30649 - English Literature 2 (2nd cycle)

Learning outcomes

Students will have a deep knowledge of Modern British Literature, with particular regard to the relationships between literary texts and history, language and the arts. They will be able to use critical methodologies to read and analyze literary texts.

Course contents

Mythologizing London: the dream of a city

 

How is possible to create a city through a literary work? What is the relationship between the city in literature and the real city? And specifically, how the myth of London, if there is such a myth, has been created through the literary works written in the XX century about it, in it, through it? And how the literary London is related to the real one? And again, how the literary London created in the XX century is related to the representations of the city in the past? 

An attempt to answer those questions will be made, analysing some novels in which the city of London, or parts of it, is a character or even a protagonist of the narration.

Readings/Bibliography

Soho: Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent (1907)

West End: Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway (1925)

Mayfair: Evelyn Waugh, Vile Bodies (1930)

Kensington: Pamela L. Travers, Mary Poppins (1934) 

Jean Rhys, Voyage in the Dark (1934)

NW10: Colin MacInnes, Absolute Beginners (1959)

Fitzrovia: Julian MacLaren-Ross, Memoirs of the Forties (1965) 

East End: Nell Dunn, Poor Cow (1967)

Suburbs: Julian Barnes, Metroland (1980)

East End: Peter Ackroyd, Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem (1994)

Underground: Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere (1996)

Zadie Smith, White Teeth (2000)

Chelsea: James Ballard, Millennium People (2003)

Suburbs: James Ballard, Kingdom Come (2006)

 

Critical texts:

P. Ackroyd, “Introduction”, in Thomas Wright, ed. by, A Traveller’s Companion to London, London, Robinson, 2004, pp. xxxvii-li

S. Albertazzi, In questo mondo, Roma, Meltemi, 2006, pp. 17-52 e 89-107

M. Coverley, “Introduction”, in London Writing, Harpenden, Pocket Essentials, 2005, pp. 9-27

S. Johnson, “Complessità urbana e intreccio romanzesco”, in F. Moretti, a cura di, La cultura del romanzo, Torino, Einaudi, 2001, pp. 727-745

B. Pike, The Image of the City in Modern Literature, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1981, pp. 3-26, 33-37

G. Scatasta, “Fitzrovia” e “Julian MacLaren-Ross, il re di Fitzrovia”, in Fitzrovia, o la Bohème a Londra, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2018, pp. 69-132 e 192-202

 

 

Students must read five novels and the critical texts.

Assessment methods

Erasmus or Overseas students could sit the exam as the Italian students or write an essay (about 10-15 pages), whose topic must be approved by the teacher.

Office hours

See the website of Gino Scatasta