers.org/archive/HARSKT.pdf

• Rita Monticelli, “ 'I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess': Genealogies, Re-Visions of the Body, and Feminist Figurations”, 2018. (available in the Reader)
• Audre Lorde, “The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House”, in, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Ed. Berkeley, CA: Crossing Press, pp. 110-114. 2007. (available in the Reader)
• Chandra Talpade Mohanty, “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses”, in,Feminist Review 1988, 30:49–74. (available in the Reader)
• Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color”, in Alison Bailey and Chris Cuomo (eds.), The Feminist Philosophy Reader,New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008. (available in the Reader)

Dates: from October 2023 (single dates to be announced)

2-Seminar (dates and specific topics in progress, to be announced) on "Postcolonial Methodologies and Posthuman Feminisms" (with Dr. Francesco Cattani)

Hortense J. Spillers's work on balck aesthetics, Gayatri C. Spivak and postcoloniality, Donna Haraway and the cyborg, Rosi Braidotti and posthuman feminisms

Dates: First semester (single dates to be announced)

 

Assessment methods

Student* di Letteratura Inglese/Letteratura dei Paesi di lingua inglese 2 LM dovranno analizzare 4 testi primari (da scegliersi tra quelli in elenco) e saggi/ capitoli di volumi/articoli da scegliere tra le fonti critiche in elenco per un numero di 200/220 pagine (non da un unico volume). E' inoltre richiesta l'analisi di due dei film in programma.

Students of the course Letteratura Inglese/Letteratura dei paesi di lingua inglese 2 LM are requested to analyse 4 texts (to be chosen amongst the volumes in the Reading list of the primary sources) and articles/essays/chapters (about 200/220 pages, not from a single volume) from the Reading list of the Secondary sources; the analysis of two of the movies proposed.

Student* di Feminist Theory between Difference and Diversity dovranno analizzare 4 testi primari (da scegliersi tra quelli in elenco) e saggi/ capitoli di volumi/articoli da scegliere tra le fonti critiche in elenco per un numero di 250 pagine (non da un unico volume). E' inoltre richiesto lo studio di due film proposti. E' inoltre obbligatorio un seminario integrativo.

Students of Feminist Theory between Difference and Diversity are requested to analyse 4 primary texts (to be chosen amongst the volumes in the Reading list of the primary sources) and articles/essays/chapters (about 250 pages, not from a single volume) from the Reading list of the Secondary sources; the analysis of two movies proposed. Students must also attend one compulsory seminar on gender/female theories.

Student* Gender Studies/Studi di genere dovranno analizzare 3 testi primari (da scegliersi tra quelli in elenco) e saggi/ capitoli di volumi/articoli da scegliere tra le fonti critiche in elenco per un numero di 150 pagine (non da un unico volume). E' inoltre richiesto lo studio di uno dei film proposti.

Students of Gender Studies/Studi di genere are requested to analyse 3 primary texts (to be chosen amongst the volumes in the Reading list of the primary sources) and articles/essays/chapters (about 150 pages, not from a single volume) from the Reading list of the Secondary sources; the analysis of one of the movies.

All students (divided in groups) are requested to present in class texts (to be chosen in accordance with the lecturer and the tutor) within diverse critical perspectives, in dates to be confirmed.

Please do check this web page for further notice and information

Active participation in class discussions: 25%. By participation in class we mean the ability of the student to enter the debates, contributing with questions and/or elaborations of the topics proposed by the lecturer. This participation does not aim at testing students' specific preparation in the field, rather, they want to favour their ability to take part in discussions and their capability to discuss in group.

Students' Presentation: 25%. Students are requested to do a group presentation of one/two text(s) to be chosen from the reading list in accordance with the lecturer and the tutor.

Final oral exam: 50%

The final oral exam will test the students’ critical capability, their knowledge of the methodologies employed, their ability to combine theories with the analyses of the case studies chosen. The close reading of the texts aims at showing the students’ critical ability, their knowledge not only of the texts but also of their context of creation together with the cultural politics that inform them. Students are requested to use an appropriate language, to be able to articulate their thought in English and to have an accurate knowledge of the bibliography chosen for the exam.

Grades:

Excellent: Students' high capability to elaborate on the exiting debates on the topics chosen, originality of thought and excellent knowledge of the theories and of the texts chosen for the exam, their ability to read them within a gender perspective, using also the theories employed during the course and showing comprehension of the bibliography chosen, accurate and appropriate language.

Very good level: Students' capability to elaborate on the exiting debates on the topics chosen, originality of thought and very good knowledge of the theories and of the texts chosen for the exam, their ability to read them within a gender perspective, using also the theories employed during the course and showing comprehension of the bibliography chosen, and appropriate, accurate language.

Good level: Students' capability to elaborate on the exiting debates on the topics chosen, knowledge of the theories and of the texts chosen for the exam, their ability to read them within a gender perspective, using also the theories employed during the course and showing comprehension of the bibliography chosen, and appropriate language.

Pass: Students' capability to enter the exiting debates on the topics chosen, knowledge of the theories and of the texts chosen for the exam, their ability to read them within a gender perspective, using also the theories employed during the course and showing comprehension of the bibliography chosen, and appropriate language.

Fail: Students’ lack of knowledge of the theories employed during the course, incapability to critical reading of the novels, inappropriate and inaccurate language.

Please do check this web page for further notice and information

 

Teaching tools

Strumenti a supporto della didattica

Power point, slides, movies, visual texts.

The course includes:

SEMINAR(S) on feminist theories

Cycle of seminars: in progress

 

Office hours

See the website of Rita Monticelli