- Docente: Margherita Orsi
- Credits: 6
- SSD: ANGL-01/A
- Language: English
- Teaching Mode: In-person learning (entirely or partially)
- Campus: Forli
- Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Specialized Translation (cod. 6826)
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from Oct 01, 2026 to Dec 18, 2026
Learning outcomes
The student- knows the core features (contents, methods and instruments) necessary for the in-depth analysis of English culture and literature; s/he is able to apply this knowledge when tackling a range of semiotically challenging texts; s/he is able to acquire higher-level cultural and literary knowledge and competences independently, and to apply them to a wide range of novel texts.
Course contents
Women and Fantastic Literature: Haunted Houses, Monsters, and Other Worlds
The course examines the fantastic through the works of women writers from the nineteenth century to the present, examining how fantasy, Gothic fiction, horror, speculative fiction, and the weird have challenged conventional notions of gender and society. Through this analysis, students will investigate how the fantastic becomes a powerful tool for challenging the status quo and one possible way to make sense of current sociopolitical and ecological crises. The course aims at introducing students to contemporary debates while encouraging close reading and class discussion.
Course Schedule
October 1
0. Orientation — Texts, Themes, and Critical Questions
Introduction to the course, its structure, key concepts, and practical information. Overview of the authors and texts explored throughout the semester.
October 2
1. Introduction: Women and the Fantastic
Introduction to the study of the fantastic, the uncanny, the monstrous, and the Gothic, with particular attention to representations of gender, the female body, and female subjectivity.
I. THE FEMALE BODY AND THE MONSTROUS
October 8
2. Mary Shelley — Frankenstein: The Monstrous Body
October 9
3. Frankenstein: Adaptation and the Monstrous Body
Selected scenes from film adaptations of Frankenstein, discussed in relation to the novel and to changing representations of monstrosity, gender, and the body.
II. THE HAUNTED HOUSE: WOMEN, DOMESTICITY, AND THE UNCANNY
October 15
4. The Female Gothic and the Haunted House
The Gothic home as a space of confinement, surveillance, violence, and psychological disturbance.
October 16
5. Charlotte Perkins Gilman — “The Yellow Wallpaper”
Domestic space, mental confinement, medical authority, and the female body.
October 22
6. Daphne du Maurier — Rebecca
The Gothic house, female identity, memory, and the spectral presence of the past.
October 23
7. Rebecca
Continued discussion of Rebecca.
October 29
8. Shirley Jackson — “The Daemon Lover”
October 30
9. Shirley Jackson — The Haunting of Hill House
The haunted house, psychological uncertainty, isolation, and the relationship between female identity and domestic space.
III. GHOSTS, MEMORY, AND GENEALOGY
November 5
10. Toni Morrison — Beloved
Haunting and historical memory; the ghost as a figure of trauma, remembrance, and the persistence of the past.
November 6
11. Louise Erdrich — Love Medicine
Selected episodes from Love Medicine, focusing on Indigenous storytelling, memory, spirituality, community, and the relationship between the living and the dead.
November 12
12. Alice Hoffman — Practical Magic
Magic, female genealogy, sisterhood, domestic space, and inherited forms of knowledge.
November 13
Film: Practical Magic
IV. THE MONSTROUS FEMININE: WOMANHOOD, SEXUALITY, AND MOTHERHOOD
November 19
13. Angela Carter — “The Company of Wolves” and Ursula K. Le Guin — “The Wife’s Story”
The monstrous feminine, transformation, the body, and the rewriting of fairy-tale and animal narratives.
November 20
14. Rachel Yoder — Nightbitch
Motherhood, bodily transformation, animality, and the contemporary monstrous feminine. Selected scenes from the film adaptation will also be discussed.
V. THE POLITICS OF THE FEMALE BODY
November 26
15. Margaret Atwood — The Handmaid’s Tale
The female body as a site of political control; reproduction, surveillance, power, and resistance.
November 27
16. The Handmaid’s Tale
Continued discussion of Atwood's novel.
VI. THE CONTEMPORARY WEIRD: UNSTABLE SELVES AND UNSTABLE REALITIES
December 10
17. TBA
December 11
18. Caro Claire Burke — Yesteryear
Contemporary forms of the weird and the fantastic; social media, identity, and the instability of reality.
December 17
Final Session — Synthesis and Discussion
Review of the major themes and critical questions explored throughout the course. Comparative discussion of the texts and final questions.
Recurring Questions
Throughout the course, we will return to a series of interconnected questions:
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What can the fantastic represent that realism cannot?
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What makes a female body “monstrous”?
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Why are houses and domestic spaces so often sites of Gothic horror?
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How does the past return to haunt the present?
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How are memory and genealogy represented through supernatural forms?
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What happens when the female body becomes a site of transformation?
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How does the fantastic expose structures of gender, social control, and power?
Readings/Bibliography
Primary readings
Students will be required to read the assigned texts available on Virtuale. The texts to be studied are those listed in the course syllabus. Only the short stories will be read in their entirety; as for what regards the novels, only selected excerpts will be read.
Additional readings (not compulsory, but may be useful for further study)
Teaching methods
Attendance and participation are not mandatory, but strongly encouraged. Students are required to read the assigned readings before class each week. Class discussion is highly encouraged. The primary texts will also be analysed through the lens of the students' insights and feedback.
During the course, students will also be assigned independent work to complete on their own and, if the opportunity arises, to present in class.
Assessment methods
The exam format will be announced during the course presentation.
It is strictly forbidden to use AI during the exam. Any violation of this rule will be considered a serious breach of academic ethics.
Evaluation grid
30-30L: excellent test that demonstrates very broad, thorough and in-depth knowledge of the subject matter, a solid ability to apply theoretical concepts and an excellent command of exposition, as well as an excellent capacity for analysis, synthesis and elaboration of interdisciplinary connections
27-29: above average test that demonstrates precise and thorough knowledge of the subject matter, good ability to apply theoretical concepts, and capacity for analysis and synthesis, accurate and correct exposition
24-26: good test that demonstrates appropriate knowledge of the subject matter, a fair understanding of the application of theoretical concepts, and an articulate presentation of the subject matter
21-23: adequate test that demonstrates appropriate but not in-depth knowledge of the subject, only partial capacity to apply theoretical concepts, and an acceptable presentation of the content
18-20: barely sufficient test that demonstrates adequate but general knowledge of the subject matter, simple exposition, uncertainties in the application of theoretical concepts
Insufficient: test that does not demonstrate adequate acquisition of knowledge of the subject matter that is fragmentary and superficial, with errors in the application of concepts, and poor exposition
This module is part of the integrated examination Translation, Literature and Culture. The grade awarded for this module will be averaged with the grade obtained in the Translation for Publishing module.
Students with specific learning difficulties (SpLD) or with disabilities that can affect their ability to attend courses are invited to contact the University service for students with disabilities and SLD at the earliest opportunity -- ideally before the start of the course: https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students. The University service will suggest possible adjustments to the course work and/or exam, which must then be submitted to the course leader so they can assess their feasibility, in line with the learning objectives of the course. Please note that adjustments to the exam must be requested at least two weeks in advance.
Teaching tools
PowerPoint presentations will be offered during the course. They will also be available on Virtuale. The analysis of texts will be always enriched with existing literary criticism.
Office hours
See the website of Margherita Orsi
SDGs
This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.