30030 - English Literature 1 (LM)

Learning outcomes

Students will have a deep knowledge of Modern British Literature, in particular as far as the relationship between literary texts and history, language and the arts is concerned. They will know and be able to use critical methodologies to read and analyze literary texts.

Course contents

Dickens our contemporary?

 

During the course three novels by Charles Dickens will be discussed and analysed, focusing of some peculiar Victorian features, impossible to detach from the material and historical conditions of their creation, whereas other aspects (like the serialization, the sarcastic attitude toward social issues and the urban vision) are still present in our contemporary world. 

Readings/Bibliography

Two of the following novels:

Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations and Bleak House

P. Ackroyd, “Introduction”, in Dickens' London, Headline, London 1987, pp. 7-21

A. Sanders, Charles Dickens, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2003, pp. x- xxi (Chronology), pp. 1- 113 (Chapter I, “Dickens's Life”, Chapter II, “Dickens, Politics, and Society”, Chapter III, “The Literary Context”)

K. Tillotson, “Novels of the Eighteen-Forties”, in I. Watt, ed. by, The Victorian Novel, pp. 3-26

Sanders and Tillotson's texts can be substituted with the following texts, available online in Virtuale in the sections "Charles Dickens" and "Dickens' London":

Grahame Smith, “The life and times of Charles Dickens”, in John O. Jordan (edited by), The Cambridge Companion to Charles Dickens, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2001

C. Waters, "Domesticity", "Gender Identities"; J. Drew, "The Newspaper and Periodical Market"; F. Schweizer, "Authorship and the professional writer" in S. Ledger and H. Furneaux, edited by, Charles Dickens in Context, Cambridge,Cambridge University Press, 2011

P. Ackroyd, “Introduction”, in Dickens' London, Headline, London 1987, pp. 7-21

The other critical texts on Virtuale are not mandatory readings.

As for the critical texts concerning the single novels by Dickens, some of them can be found on Virtuale such as B. Cheadle, "Oliver Twist", A. Sanders, "Great Expectations" and R. Tracy, "Bleak House" in David Paroissien, edited by, A Companion to Charles Dickens, Hoboken, John Wiley & Sons, 2008. Of course, the students must read only the critical texts concerning the two novels they have chosen.

 

Teaching methods

Due to the Covid-19 emergency, the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures has decided that all courses taught in the first semester will combine two teaching methods: live online followed by live on-site and online according to a fixed timeline.

More in details, this course will be taught live online. All students will attend online. Classes will run live on the Microsoft Teams platforms (no recording allowed).
 
Further details will be given during the first week of class.

Assessment methods

Erasmus or Overseas students could sit the exam as the Italian students or write an essay (about 10 pages), whose topic must be approved by the teacher.

Office hours

See the website of Gino Scatasta