07918 - English-Speaking Countries Literature

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the students will have a wide overview of the main  historical, geographical and social aspects and contexts of British Culture from the end of world war two to the end of the second millennium. The students will also be able to contextualize and analyze various texts and documents, placing them in relationship with the most relevant and significant changes of the cultural and linguistic area of reference

Course contents

From the Free Cinema to the Swinging London

The aim of the course is to analyse the major cultural phenomena of Great Britain between 1956 and 1967 (Social realism, the angry young men, the free cinema and the new wave of the 60s, pop art, pop music, photography, youth culture, the swinging London)

Readings/Bibliography

Compulsory readings for all the students:

M. Cometa, Studi Culturali, Napoli, Guida, 2011 (prefazione, seconda parte - paragrafi 1, 2,3,4 - e quarta parte). 

S. Albertazzi, Questo è domani. Gioventù, cultura e rabbia nel Regno Unito 1956-1967, Milano, Paginauno, 2020.

All other teaching materials and slides will be uploaded on Virtuale at the end of the lessons. 

The students of Storia della cultura must read these texts:

J. Osborne, Look Back in Anger

A. Sillitoe, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner

Alan Sillitoe, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

The students of Letteratura dei paesi di lingua inglese must read the following  texts:

J. Osborne, Look Back in Anger

A. Sillitoe, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner

Sam Selvon, The Lonely Londoners

All the students must see these films: 

Tony Richardson, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner 

Ken Russell, Pop Goes the Easel https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5h1hvq

Michelangelo Antonioni, Blow up or Tony Richardson, A Taste of Honey

Joe Massot, Wonderwall (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2e3HeBgHKE)

For further reading:

P. Colaiacomo, V. Caratozzolo, La Londra dei Beatles, Roma, Editori Riuniti, 1996

R. Bertinetti, Dai Beatles a Blair. La cultura inglese contemporanea, Roma, Carocci, 2001.

N. Vallorani (a cura di), Introduzione ai Cultural Studies, Carocci, Roma, 2016, chpts. 1 e 2.

M. Donnelly, Sixties Britain, Pearsons, Longman, 2005.

Please check Virtuale for other materials and slides of the lessons.

ERASMUS AND OVERSEAS STUDENTS AND ALL THE STUDENTS WHO DO NOT ATTEND REGULARLY ARE KINDLY ASKED TO CONTACT THE TEACHER TO ARRANGE WITH HER A DIFFERENT PROGRAMME.

Teaching methods

Traditional lectures will be alternated with a seminar approach, encouraging students to participate in the discussion of books, films, songs and other documents and texts. The students qiell be asked to do research online and to make presentations on the subjects of the course.

Foreign students must have a good knowledge of the Italian Language in order to attend this course.

Assessment methods

During the course the students will be asked to do research and make presentations on the subjects of the course. The best presentations will be taken into account at the oral exam. 

The oral test consists in a talk whose aim is evaluating the critical and methodological ability of the students in relating to British cultural history the texts, authors, events and movements analysed during the course. The student must demonstrate an appropriate knowledge of the bibliography used during the course and added to the course program.

The students who are able to show a wide and systematic understanding of the issues covered during the course, and are able to use them critically and who master the field-specific culture and history of the discipline will be given a mark of excellence.

The students who demonstrate a mnemonic knowledge of the subject with a more superficial analytical ability and ability to synthesize, a correct but not always appropriate command of the language , will be given a ‘fair' mark.

A superficial knowledge and understanding of the material, a scarce analytical and expressive ability , a language that is not always appropriate will be rewarded with a pass mark or just above a pass mark.

Students who show gaps in their knowledge of the subject matter, inappropriate language use, lack of familiarity with the literature in the programme bibliography will not be given a pass mark.

Teaching tools

Traditional lectures with reading and analysis of document and texts.will be alternated with an approach on seminar base, encouraging students to participate in class discussion ando to do research and make presentations.

 Video and Audio supports will be used.

Office hours

See the website of Silvia Albertazzi